Zero Punctuation: MadWorld

[stinkypitz]

nice Clockwork Orange reference.

 

[Tri Force95]

I have a wii, and after listening to this review, i am probably never going to buy this game.

 

[conundrum778]

I registered on this site just to say;

A random Jabberwocky reference in the middle of a review? Well played, Yahtzee, well played.

 

[Evan Waters]

Regional? It is just the most common complaint about the Wii world wide. If you don't feel anything wrong with it's controllers, either you acclimated very well or you're just protecting the Wii. I'm not doing a Nintendo bash, although I think it was only good until the Nintendo 64, but at least I'm not making shit up. That's because your 6.94 was just made up. I admit what I said was based on old data (about 3.4 by console, but it looks to be a year-old census). A quick search shows several different sources pointing to 4.9 - 5.5. Better than the PS3, alright, but the PS3 doesn't fare any better than the Wii on exclusivity games, both being one disappointment after the next.

And I couldn't care less about "casual" or "hardcore". I loathe Guitar Hero but I like Peggle, so bug off. I have no problem with the thousands of flash games at Kongregate and it is all well and good that more people out there are playing. All that doesn't change the fact that a game can be "casual" and serious. And some of the "casual" labeled games are actually harder and more addictive than any "hardcore" out there.

My problem is that they don't make casual games for the Wii. They make retarded games for it. For the ones who care to label they're not casual, but something further. They're relatively fun for 5 minutes (depending on your tolerance on the controls) then you feel like doing something else. Also ultimately they are depth-less and lacking, even the good ones. And the Miis just scream as hard as possible "little kid's stuff". Most normal adults can play the Wii and find it fun. But at the same time they find it very, very silly. And that will be all the idea of what a game is for most of them, so they'll look down on whoever calls themselves "Gamer".

Before the Wii, I could say I'm a gamer and the worst I could hear was something like "Oh, so you like Mario and stuff?". Now, invariably, when I say I'm a gamer or show concern for a game in any way I hear "Stop being a kid, it is just a game. Children stuff." Because invariably a game with a serious storyline like Mass Effect is completely overshadowed to the major populace by the massive fame of the Wii and their loath-inducing Miis (seriously, these little fuckers are like a bad caricature a bitter cartoonist made of gamers to ask everybody to point and laugh).

6.94 comes from Nintendo's own financial report from January 20, 2009. It's available here: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2009/090129e.pdf Taking their life to date number of software units sold for the Wii and dividing it by the number of Wiis sold gets pretty much that number (this is on page 11, third column, I did the math.)

Now, it's possible Nintendo's inflating their sales data, but since this is a report to stockholders I'm sure the government would get interested if they were. Also, Wii Sports is included even though it's a bundle. Still, pretty good. Hell, their attach rate has gone up comparing Apr.-Dec '07 to '08.

As for your hysterical bitterness about Miis and Mario, because God forbid gaming be perceived as a *fun* activity, and the hysteria that it's overshadowing Mass Effect like it's Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME or something- well, bone up on your C. S. Lewis.

"Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves."

There's a lot of shovelware on the Wii, yes, but good titles exist for it, and they exist amongst the minigame collections as well as in the "core" titles like Mario Galaxy or No More Heroes. Hell, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves pretty much justifies the console's existence all on its own- if the Cat Disco is not one of gaming's greatest achievements as an art form, I don't know what is.

The Wii's game selection could be a lot better, but it's not a failed console, it's not the McDonald's of gaming, it's not going to stop your precious Mass Effects and Killzone 2s from being made. There is nothing wrong with a console that appeals to an audience beyond the 18-34 year old males who traditionally get 95% of the attention.

 

[Wingmna]

Good show like always. Nintendo should have followed SEGA to the grave and made games for good counsels.

Ignorance is bliss.

The current gen consoles would have gotten no where if it wasn't for Nintendo expanding on different ideas. Wavebird? Both PSx-3 and xbox controllers are based off of nintendo ones, nintendo itself and alone brought back the console from the grave.

