MadWorld

's Sin City. MadWorld is divided into several levels representing different parts of Jefferson Island that have been converted into sets for the game show DeathWatch. The player progresses through these levels in a linear fashion during the first playthrough, but can revisit any completed level to attempt to score more points or take on a harder challenge. Most levels are open environments, allowing the player to explore them freely, although some sections of the level may require the player to earn a number of points before it will be accessible. A few levels feature motorcycle-based combat where the main character, Jack, is assaulted by foes as they race down a track or in a small arena. The player is challenged to beat the level's boss within a time limit, but in order to activate the boss fight, the player must accumulate enough points by defeating regular foes on the level. There are other challenges, bonuses, or mini-bosses that become active after the player accumulates enough points. A common feature of each of these levels is the "Bloodbath Challenge", a time-limited minigame that rewards the player for completing a specific type of activity with additional points. For example, the player may need to attempt to swing a bat at foes to knock them into a giant dartboard to score points, or to ensure foes are trapped in front of a speeding train. Outside of these challenges, the player is awarded points for every defeat of a foe. The number of points for beating foes increases by increasing the foe's power or using more unusual methods of winning. For example, while the player could throw an enemy on a wall, the player will earn significantly more points if they had previously forced a tire around the enemy. The player controls Jack from a third-person perspective using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment for attacks and movement, respectively. MadWorld does not make use of the Wii Remote's infrared sensor, as its developers found it unnecessary to pinpoint movements on the screen in order to attack. When certain special attacks are possible, the player is prompted to press a button or move the controllers in a specific fashion to complete the action. In boss fights, the player must trigger special finishing moves that engage their foe in a series of quick time events in order to weaken, dismember attached weapons or defeat the boss, called Power Struggles. These are possible against certain normal enemies. The game features extreme, over-the-top violence, but designer Shigenori Nishikawa intends it to be seen in a comical light despite the dark tone of the game. For example, in a minigame called "Man Darts", players must hit enemies onto a giant dart board with a baseball bat to score points. Because of the intended level of violence PlatinumGames was unsure of whether or not the game would ultimately be released in Japan, stating, "In certain markets there are a lot of limitations on the amount of violence you can show, so we definitely have the Western market much more in mind." MadWorld features highly stylized graphics that use a limited color palette of high contrast black and white with red, partially inspired by Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novels. ==Plot==

Three days before the game's event, the fictional Varrigan City became a target for a group of terrorists called "The Organizers", who severed the island city's transportation and communication ties with the rest of the world. They released a virus onto its population that would kill them in less than a day. However, the Organizers informed the populace that any person that killed another would receive the vaccine. The city was quickly transformed into the stage of a recurring game show called DeathWatch, with announcers Howard "Buckshot" Holmes (Greg Proops) and former DeathWatch fighter Kreese Kreeley (John DiMaggio). The remaining citizens of Varrigan City and new hopeful ones become the show's contestants, hoping to become the top-ranked fighter in the game and win a large cash prize. Jack Cayman (Steve Blum), a man with a chainsaw attached to his prosthetic arm, enters the games and manages to gain sponsorship from "Agent XIII" (Jim Ward). The game's organizers, led by Noa (Dwight Schultz), know Jack's motive is more than just to win, and learn that Jack works with someone on the outside. They come to learn that Jack was a former marine, police officer, and rogue agent, but now seems intent on a mission. Noa surmises that Jack is after Naomi Ann Boris (Kate Higgins), the mayor's daughter working in the city. While they plan to kill Jack, they realize he became an audience favorite, with many sponsors and viewers betting on his success. Meanwhile, Jack meets Leo Fallmont (Danny Cooksey), a hospital doctor who was unwittingly trapped in the city but managed to obtain the vaccine. After telling Leo to stay low, Jack continues the mission. When Jack finds Naomi, he learns that she is the one watching the games and not getting in crisis. Jack leaves and continues to solve the case about the city's abnormal situation. Meanwhile, the Organizers realize Jack as the reigning champ, who quit the games by signing on to the Chasers. As Jack nears the last battle against the reigning-feigning champ, the Black Baron (Reno Wilson), Agent XIII reveals himself to be Lord Gesser, an influential figure in politics and knows that the DeathWatch games were created to cause the attack, but admits that this particular incarnation of the games is solely driven by someone's greed, and passes on the name of Springvale to Jack and the Agency, which quickly recognizes the name as a pharmaceutical company and that they were the silent hand that had built (in anticipation of DeathWatch) much of the sets for the games as soon as the Organizers had released the virus. After defeating the Black Baron at the end of the games, Jack blames Noa, who is shot and killed by Leo. After dealing with the armed forces, Jack disables the communication link with the Chasers and interrogates Leo. Leo tells Jack that his father was the president of Springvale Pharmaceuticals, who created both the virus and the vaccine, and was planning to use the televised DeathWatch event to show the effect of the virus as to blackmail anyone to pay for the vaccine under the outbreak. Leo admits that the company went bankrupt in the last presidential election and saw this route as the easiest way to recoup their losses. He is also at the games to be close to the action, fascinated by sports. Jack throws Leo off the tower to his death. While the announcers complain about the irrelevance, Jack leaves Varrigan City. ==Development==

