MadWorld is a game I REALLY want to like but whenever I go back to it, I either get bored or stuck and give up until I pick it up again years later. This time I wanted to give it a proper go in time for the 15th anniversary, but my patience wore thin by the time I got to the castle area.
I was already feeling that the stages were becoming a bit monotonous with how much point pushing it felt like was needed each time just to get to the boss fight, but not only does the castle area ramp this up, but it also introduces annoying BS which feels like runtime padding considering on average this game takes 5-10 hours not really including all the times you need to reset 20 mins back to the start of the stage. In particular on the shitlist, this level has:
- Randomly spawning enemy that takes 1 life per hit. You have 3 lives per stage.
- Enemies that grab you, forcing you to perform a QTE to avoid the one hit death enemy.
- Enemies that can only be attacked in a certain way as they otherwise respawn in packs. Only method of attack that works uses up a pretty fast draining attack meter and has to be done in a certain direction subject to motion controls working.
- A bossfight on average 20 mins into the stage where you are ganged up on by around 10 creatures that respawn when you kill them.
After already struggling with other levels for an hour or so beforehand and debating throwing in the towel, dying right at the end of this ordeal was as good as reason as any to figure that it doesn't get much better than this (I've heard it does, but I don't want to sit through this stage multiple times to find out to be completely honest, a complete moodkiller when said mood was just already "meh").
Sick soundtrack, mostly good presentation (enemies blend too much into the background sometimes due to black and white) and an intriguing plot do a lot of heavy lifting, but monotony and stage design sink the ship. Also, why is this game stuck in 480i? It came out in 2009. Not only could it have looked way better, but it would've helped with the colour clashing issues this game can sometimes suffer from. Don't really see Platinum pulling this game out of their backcatalogue (even with heavy re-edits since some things are pretty dated) but something that would at least help it somewhat.
I was already feeling that the stages were becoming a bit monotonous with how much point pushing it felt like was needed each time just to get to the boss fight, but not only does the castle area ramp this up, but it also introduces annoying BS which feels like runtime padding considering on average this game takes 5-10 hours not really including all the times you need to reset 20 mins back to the start of the stage. In particular on the shitlist, this level has:
- Randomly spawning enemy that takes 1 life per hit. You have 3 lives per stage.
- Enemies that grab you, forcing you to perform a QTE to avoid the one hit death enemy.
- Enemies that can only be attacked in a certain way as they otherwise respawn in packs. Only method of attack that works uses up a pretty fast draining attack meter and has to be done in a certain direction subject to motion controls working.
- A bossfight on average 20 mins into the stage where you are ganged up on by around 10 creatures that respawn when you kill them.
After already struggling with other levels for an hour or so beforehand and debating throwing in the towel, dying right at the end of this ordeal was as good as reason as any to figure that it doesn't get much better than this (I've heard it does, but I don't want to sit through this stage multiple times to find out to be completely honest, a complete moodkiller when said mood was just already "meh").
Sick soundtrack, mostly good presentation (enemies blend too much into the background sometimes due to black and white) and an intriguing plot do a lot of heavy lifting, but monotony and stage design sink the ship. Also, why is this game stuck in 480i? It came out in 2009. Not only could it have looked way better, but it would've helped with the colour clashing issues this game can sometimes suffer from. Don't really see Platinum pulling this game out of their backcatalogue (even with heavy re-edits since some things are pretty dated) but something that would at least help it somewhat.