The only thing you cannot give Nintendo credit for is CDs and multi-player through internet. And even the former they had extremely good reasons, just think of how many mod-chips got installed onto PSX and PS2s back in the day... But of course you wouldn't know that you ignorant fanboy.

SEGA shot themselves, they were stupid and moronic, and of course you think sega leaving is a good thing... dreamcast (or even saturn) is probably the most underrated console in history MORON. The stuff Dreamcast could do was already YEARS ahead of PS2, yet Sony only won the race due to idiots like yourself buying into the worst yet still SOME HOW the most brought console of the sixth gen. Dreamcast, Xbox, and Gamecube were all better then the PS2 in design for gaming, the only good reason to buy PS2 was because pretty much all of the third-party support went to it (BECAUSE, idiots like yourself brought it), it came out with more games and more often... and hell, they had shovelware on the PS2 lots too.

Seriously, know your stuff before you start ignorantly bagging on Nintendo or Sega. Sega going under was a BAD thing retard (and so would have been Nintendo going under), so gratz on being a bad troll.




Anyway, on topic;
Many of the points I agree with, I recently tried playing this game and Viewitful Joe and couldn't get it. But what I disagree with;

* Spending so much time bagging the wii, ya, the wii has bad games and isn't the best system atm, fucking gratz you don't need to spend EVERY FUCKING REVIEW ON WASTING TIME ON THE TOPIC.

Yahtzee, it gets old, okay? We all know Nintendo has no good games... Is it Nintendo's fault? Not overall, they have always made the BEST (and I mean, the BEST) games ever but don't spam them out... If anything it is third party support that is stuffing them out, so many developers just following the gens based on graphics and many new developers just taking advantage of the wii... hopefully nintendo will stop it soon, because putting limits on third parties is what revived home consoles in the first place.

* The controls are fine, I was actually impressed by how MadWorld sorted the wii controls out, it works well.

Fix your wii if you are having SO much trouble, when I tried it, it worked perfectly every time.

 

[Julius M]

Bought the game yesterday. It's great fun and the controls are pretty good. Honestly the only real complaint one could have is that the moves are a bit repetetive. In fact, they're really repetetive but I don't mind because the story is interresting and getting more points or defeating a particular difficult endboss is challenging.

Honestly, for a first shot at such a game this one is really good. I will probably play multiplayer quite often since it's always nice to just sit on a couch and try to be better than your friend.

"and hell, they had shovelware on the PS2 lots too."
Very true. In fact, they have shovelware on every console. it's just that the huge market the wii has tapped that there is more shovelware. The Wii has more good games than the Gamecube, it's just that the gamecube didn't have so many owners. Anyone with a bit of a brain can find the gems and play them, and if they hadn't killed the entire gamecube-industry a lot of solid games could've been added. (Paper Mario, Wind Waker and a few others.)

 

[yosophat]

Ignorance is bliss.

The current gen consoles would have gotten no where if it wasn't for Nintendo expanding on different ideas. Wavebird? Both PSx-3 and xbox controllers are based off of nintendo ones, nintendo itself and alone brought back the console from the grave.

The only thing you cannot give Nintendo credit for is CDs and multi-player through internet. And even the former they had extremely good reasons, just think of how many mod-chips got installed onto PSX and PS2s back in the day... But of course you wouldn't know that you ignorant fanboy.

SEGA shot themselves, they were stupid and moronic, and of course you think sega leaving is a good thing... dreamcast (or even saturn) is probably the most underrated console in history MORON. The stuff Dreamcast could do was already YEARS ahead of PS2, yet Sony only won the race due to idiots like yourself buying into the worst yet still SOME HOW the most brought console of the sixth gen. Dreamcast, Xbox, and Gamecube were all better then the PS2 in design for gaming, the only good reason to buy PS2 was because pretty much all of the third-party support went to it (BECAUSE, idiots like yourself brought it), it came out with more games and more often... and hell, they had shovelware on the PS2 lots too.