MadWorld was created by PlatinumGames, a studio founded by former members of Capcom's Clover Studio, in their attempt to make a game that would be "fun and attractive" for the Wii, but that would also have a high level of violence that would make it unique for the system. Inaba and Nishikawa acknowledged the influence of Frank Miller's Sin City in the work, but also noted they borrowed from both Western and Japanese comic book styles to create a unique style. While the development team ruled that violence should acceptable in the game's world, Inaba expressed his desire for violence to be "denied in the end" due to current views of violence in the video game industry. Matsuno combined the ideas for MadWorlds DeathWatch gameshow environment: violence is both accepted and required within the show, but not outside of it. Soundtrack The music for the game was composed by Naoto Tanaka, PlatinumGames' in-house composer, along with four different local artists—Ox, Doujah Raze, Sick YG, and Bandy Leggz. Tanaka wanted to "write in American style music and tried to avoid a true Japanese style". At the request of Inaba, the music styles included hip hop and rock, taking inspirations from the mashup album Collision Course from Linkin Park and Jay-Z. ==Controversy==

On August 19, 2008, Sega announced that MadWorld would not be released in Germany. Despite the fact that Australia is also known for strict video game classification, the game was released there unedited, with an MA15+ rating for "strong bloody violence and strong coarse language". In a preview, Eurogamer commented: "It's difficult to understand why there's so much controversy surrounding MadWorld when the violence is so very Tom and Jerry... It really is hard to be offended... because it's just so ridiculous." On March 10, the National Institute on Media and the Family issued a press release expressing its disappointment in Nintendo for allowing MadWorld to be released on the Wii. ==Reception==

MadWorld received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. About.com felt the game was more flash than substance, giving it a 3/5 and stating: "Divorced of its unique graphics and over-the-top presentation, this is actually a rather mediocre beat-em-up." Game Informer disagreed, praising the deep combat system and arguing: "for an amateur to become a talented executioner, you'll have to lash out creatively, prolonging your victim's death through multiple phases of pain. MadWorld runs the gamut in violence, taking an encyclopedic approach to its variety in kills. Some of the bloodletting will make you squirm uncomfortably." The game sold around 66,000 copies in its first month of release in North America, according to The NPD Group. These sales numbers have been used by market research firm OTX Research to justify their assertion that hype and marketing do not translate into sales figures; MadWorld, while commanding the "highest level of unique interest" based on user input at IGN, ranks 41st in OTX's sales metric for all Wii titles. Sales of the game have reached 123,000 units in North America as of August 2009. MadWorld fared much poorer in Japan, where it debuted at number 33 on Japanese sales charts and only selling around 3,000 units during its release week. ==Legacy==

Despite low sales for both MadWorld and The House of the Dead: Overkill, Sega stated that it would continue to explore mature games for the Wii, according to Gary Dunn, a director at Sega Europe, noting that such games have a long tail in sales as such games become more discounted. On January 4, 2010, it was announced that Sega would not publish any future M-rated video games for the Wii. However, PlatinumGames announced a few days later that they would like to do a sequel to MadWorld, which ended up as Anarchy Reigns, a 3D fighting game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that was released in 2012 in Japan and 2013 in western territories. In a 2019 interview, Inaba called MadWorld one of the most enjoyable projects he had worked on. On March 10, 2020, PlatinumGames celebrated MadWorlds eleventh anniversary with new artwork of Jack created by lead character designer Masaki Yamanaka. ==Notes==