Joystiq E3 eyes-on: MadWorld (Wii)
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Upon walking into the tiny room Sega had Platinum Games crammed into in their closed-door section of the E3 floor, we thought that Bayonetta would be the only title on-hand. Then, our wildest dreams came true and we were graced with what is sure to be a day one purchase for us: Wii title MadWorld.
We're not kidding. You'll want to buy this game.
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This game stars a man with a simple name, Jack. Jack is thrust into Mad City, forced to kill countless goons for points in some kind of twisted game show. The more stylish the kill, the more points he receives. Once he has accumulated enough points, Jack can then challenge the stage's boss. Sadly, our demo ended upon accruing enough points to take on that boss and was, overall, way too short for our taste (it was merely a couple minutes where Atsushu Inaba played for us).
But, the time leading up until the demo's conclusion was nothing short of amazing. The ways in which Jack can kill his enemies are as varied as the objects that populate the game's environments. Flaming barrels are available to toss enemies into, as well as random weapons littering the streets. Found a wall with spikes all over it? Toss a dude against it. How about a train? Well, you can guess how you'd use that.
Jack also has a chainsaw available, which Platinum Games confirmed would be the default weapon. Utilizing it in different ways is the name of the game here, as you can cut people in half, behead them or just go crazy, berserker style, and swing away until your heart's content.
One of our main concerns was the visual style. Sure, it's very artistic, but could a game that is primarily black and white keep a gamer focused? Maybe it was the newness of it all for us, but we found no issue with the game's graphics. It's a nice direction, but one that also allows the limited graphical capabilities of the Wii to be utilized in a very effective way.
Finally, we noticed a somewhat familiar voice while the game was being demoed. It sounded a lot like that John DiMaggio Marcus Fenix guy. When asked about that, the Platinum Games folks commented that they could not say anything about the voice work that was in the demo.
After the presentation, we walked away feeling very good about Platinum Games and their upcoming Wii game.