Seriously, know your stuff before you start ignorantly bagging on Nintendo or Sega. Sega going under was a BAD thing retard (and so would have been Nintendo going under), so gratz on being a bad troll.




Anyway, on topic;
Many of the points I agree with, I recently tried playing this game and Viewitful Joe and couldn't get it. But what I disagree with;

* Spending so much time bagging the wii, ya, the wii has bad games and isn't the best system atm, fucking gratz you don't need to spend EVERY FUCKING REVIEW ON WASTING TIME ON THE TOPIC.

Yahtzee, it gets old, okay? We all know Nintendo has no good games... Is it Nintendo's fault? Not overall, they have always made the BEST (and I mean, the BEST) games ever but don't spam them out... If anything it is third party support that is stuffing them out, so many developers just following the gens based on graphics and many new developers just taking advantage of the wii... hopefully nintendo will stop it soon, because putting limits on third parties is what revived home consoles in the first place.

* The controls are fine, I was actually impressed by how MadWorld sorted the wii controls out, it works well.

Fix your wii if you are having SO much trouble, when I tried it, it worked perfectly every time.[/quote]

Sorry to disappoint you but I do not own a Wii. I'm a PC gamer now, but I remember the days when Nintendo was more about fun games and less about gimmicks. I had a GC and an N64 I was a Nintendo Fan boy so to say. I did not get a PS2 for that reason, but by the end of the GC cycle I was ready to say good bye to future Nintendo Systems. It didn't matter if some GC games were good; Nintendo had its glory and now its milking money from the "fan boys/girls", grandparents and toddlers just because it has a glorified pointer with a few more buttons and extra accessories.

Besides I was just stating how I felt you don't have to be so mean. They are just plastic and metal they can't hug you back. JERK

 

[Civic]

I really liked this game overall and I have all the consoles. This game was good for what it was and it didn't let me down. I found next to no replay value even though others have but I felt it was still worth the money and hope for similar games in the future for the Wii.

 

[RH3INLAND.]

Great review, as always. I agree the only reason it's popular as it's one of the only really violent games available for the console.

 

[Wingmna]

Sorry to disappoint you but I do not own a Wii. I'm a PC gamer now, but I remember the days when Nintendo was more about fun games and less about gimmicks. I had a GC and an N64 I was a Nintendo Fan boy so to say. I did not get a PS2 for that reason, but by the end of the GC cycle I was ready to say good bye to future Nintendo Systems. It didn't matter if some GC games were good; Nintendo had its glory and now its milking money from the "fan boys/girls", grandparents and toddlers just because it has a glorified pointer with a few more buttons and extra accessories.

Besides I was just stating how I felt you don't have to be so mean. They are just plastic and metal they can't hug you back. JERK

First, you seem to generalise a lot... I never stated that you did own a Wii. I am also an old school PC gamer more-so then a console gamer. I never owned a console in the past. And only have a Wii now over an Xbox or PS3 because many of the same games or same type of games that those consoles I have I can easily get on my PC anyway. Of course, I know Wii sucks atm (well, what you can do with it without hacking) and even willing to say it sucks in general based on the design and based on how Nintendo handled it. But jumping to the conclusion that Nintendo should stop making consoles altogether is just moronic, Nintendo sets huge standards for console gaming... right now and in the past. (just look now, sony is still taking major ideas from nintendo, and microsoft will do... nintendo sets standards for gaming more then any other company does)

Your comment was based purely on the consoles themselves (so you bringing PC gaming into it in your latest post is just silly). What makes Sony and Microsoft through the years better at making consoles? Sony has ALWAYS done the same thing, that is, build a basic system that is able to do one new media each generation (first was CDs, second was DVDs, and now it is blu-ray) and add stuff as they go along based on what the other companies have done... First it was the controls themselves (copied the basic design of SNES, then analog sticks after N64 came out with an analog stick, then copied the wireless abilities from gamecube, and now are copying the motion from wii... more so what they have already). Sure Nintendo didn't come up with many of the ideas, but they were the first to put it out there into the mainstream and forced competitors to adapt...

