At SEGA's unveiling of its partnership with Platinum Games there was only one game everyone was talking about. Mad World left the gathered press completely speechless, save for the odd uneasy giggle. This was for two reasons. A: Mad World is without doubt the most violent game I've ever seen. B: it's on the Wii. Has SEGA got itself a winner or is this a quite real step into a mad world? With an opening trailer that depicted actions for the words "Chainsaw", "Rose Bush", "Road Sign" and "Heart Surgery" my initial thought was very much the latter, but a blood-filled demo made me change my mind very quickly.
Details on the game are thin on the ground. You play as Jack, a bruiser type, wandering around in what looks to be a typical city environment. Of course, seeing as we were only shown one area, things could be very different in the game as a whole. The most striking thing about the game is its look. Mad World is entirely black and white except for the rich red of blood. This is one of the two main concepts behind the game, and it makes for a striking appearance. It's very comic book, with strong lines drawing the detail on the characters and the environment. The free-flowing blood makes for a dramatic contrast as it spills all over the game world.
The second main concept behind Mad World is comical violence. While what was shown was indeed pretty graphic, it wasn't violent in a disgusting gut-wrenching sense. It's stylised and completely over the top. This sense of style isn't going to convince everyone, but the developers certainly seem to have carefully walked the line between comedy and bad taste.
As director Shigenori Nishikawa puts it: "We didn't want to create a game that was depraved or perverse - rather we wanted to create a game that was fun and exiting that happened to feature gruesome violence."
And why the Wii? "We felt that the Wii Marketplace had too many of the same type of games - there was something missing in the line-up, that's why we created such a game as Mad World."
Although the game was only demonstrated, no hands-on unfortunately, we got a good idea of how it'll play. Essentially it appears to be a 3D brawler, with Wii Remote controls. Holding A and B together will grab a nearby enemy, who you can then throw into objects by gesturing a throw action with the Wii Remote. Environmental kills appear to play a large part in the combat, with a large bin being the target during the demo. After successfully lobbing the helpless enemy into the bin's upright lid, he slumped over the edge, before the lid slammed shut, slicing the guy clean in two. Blood, as you can imagine, went everywhere.
Being a game of obscene brutality, finishing moves are definitely included, but in Mad World they're taken to a new level. After approaching one of the demo area's goons a "Press B to perform Finisher" tip appeared on screen. B was duly pressed and Jack then proceeded to pile drive the pole of a road sign through the guy's head. That's the part that caused those uneasy giggles I mentioned earlier. Clearly not doing that well (he had a road sign protruding from his head after all), the guy staggered around a little. Jack, the kind soul that he is, took it upon himself to perform a secondary finisher, this time ramming the guy into a wall of spikes. By this stage our black and white level had been painted with a fair amount of blood.
That brings us to Jack's right arm, which just so happens to have a built in chainsaw. Being a Wii game, when this is activated your Wii Remote becomes the chainsaw and I think you get the picture. Wandering up to an enemy and waving the remote causes the game to momentarily switch to a more cinematic camera angle, before Jack slices through the guy with extreme prejudice. After taking out a few more enemies it was time to have a quick look over the area and the red that now covered a large amount of the scenery. Mad World might well contain stylised violence, but I'm guessing the BBFC will have a few strong words to say when they see it.
To end the presentation Jack entered a building called "Man Darts". This started a Bloodbath Challenge mini-game in which the object is quite self explanatory. Man Darts is, to put it bluntly, smashing men into a dart board. Jack was equipped with a bat of some sort and had the power to hit the wandering enemies as if nothing more than baseballs. On impact they went flying, driving into the board with the level of blood we, at this stage, would have been disappointed not to see.
As the lights came up I scanned the room for some sort of sense of reaction. I was half expecting someone to stand up, scream and run for the exit, but gladly the room was full of smiles. As the game's producer pointed out, he wanted to make a game that was fun, not "depraved or perverse". I just hope liking what I saw doesn't put me into that category. Mad World is set for release in Q1 2009.
