Once upon a time the Wii had a reputation for being a kids machine with kids games.  Sega obviously decided that this wasn’t good and have single-handedly set about rectifying it.  Their first 18 rated game to appear on the shiny white console was House of the Dead: Overkill, a bloody, swearing zombie game that pretty much outdid any previous games for the amount of times the F word appeared.  Their second is Madworld, just as sweary and just as bloody but a totally different game.

Madworld takes place on an island, sealed off from the rest of the world and littered with CCTV cameras, all in aid of a TV show.  The idea of the show?   Kill everyone else and walk out the victor.  The TV producer, Agent XIII, has got you a deal to be on the show in order to up the viewing figures.  This translates in to killing people in lots of different ways in order to get enough points to unlock the boss fight.

The world is presented in stylised Black and White graphics with only the yellow markers and red blood bringing colour to the screen.  Think Sin City and you have an idea of the look and feel of the game.   It works really well and serves to highten the sight of blood on screen as well as making the game look different from any other.

Moves are mostly hits and kicks with various weapons, all done by button presses, swings and movements of the Wii Remote.  Some will be intuitive and others will involve instructions on the screen.  All of these are fun to pull off, if a little samey after a while.  Still, with tons of weapons including parts of the scenery to use, it has a lasting appeal.

Though the main game is pretty short, there is the option to go back over it and increase your score.  In addition there are some multiplayer games (with golf being my favourite) which first appear during the main game and are later available as stand alone games in a split screen mode.

Madworld does have flaws though, not least the annoying camera that sometimes obscures your enemy until the point where they kill you yet again.  The controls, as with most Wii games, aren’t always as responsive as you need at times too.  But these problems aside, Madworld is a pretty good and pretty bloody game which is worth owning if you fancy something a bit different from Mario and his more wholesome chums!

8/10