Whether you like consoles or not doesn't matter, the fact is that nintendo leads the console market in ideas more then any other company is and has done.

And Wii attracting new audiences was just a brilliant idea, Nintendo went from "will probably fail and fall of the radar" of consoles to what it is now. Are Nintendo farming money? What... Sony and Microsoft got into gaming with good intentions? Please. If anything Nintendo is the only true company that had good intentions from the beginning. Sony and Microsoft only jumped into it because Nintendo made it popular enough and had that dream of making games.

It is hard to call Nintendo money farmers when Sony and more-so Microsoft are doing gaming for the specific reason to make money. So call the kettle black more. Yes, Wii is lame, I have no doubt, it is partly Nintendo's fault, it is partly not their fault. Otherwise, there are more and more games starting to come out now for it, Excitebots, Rune Factory, the Conduit, punch-out... It is far from saving the wii, but at least something is going into the right direction.

 

[eyedonutkair]

another brutal ripping of the wii, well done, it deserves all the shit it gets

wow, i've never seen such gayness. How does a review for a wii game end up being a console bash? it's funny. I mean, i'd like to hear a review of warcraft. I can't believe people actually waste money on that. Face it, the wii has just as much to complain about as the other systems do, but geeks finally have a chance to be cool, what with halo warcraft and guitar hero, so i'd try to take a jab at anything that threatens that too...
(For the record, watch how much more sony and microsoft emulate the wii in coming years)
((And it's not all unjustified, nintendo won't get their crap right and it's killin'em))
And i agree with the other guy who asked, "Have you played the game?" cuz i've played everything i call crap, and I gotta say, only racist leatherwearin metal fans, geeky emo chicks, and wanna be thugs are keepin microsoft alive. It seems like everyone wants to be mainstream these days.

 

[itsmeyouidiot]

Quit fucking bashing the Wii and do your job. Bash the game, not the console.

Oh, and as a rule, Yahtzee, I think you should only review games that are considered genuinely horrible by everyone. That way, I won't feel like throwing rocks/eggs/coconuts at the Escapist headquarters.

I really don't see why people hate this game so much. The gameplay is actually quite good, the controls work well, and the art style and sense of humour are great.

Oh, and as for you sheep that agree with every review Yahtzee ever puts out, I have one question:

Have you ever even played the fucking game?

first off he's a critic for games, if there aren't any good games for the system (or just not enough to make it's moneys worth) he's going to tell us and not just talk about how much the games suck and you end up buying it and realize that most everything is the same as it would have been if you'd just got a NES and get really pissed off because he didn't tell most games are the same fucking thing.

second, if he does reviews for games that are just thought of completely and genuinely horrible by everyone, it defeats the whole damn purpose of watching the damn thing, sure it's funny but you already knew that game sucks ass so just go talk to a friend about and it's the same thing.

thirdly, sure the game may be good but it's short and the same thing over and over again just different names and shit. you might as well play one of the torture games on the internet for free, it's a good amount alike. also i think people hate it because it's for the wii. not that many people who own a wii can really get this game cause A: they bought the wii cause they're really low on money, and B: they're kids and the reason they have a wii is because they have maybe 1 or 2 M games for it that may actually make the kid want to buy it.

First: There are plenty of good games for the system. Metroid Prime 3, ExiteBots, Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers, Okami, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, World of Goo, MadWorld, Mega Man 9, Toki Tori, House of the Dead: Overkill, Dokapon Kingdom, and numerous VC titles you can't find on other consoles. Hell, the VC alone is enough to justify owning a Wii.

Second: Other reviewers still manage to do this while making the reviewws funny.

And Third: The game is more complex than you say it is. It's very fun and spectacular, and even though the controls are a bit wobbly, it's great fun and much better than anything you can find online.

And Fourth: Fuck You.

 

[eNriqueLeGrand]

I get a sense that Yahtzee or whatever his name is, doesn't know what the relation between Madworld, DMC and God Hand.

 

[mcx]

Madworld was dissapointing.

 

[mcx]

Dubbelpost.

