MadWorld

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.

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.

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. The game was produced by Atsushi Inaba, who had previously produced Viewtiful Joe, and directed by Shigenori Nishikawa, one of the designers of Resident Evil 4. The developers chose violence as the main theme of the title, but experimented with a variety of cartoon-like art styles to alleviate the violent content with a sense of humor, ultimately deciding upon a black-and-white aesthetic with splashes of red for blood. 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.

Comic-book style text and sound effects are also used in the game. The main character, Jack, was designed to be "big and tough" rather than traditionally heroic, with an appearance that suggests he "has been worn down by the world."

MadWorld received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In its April 2009 issue, Nintendo Power gave MadWorld a 9/10 rating. IGN gave the game a 9/10, praising the style, gameplay, and music, but criticizing the camera and short length, though it mentions that the hard difficulty level lengthens the game and increases the challenge considerably.

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."

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 MadWorld's eleventh anniversary with new artwork of Jack created by lead character designer Masaki Yamanaka.