Question: What does a signpost, a cleaver and a handful of fireworks have in common?

Answer: all of these items can be rammed down your enemy's throat, in the Wii's latest hardcore title, 'Madworld'.

This instalment of mass mutilation is one of the Wii's latest attempts to appease its hardcore audience, and boy, is it one heck of a bloodfest. To put it in perspective, this game is so violent and mature that it was nearly banned in the UK.

Though it is possibly the goriest game on the Wii, it is easily one of the best looking and most interesting games the console has to offer too. Unfortunately, the public has been so fixated on the violence factor that many of its other aspects have gone unnoticed.

Madworld is one of the best looking games on the market. In a sector saturated with high gloss, realistic graphics, it is refreshing to see a game that takes an innovative approach to its visual execution. To get a better picture of what I'm talking about, imagine a game that looks like the graphic novel, Sin City, but in full motion, along with SFX graphics and action cuts.

The rendering in black, white and red gives it a designed edge that would put most games to shame, and this aspect goes a long way to relieve the strain on the Wii's limited processing power. It also fits in perfectly with the darkly humorous package that the developers have put together.

The accompanying music is pretty scary, with soundtracks composed by seven artists. The styles vary from rock to hip hop, and set the pace for a supremely classy game.

Plotwise, the game is as strong as it is outrageous, which is great. The scene is set when terrorists attack and lay siege to a bustling city. The government mobilizes in response, but their efforts are thwarted by these high-powered villains. In a sadistic twist the citizens are infected with a virus, and are forced in a game of life and death.

The rule: Kill or be killed. As these citizens begin to turn on each other, the entire city is transformed into a modern day gladiatorial spectacle, "Deathwatch", and wealthy patrons begin investing their money in their prize-fighters.

Enter Jack, just Jack. This rogue of a fellow is the main protagonist of the game, and wastes no time in beating the stuffing out of his nearest competitor. Before you can say "chainsaw", he is waist deep in thugs hungering for his blood. By the way, did I mention that he has a chainsaw mounted on his cybernetic arm? Well, he does. But Jack is no ordinary bloodthirsty thug and, as the story unfolds, players will get filled in on the details.

So, as Jack, players need to fight their way through hordes of enemies, with the intent of racking in enough points to get to the next level or arena. Points are allocated depending on how gory and creative players get with their kills. For instance, if you slam a tire round your enemy, impale his head with a road sign and then throw him into a meat grinder (did I mention it's pretty gory?), you will win more points than if you merely punch them up.

As you rack up the points, weapons will also be unlocked to help you up the hit count. These range from primitive spiked clubs to high-tech gravitation vacuum cleaners — don't even ask what you can use this for. The most satisfying weapon, however, is the arm-mounted chainsaw, which you can use to cut your opponents down to size. And yes, I did ponder for a while whether I should include that horrible pun, but I just couldn't help myself.

Fortunately, Madworld decided to make a real classy move, and incorporated commentators keep their viewers entertained. These chaps are wild, disgustingly crass and incredibly entertaining, providing an extra edge in an already sweet offering.

Players have up to 30 minutes to rack up enough points to face the respective boss of the level. The levels are outlandishly cool, and you'll find yourself battling a horde consisting of thugs, ninjas and even aliens.

Each level is littered with environmental hazards such as spiked walls, grinders, rocket funnels and the like, which can be used creatively to destroy your enemies, and the more violent you get, the more points you earn especially when you utilize peripheral objects like drums and tires in your combinations. And often when you use these environmental hazards, the camera cuts to a special angle and you are required to swing the remotes to pull off these executions.

Imagine a beat them up where you can use fatalities on every move now stop imagining, because it's called Madworld. There are also bike scenes where Madworld turns into a racing beat them up, which provides some extra diversity.

And then there were the bosses. Now if you have read my previous articles, you'll know I love taking down epic bosses of giant proportions, and boy do they make them big in this one. The first boss you fight is called Little Eddie.

You can figure out the rest. Later on you go head to head with Frankenstein himself, and this ugly mofo can literally crush you with one hand. In cases like these, you go into orchestrated action scenes where you need to perform gestures God of War style to go one up on your opponent. But do you know what's better than bludgeoning your opponent to death with your bear hands? Bludgeoning your opponent to death with his own weapon! Humiliatingly satisfying in a single shot (or ten if you're still not satisfied).

Oh gosh, I nearly left out the Bloodbath Challenges. These instances of pure insanity occur like bonus levels, and allow players to rack up a huge amount of points to speed their path to the bosses. The challenges consist of a number of minigames such as darts or golf, with the thugs acting as the respective objects you need to chuck or whack. Man-darts is one of the definite favourites, and sees players smashing cronies with a spiked club into a giant dart board. These games also provide the material for multiplayer mode, where two players can challenge each other to these bloody duels.

The controls work really well: button mashing and all out swinging have been paired seamlessly. Hitting the buttons results in a flurry of punches and swinging the Wiimote or Nunchuk controls actions such as throwing items, swinging or evasion. Most importantly, swinging while holding down the B button controls the direction you cut with your chainsaw. In the driving scenes, the steering is controlled with your analog stick, and swinging the remotes control attacking.

As tight as this offering is, there were a few niggling issue which irked me slightly. The first had to do with the graphics. As appealing as the graphic-novel style is, it was often a bit tricky to keep track of the action. I guess this was unavoidable, but on the whole it was a worthwhile sacrifice as you will adjust to it. If you don't, try eating a raw rump steak — it sure sorted me out. What makes it a bit trickier is that the camera is also a bit fidgety, and your point of view often bobs around, leaving you unable to see your enemies.

Regarding the gameplay, I found that it was slightly linear, and although the kills were extremely creative, this creativity was not extended into the greater sphere of the game. Often you'll find yourself killing enemy after enemy without reprieve. I'm sure there could have been some way in which they could have upped the diversity.

Finally, the game felt a bit too easy, and there were very few areas where I truly struggled. This could have been remedied with the simple addition of a difficulty setting at the beginning (when you finish the game you unlock a harder difficulty setting along with a few "presents").

Barring these small irks, this is one awesome game. There are very few games which have as much style, and this title is sure to appease the players calling for hardcore games on the Wii.

I do not recommend this title for kids or the faint hearted, and after you're through with it, you probably will have grown a bush of chest hair and will have a strange urge to wrestle with bears. Yes folks, this is the real deal. Hopefully it will boost the trend of bringing maturer games to the squeaky clean machine. The future is really looking bright, and after playing Madworld, it's bright with a generous streak of red.

PressStart.co.za

8.8/10

Buy this game: Wii

Give Vista an auto service Sometimes your PC just needs a good service for it to run smoothly again. Do it quick and easy.

CoH: Tales of Valour Find out how the latest expansion pack for the exceedingly great 'Company of Heroes' faired.

Videos: Raging storms Watch as storms rip through houses and fling cars aside like toys in these scary videos.