 

[Triskavanski]

Good show like always. Nintendo should have followed SEGA to the grave and made games for good counsels.

And this ladies and gentlemen is what is "wrong" with the Wii. Gamers are stupid. While someone else developed it, SEGA produced Mad World. For the Wii.

Its true that tons of crap is being made for the wii. But the its the same for all systems. Developers keep shoveling out flaming piles of crap on the systems, but they polish the turds to make them look pretty. Since the Wii has less graphical capability than the PS3 or Xbox360, its much harder to actually polish the turds, thus they stand out. Mean while the other two system are like watching the animal planet in HD. You sit there looking at a pile of elephant crap, but its so detailed you just can't look away.

Of course fewer and fewer developers are actually doing ANYTHING to improve game play. No, they just keep on polishing thier turds with fully dynamic, 3d bumpmapped pixelshaded blooming LENS FLARES!

 

[Evil Tim]

I can't tell what your point is. Surely if it's a console that appeals to people who haven't bought consoles before, that's a GOOD thing for the gaming industry, right? But then you say that you hate it and want more rants.

The trouble is it's a drastically underpowered console that sells at a per-unit profit for the manufacturer, and that manufacturer is Nintendo. All of these are bad.

Being underpowered means companies can't develop multiplatform games for all current consoles as they could with every preceding generation; this is similar to the software support issues which sank the early 32 bit consoles and the Jaguar, and to a lesser extent the N64. It's even more of an issue in the Wii's case, since unlike those consoles, it isn't the odd one out due to being more powerful than the rest of the field. If you develop for the 360, you can also release for the PS3 and PC, giving you an install base of about 50 million consoles and some percentage of the hundreds of millions of PCs out there. If you release for the Wii, you can only multiplatform release to the PS2 or try for a budget or DLC release on the more powerful consoles, and then you have to make sure your Wii-specific features are all easily removed gimmicks. This is why so many Wii games are obvious PS2 ports.

This is made worse since Nintendo makes a profit on every console sale, and this means they could really give a damn if third parties sink or swim. And this is Nintendo, a company that has never given a damn about third parties even back when it did matter. I doubt it escapes the attention of those looking into publishing for it that Wii third-party sales tend towards 'pathetic' with the top third-party game not partly developed by Nintendo themselves, Guitar Hero III, selling just 2 million copies: GTA IV sold almost twice that in a day.

This fantastic new market Nintendo has found seem to largely view the Wii as a similar purchase to a board game, and the idea of third-party titles as alien as buying new Monopoly pieces. The real market the Wii's install base represents for a third-party release, going by sales figures, is tiny. Even the mighty Resident Evil 4 didn't sell; the Wii version sold roughly the same as the one released on a console with less than half the install base that was basically dead at the time.

Bottom line, it's a good thing for Nintendo, but not really for anyone else.

 

[yosophat]

And this ladies and gentlemen is what is "wrong" with the Wii. Gamers are stupid. While someone else developed it, SEGA produced Mad World. For the Wii.

Its true that tons of crap is being made for the wii. But the its the same for all systems. Developers keep shoveling out flaming piles of crap on the systems, but they polish the turds to make them look pretty. Since the Wii has less graphical capability than the PS3 or Xbox360, its much harder to actually polish the turds, thus they stand out. Mean while the other two system are like watching the animal planet in HD. You sit there looking at a pile of elephant crap, but its so detailed you just can't look away.

Of course fewer and fewer developers are actually doing ANYTHING to improve game play. No, they just keep on polishing thier turds with fully dynamic, 3d bumpmapped pixelshaded blooming LENS FLARES!

I should have said better systems instead of "good" and mentioned my tendency towards PC games. Eventually graphics will hit the visuals wall, someday, and developers will have to work more on game-play and story telling *fingers crossed* hopefully sooner rather than later.

Now if you'll excuse me Im gonna watch the new ZP.

 

[Evan Waters]

I can't tell what your point is. Surely if it's a console that appeals to people who haven't bought consoles before, that's a GOOD thing for the gaming industry, right? But then you say that you hate it and want more rants.

