Incredibly fun, nasty, and definitely worth the wait, though could have quite a few improvements. Still a must buy.
First, the graphics. The black and white (and red) style is fantastic. Anyone who says it's hard on the eyes or things blend together has some serious eye problems and needs to update their pair of glasses. I have had more trouble distinguishing things in color games than in this one. I am a huge fan of sound effects being written out, and it's done awesome here. And as far as style goes, the game is approaching art form. Of course it's not as drastic and amazing in its stylization as Okami, but then again what is? The only fuss I have with the graphics is when you are playing you often don't have time to let it sink in just how badass they are. When you watch a friend play is when you realize just what you weren't stunned by before.
The game length is somewhat short if you go through as fast as possible (as soon as the Boss appears you go and take care of it). Beat-em ups should never be long, but I did honestly feel throwing in just 1 or 2 more levels would have had it perfectly lengthed. Of course who would go for the boss right away when there's still tons of killing to do and points to be earned? The replay value is quit high though, unless there's something wrong with you and you don't appreciate gruesome manslaughter you will be coming back again and again to stick some trumpets in a ninja's skull. And the DW Challenges often are that, challenging. And don't get me started on them in Hard Mode. Normal mode is quite a breeze, you shouldn't have much trouble if any. Now get ready for some fun and possible frustration in Hard Mode!
The control on this game is perfectly fine. Some complain about it misreading movements. To those some, I just have to say you suck. I had no problems AT ALL with the motions.
The sound is godly. Nice splatter and other sound affects, the music rocks even if you hate the general genre, the VA is great, and the two announcers are stupendous and hilarious. "No means yes and yes means anal!" " "-You know, those Happy Pills are amazing when you inject them into the folds of your scrotum.
-I'll give you a dollar if you can tell me one thing that isn't better when injected into the folds of your scrotum." "-Looks like Jack got an extra life. -
You know I had an extra life once. I came back as a cock roach. Did you know that cock roaches could live a week without their heads?
-I've been married 8 years without any head."
The camera could be better, but it's NOWHERE near as big as issue as most make out to be. Not perfect, but not annoying. Lock on system is only sucks when there is a large amount of enemies and the game won't lock onto the one you want, who may be behind the others. In this case you don't even want to lock on though. So basically lock on is only useful when you're going head to head with one enemy or if you're trying to do it directly in front of them. Take that how you will, as a flaw or game mechanic. Locking off is a bit annoying though, as you have to hold it for 1-2 seconds.
I will not talk too much about what makes the game amazing or the combat. Watch videos, and there's your visual description. Now I will go over why I rate this game somewhere between 8 and 8.5, and what exactly the improvements I mentioned could have been. The game almost felt like it was cut partway through development, so many things COULD have been added (some which I think were obvious) to better the experience and easily raise the game up a whole point in my book (of course some of these are opinions):
1.) Boss Rush (both on Normal and Hard)
2.) An arena death match where you kill enemies until you finally go down to their infinite numbers.
3.) Have 3 different ending sequences for boss fights. You have different finishers on the grunts, so why not the higher ups? It would also add so much more incentive to play, to see what the other ways to murder the boss was. An example would be on the Shaman, instead of driving out of the castle with him tied to your bike, why not drive up the stairs and have his body get lodged on a tree, the force of the bike pulling him eventually popping his head off. Just slight (or maybe not) alterations with the final blows.
4.) More difficult power struggles. You heard me right. Not many people have seen the failure scenes when the boss overpowers you, and many are quite awesome. I don't want to loose on purpose to see these. On my first unknowledgeable playthrough I want to be victim to them, and then after I know more in detail what's to come I can will beat them (for Hard Mode). This is the most unnecessary addition I have mentioned, but it did come to mind.
5.) A slightly more advanced combo system, yes it's a beat-em up but the amount of attacks you can chain together is still a bit too small for my liking.
Here's the BIGGEST ONE:
6.) MORE ENVIRONMENTAL STUFF. I want to be able to throw a guy at a wooden stand, have that stand break like it would in real life, and then use those broken pieces of wood to impale the guy I just threw. I wanna be able to pick up some bricks from a wall I broke (like maybe 5 at a time) and just chuck them at nearby enemies for fun. Kick a chair in the general direction of a group. Little stuff like this, where virtually anything you can get your hands on in real life that could be used to injure, can be used to injure within the game. MORE IMPALING CHOICES. What if I wanna crucify the guy? Stick a signpost in every limb other than in the head over and over? Stick that alcohol bottle into his CROTCH! Jam the trumpet up his ass! I want a choice of where to impale, giving me more options for my killing and my madness. The system as is is still VERY FUN and awesome, but I just feel with more time put into the game it could have been soo much more. My BIGGEST BEEF with the game, I was expecting such cool environmental kills, and I found myself being more awed by the weapon finishers.
7.) More weapons, just 1 or 2 extra. There IS enough variation as is (especially after beating the game), but just a small amount would help the experience. Why don't we get the drill weapon, though we got the double chainsaw?
8.) I know I'll get shrugs with this, but most beat-em ups leave me feeling like I had enough fun and murdered enough on my journey. Mad World fell a little bit short. Just 1 or 2 more levels I believe would have fulfilled my desire for a slightly longer run through. Every area had 3 levels except the last one which had 2 (and no Boss for one of them). Why not have the last one have 3 levels like the others and bosses for each one? Or even better, have an extra area with just one level which is the final boss. Then this game would hit "perfect length" for me.
So there we go, things I felt could have been better. Still, this game is much too fun, and I would consider it a must buy. And if you don't buy it, you have absolutely no excuse to not at least rent it.
I give the game an 8.25.