Madworld: The Simpsons Arcade Sequel

Gameplay: Brutally Awesome
Graphics: Black, White & Red.
Sound: As fun and nauseating as the world’s greatest roller coaster.
Length and Replayability: If it were any longer, you wouldn’t be able to handle it.

There, you got your review. Now I’m going to talk about the game.

Before playing Madworld, I expected a throwback to the old arcade brawlers of Final Fight and Double Dragon. Now that I have played through the game, I realize that Madworld is more like that old Simpsons arcade game with a dash of sadistic style sprinkled on top.

In The Simpsons arcade game, you would wander through side-scrolling levels while performing beat-downs countless enemies with the plethora of weapons you would find along your journey. Killing a man with a skateboard or a lead pipe was the cool thing to do back in the day, but Madworld has updated the Simpson arsenal to reflect a more modern blood thirst with chainsaws, piranhas, jet turbines, and spiky objects. Even the after level challenges of the Simpsons arcade game ( does pumping up a Krusty The Clown hot air-balloon ring any bells for ya? ) have been reimagined into the deliciously deadly Bloodbath Challenges.

I spent many quarters fighting through the streets of Springfield, USA. Every time I enter an arcade I search for the off-blue console decorated with the Simpsons family and doughnuts, but it’s been years since I’ve seen it last. Madworld has fulfilled that desire, because it is The Simpsons arcade game placed in a world that is half Sin City and half Mad Max.

Jack (the guy you kill things with) is the ultimate crowd-pleaser. Little else is more satisfying than ripping men to pieces and turning them into a bloody batter while your friends sit around you and throw out constant ooohs and aahhhs. It’s not that they are awestruck by an amazing game, it’s that they are flabbergasted at the amount of gore and punishment you are able to achieve. Their dynamic responses are targeted at what you, the gamer, can accomplish. By playing Jack, you grab center stage and become a performer– whipping out as many wicked and vicious attacks as you can before you finally take the life of another deserving victim, and you do it all for the crowd.

Not that it’s all about entertaining the viewers, there is plenty of excitement for the gamer to take part in as well. The cold-blooded killing never gets tiresome ( I actually severed my Wiimote and Nunchuk connection once while trying to perform a gesture that would have eviscerated a two-tone lackey with a gigantic pair of blades), the bosses and mini-bosses are terrifying and tough, and I know that there are so many areas and weapons I missed on my first play-through that I’m going to have to play it again just to try them out.

All the little stuff is great, by the way. The Wiimote gestures aren’t gimmicky at all; they’re reserved for only the most extreme violence and work very well. The voices are done by the guy that voiced Bender on Futurama, that one guy with the glasses from Who’s Line is it Anyway? (not Drew Carey, the other one), and the rest are all very stylistic and fit well within their world.

Other than that, I really don’t know what to tell ya. It’s a game that really needs to be played to be understood. Videos and reviews really don’t do it justice, you need to play the game in front of a bunch of friends to get the most out of it.

I’m actually going to turn on my Wii right now and play some more Man Darts, I just can’t get that challenge down yet. Wish me luck!

It’s a Mad, Mad, Madworld

Some of you in the whitebox crowd (Nintendo Wii owners) might wonder why there are so little M-rated games in comparisons to those available for the blackbox crowd (PS3 owners). It appears the god of M-rated games has answered Wii owners’ prayers with Madworld.

If you haven’t heard of Madworld yet, then I am assuming that you’ve been off the vid-grid for the past year. The game is planned to be released on March 10^th, but the Comic-con convention in New York has fanned the anticipation some more.

Fitting that the game is on display at a comic book convention, as Madworld clearly has an influence from Sin City graphic novel. The setting for Madworld isn’t some film noir crime underworld, but a city under quarantine. So the plot is like that movie Doomsday, and the style is Frank Miller.

Miller is also the creator of 300, which is not short on spattering blood. As you can see, Madworld has no shortage of that either. In Madworld, you have to fight for your right to live, and you will use any means necessary, like taking a chainsaw to a fist-fight.

If you want to know more about Madworld, feel free to check out the Madworld web site. The game itself plans to be released to the market on March 11^th.

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PlaySEGA, Sega’s casual gaming site, goes online

Yesterday Sega launched the beta of PlaySEGA, an internet based gaming site that includes flash versions of various Sega titles, such as Sonic at the Olympic Games, as well as third party puzzle and arcade games.

Following the suit of Nintendo, whose family-friendly Wii has opened the gaming market up to an untapped demographic, and Microsoft, who recently updated the XBox Live interface to include personalized avatars much like Nintendo’s Miis, Sega seems to be looking to make their way into the new casual gamer market.

Signing up for PlaySEGA is free, and comes with an avatar that can be personalized by playing the selection of online games and accruing PlaySEGA “rings,” which are the site’s internal currency for buying new clothes, houses and other knick-knacks.

Sega has also announced that in the future they will be establishing a VIP only pay portion of the site, which will include exclusive content and is rumored to include classic games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Chu Chu Rocket.

Nick Phil, the Network Business Director of Sega Europe seems excited about the future of PlaySEGA, saying, “What started off as a small project within the SEGA Network Group has now caught the imagination of the entire company. He continued, I have suggestions for new games filling up my in-box, from the CEO, to staff I’ve never even met over in our Japanese, European and US offices.”