Shadowrat
03-17-2009, 09:56 AM
We have a Wii in the office. It sits largely unused next to the crappy pool table.
Sometimes the wiifit is placed on the floor, but nobody ever sees anyone using it.
On friday, one of my coworkers proposed an emergency resussitation of the wii. We would all chip in 15 bucks and buy an office copy of madworld. Yesterday, i got my first chance to play it.
Bottom line, it's a lot of fun. It looks fantastic. If wii is the only system you have, it fills a huge gaping genre hole in the wii's library.
If you aren't familiar with the game, it's premise is you are a contestant on some brutal snuff game show. You run around in some megalopolis that is somewhat bladerunneresque and populated by a bunch of wannabe mad max extras.
You, as Jack, are a total badass and you can pick up just about anyone and anything and brutally destroy it, or them. It's pretty derivative. But the game makes no attempt to take it's subject seriously. It's clearly tounge in cheek, and Jack's badassery comes off as a clever joke (unlike gears of war where the character's badassness just became ridiculous.)
The game is rendered almost entirely in stark black and white. This art direction is what really shines. Everything looks hand drawn with heavy inking. The effect is so good that when nothing is moving, the visuals are easily mistaken for scanned in artwork. The first time you see it come to life, there is a little "OMG! i had no idea that was the game!" moment. It's impressive.
The only color in the game is the blood splatters. it jumps out in sharp contrast to the grainy black and white world.
Ultimately you run around beating people into submission so you can hurl them into moving trains, giant turbines, dumpsters with razor edges, toilets, rose bushes (made of big metal spikes) electrical junctions, and more.
Just about everything in the environment can be used in some elaborate death sequence. In addition to simply throwing someone against a wall of spikes, you can also pick up just about everything you see lying around and use it to incapacitate your foes.
slam a tire over someones head, pinning thier arms, then throw them into a burning barrel to watche them go up in smoke. Pick up a trash can. smash it over thier head. laugh at thier face looking dazed out the window, then impale their head on a road sign. then hold them against a moving train and watch them grate away like a huge chunk of human cheddar.
Most things in the environment produce different results depending on if you throw someone at it, or hold someone against it. So you find yourself trying all sorts of different combinations.
On top of the environment, jack himself has all kinds of brutal combos he can unleash on people.
It's a great spectator sport and we all love watching someone play.
The game has some blemishes too. The camera hugs your character too tightly. most of the screen is taken up by jack's huge shoulders. As a result, you can't see anything right in front of you. The camera does orbit for spectacular killing blows, but i'd like to see the guy i'm punching as well.
The interactions with the environment and enemies tend to all be triggered with the A button. often you will try to pick up a tire, but inadvertently grab a guy, or vice versa. In addition the game uses accelerometer input to make jack do huge backfists and uppercuts. Personally, i think they made the threshold for triggering these swings way too low. It doesn't seem like the velocity of the swing imparts more or less damage. It's essentially just a switch. why not make the level required to throw it a little harder and eliminate mistakes caused by simply tilting the controller left or right.
Nothing is worse than ruining a good combo by accidentially cleaving a guy in half with your chainsaw hand.
Is it worth buying? Could be. The game has a host of minigames that center around impaling the most people, or throwing the most people into some huge chopping thing. There is a 2 player mode where you can fight or compete in these minigames. It's pretty fun though i imagine my wife wouldn't find it as fun.
It's not a one trick pony. Each setpiece is more grandiose than the last, and the number of combos you can perform make it more like a 128 trick pony.
If you have a wii, it's a must rent.
(this game is not for kids. It's not so much the violence as it is the profane announcers. luckilly i work in an office where my boss was showing us 2 girls one cup. suffice to say NSFW has no meaning here. However, there are times when i find their dirty jokes and innuendo awful harsh.(can you call it innuendo when it's not subtle at all?))
Sometimes the wiifit is placed on the floor, but nobody ever sees anyone using it.
On friday, one of my coworkers proposed an emergency resussitation of the wii. We would all chip in 15 bucks and buy an office copy of madworld. Yesterday, i got my first chance to play it.
Bottom line, it's a lot of fun. It looks fantastic. If wii is the only system you have, it fills a huge gaping genre hole in the wii's library.
If you aren't familiar with the game, it's premise is you are a contestant on some brutal snuff game show. You run around in some megalopolis that is somewhat bladerunneresque and populated by a bunch of wannabe mad max extras.
You, as Jack, are a total badass and you can pick up just about anyone and anything and brutally destroy it, or them. It's pretty derivative. But the game makes no attempt to take it's subject seriously. It's clearly tounge in cheek, and Jack's badassery comes off as a clever joke (unlike gears of war where the character's badassness just became ridiculous.)
The game is rendered almost entirely in stark black and white. This art direction is what really shines. Everything looks hand drawn with heavy inking. The effect is so good that when nothing is moving, the visuals are easily mistaken for scanned in artwork. The first time you see it come to life, there is a little "OMG! i had no idea that was the game!" moment. It's impressive.
The only color in the game is the blood splatters. it jumps out in sharp contrast to the grainy black and white world.
Ultimately you run around beating people into submission so you can hurl them into moving trains, giant turbines, dumpsters with razor edges, toilets, rose bushes (made of big metal spikes) electrical junctions, and more.
Just about everything in the environment can be used in some elaborate death sequence. In addition to simply throwing someone against a wall of spikes, you can also pick up just about everything you see lying around and use it to incapacitate your foes.
slam a tire over someones head, pinning thier arms, then throw them into a burning barrel to watche them go up in smoke. Pick up a trash can. smash it over thier head. laugh at thier face looking dazed out the window, then impale their head on a road sign. then hold them against a moving train and watch them grate away like a huge chunk of human cheddar.
Most things in the environment produce different results depending on if you throw someone at it, or hold someone against it. So you find yourself trying all sorts of different combinations.
On top of the environment, jack himself has all kinds of brutal combos he can unleash on people.
It's a great spectator sport and we all love watching someone play.
The game has some blemishes too. The camera hugs your character too tightly. most of the screen is taken up by jack's huge shoulders. As a result, you can't see anything right in front of you. The camera does orbit for spectacular killing blows, but i'd like to see the guy i'm punching as well.
The interactions with the environment and enemies tend to all be triggered with the A button. often you will try to pick up a tire, but inadvertently grab a guy, or vice versa. In addition the game uses accelerometer input to make jack do huge backfists and uppercuts. Personally, i think they made the threshold for triggering these swings way too low. It doesn't seem like the velocity of the swing imparts more or less damage. It's essentially just a switch. why not make the level required to throw it a little harder and eliminate mistakes caused by simply tilting the controller left or right.
Nothing is worse than ruining a good combo by accidentially cleaving a guy in half with your chainsaw hand.
Is it worth buying? Could be. The game has a host of minigames that center around impaling the most people, or throwing the most people into some huge chopping thing. There is a 2 player mode where you can fight or compete in these minigames. It's pretty fun though i imagine my wife wouldn't find it as fun.
It's not a one trick pony. Each setpiece is more grandiose than the last, and the number of combos you can perform make it more like a 128 trick pony.
If you have a wii, it's a must rent.
(this game is not for kids. It's not so much the violence as it is the profane announcers. luckilly i work in an office where my boss was showing us 2 girls one cup. suffice to say NSFW has no meaning here. However, there are times when i find their dirty jokes and innuendo awful harsh.(can you call it innuendo when it's not subtle at all?))