The trouble is it's a drastically underpowered console that sells at a per-unit profit for the manufacturer, and that manufacturer is Nintendo. All of these are bad.

Being underpowered means companies can't develop multiplatform games for all current consoles as they could with every preceding generation; this is similar to the software support issues which sank the early 32 bit consoles and the Jaguar, and to a lesser extent the N64. It's even more of an issue in the Wii's case, since unlike those consoles, it isn't the odd one out due to being more powerful than the rest of the field. If you develop for the 360, you can also release for the PS3 and PC, giving you an install base of about 50 million consoles and some percentage of the hundreds of millions of PCs out there. If you release for the Wii, you can only multiplatform release to the PS2 or try for a budget or DLC release on the more powerful consoles, and then you have to make sure your Wii-specific features are all easily removed gimmicks. This is why so many Wii games are obvious PS2 ports.

Or they can just develop good exclusives. I think developers are starting to develop an interesting sort of two-tier system here, making "main" games for the PS3 and XBox 360, with spin-off titles for the Wii. The Wii gets Umbrella Chronicles, the others get RE5, and so on.

Really, all this means is that you can't rely on the same "everything is portable to everything else" mentality as in the last generation, which is not so terrible. If we're going to have different consoles they may as well provide different experiences, not minor variations on the same software.

This is made worse since Nintendo makes a profit on every console sale, and this means they could really give a damn if third parties sink or swim.

And honestly, this is just a good business strategy. You cannot be reliant on other companies for your success- the weird exclusivity wars that Microsoft and Sony are waging over major third party titles is not good for gamers, as the R2 Ghostbusters issue shows.

 

[dcomproductions]

Quit fucking bashing the Wii and do your job. Bash the game, not the console.

Oh, and as a rule, Yahtzee, I think you should only review games that are considered genuinely horrible by everyone. That way, I won't feel like throwing rocks/eggs/coconuts at the Escapist headquarters.

I really don't see why people hate this game so much. The gameplay is actually quite good, the controls work well, and the art style and sense of humour are great.

Oh, and as for you sheep that agree with every review Yahtzee ever puts out, I have one question:

Have you ever even played the fucking game?

first off he's a critic for games, if there aren't any good games for the system (or just not enough to make it's moneys worth) he's going to tell us and not just talk about how much the games suck and you end up buying it and realize that most everything is the same as it would have been if you'd just got a NES and get really pissed off because he didn't tell most games are the same fucking thing.

second, if he does reviews for games that are just thought of completely and genuinely horrible by everyone, it defeats the whole damn purpose of watching the damn thing, sure it's funny but you already knew that game sucks ass so just go talk to a friend about and it's the same thing.

thirdly, sure the game may be good but it's short and the same thing over and over again just different names and shit. you might as well play one of the torture games on the internet for free, it's a good amount alike. also i think people hate it because it's for the wii. not that many people who own a wii can really get this game cause A: they bought the wii cause they're really low on money, and B: they're kids and the reason they have a wii is because they have maybe 1 or 2 M games for it that may actually make the kid want to buy it.

First: There are plenty of good games for the system. Metroid Prime 3, ExiteBots, Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers, Okami, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, World of Goo, MadWorld, Mega Man 9, Toki Tori, House of the Dead: Overkill, Dokapon Kingdom, and numerous VC titles you can't find on other consoles. Hell, the VC alone is enough to justify owning a Wii.

Second: Other reviewers still manage to do this while making the reviewws funny.

And Third: The game is more complex than you say it is. It's very fun and spectacular, and even though the controls are a bit wobbly, it's great fun and much better than anything you can find online.

And Fourth: Fuck You.

k, i said there was too many of the same games on the wii that are on the older nintendo systems. also i'm older than 5 so most of the games look like shit to me any way. one more thing, he does make his reviews funny. i for one enjoy a good amount of games he says is bad but i dont go crying to him like "that games good. how could you say that". hes only saying his opinion and if u dont like it stop watching it jackass