First, just a point, incase you've looked at reviews for the US version. This
game has not been properly ported from NTSC to PAL. This means that the game
will only run in the 50hz/576i mode, & will not support the 60hz/480i or
60hz/480p modes. What does this mean? For one, it means the game doesn't run as
smoothly as the US version. Also, the image is squashed in the centre of the
screen, bordered by black bars, On top of that, the whole game runs 17% slower
than the US version. The game also doesn't support widescreen mode. Conversions
this bad used to be par for the course, about seven years ago, but were thought
to be a thing of the past. Let me put it this way: Mad World is the ONLY game
released on Wii that has not been ported from NTSC to PAL properly.
Now, on to the game. Meh. That about sums it up. It's a basic brawler, like
Double Dragon, or Streets of Rage. Most of the game is simply racking up enough
points to trigger a boss fight, which becomes very dull, very fast. On top of
that, if you loose the boss fight, you have to play through the entire level all
over again, adding to the tedium. The unique ways to dispose of your enemies,
while interesting at first, get very old after seeing them over & over
again. One of the things that really detracts from all this killing for points
is that most of the levels are very small. There is one level (the Geisha house
one) that shows what the game could have done, large levels, actual flow from
one area to the next, played out so that the killing didn't get boring, by
varying the environment & enemies every few minutes, rather than standing in
one spot for fifteen minutes straight. This is something that the old games like
Double Dragon at least got right, they kept you moving…
The boss fights themselves range from a lot of fun, to just annoying. They're
all built around quicktime events, so depending on what you think of those, your
mileage may vary.
The commentary is very over the top, but it is delivered very well, & is
probably the highlight of the game (they even commentate the end credits). The
commentary is by Greg Proops (who's line is it anyway) & John Dimagio
(Bender, from Futurarma). There is one down side to the commentary, &
that's since you're often standing in the same environment for a long time,
you'll hear the same quotes over & over again, which gets very tedious.
The game is also not very long (though longer than the US version, because
the game is running slower), about six hours. So, there you have it, it's ok.
It's not the great game that everyone hoped it would be.
One more thing, due to the shoddy PAL conversion, most of the text is the
game is almost illegible, due to being compressed by almost a fifth in height.
I was playing the game on a 32" TV, and even then I had to move close to the
TV & squint to make out most of the text. On a smaller screen it would
probably have been completely futile to attempt to read it.