IGN: Wii's "MadWorld" is 'Outstanding'

Wii owners rejoice!

It looks like Nintendo's system is finally starting to get its share of must-have 3rd party games, and it's Sega, of all companies, that's leading the pack. First came last month's House of the Dead: Overkill, a lightgun shooter with a clever grindhouse movie presentation and solid gameplay; now comes the ultra-violent, Sin City-looking MadWorld.

IGN has just released its review of the innovative title, giving it a 9.0, and it sounds as if the hype surrounding MadWorld has been warranted:

I realize that not everybody will find MadWorld's unique visual and aural presentation appealing, but to me, the game is an instant collector's item and a Wii showpiece, not just for its amazing style, but for its label-busting content. Anybody who says Nintendo's console is just for kids will see things very differently after a few chainsaw- induced mutilations. More importantly, though, MadWorld does not place emphasis on style over gameplay, so there's plenty of fun, smart mechanics to back up the overwhelmingly slick look and sound of the title. You'll be floored by some of the scenarios that await you in the fast-moving beat-'em-up, surprised by the unexpectedly well-made storyline, and simultaneously grossed out and cracked up by all of the completely over-the-top gore. Even with some camera issues, some repetition, and a decidedly short single-player mode (if you play it on normal difficulty), SEGA and Platinum Games have still created Wii's first truly excellent game of the year.

I'm begging you, buy this game so that we'll see more like it.

No need to beg. I will be buying this! The good guys won.

And check out IGN's video review here. The game looks amazing.

Robot Sweatshop - Episode 17: Watching the Watchmen

Dan, Chris and special guest Jen sit down for a discussion on Watchmen, the film and the comic, minutes after seeing the movie for the first time. Dan has read the comic twice; Chris finished reading it literally just before seeing the film; and Jen has never seen or read even a panel of it.

Three points of view. But are there three different verdicts on the film? Listen and find out.

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Late to the Party Review: "Hellboy II: The Golden Army"

When the first Hellboy film came out, I was kind of surprised at how much acclaim it received. Everyone seemed to love it, but I was very "meh" about the whole thing. I thought Hellboy himself was kind of a snooze; Ron Perlman's zero-energy delivery was bo-ring, and with his cliched cigar chomping, beer guzzling and heart-of-gold, Hellboy just seemed like a Wolverine-lite. Plus, I thought the main human character -- the young agent assigned to watch HB, whatever his name was -- actually had negative charisma, if that's possible. Added to that was the weird humor that wasn't funny, boring villains, and a predictable story. Sorry, but I just didn't like that movie.

So, it goes without saying that I am shocked at how much I enjoyed Hellboy II: The Golden Army. This film seemed to correct all the wrongs of its predecessor: the annoying dude from the first movie is gone; Hellboy is actually kind of interesting; the villains are awesome and you even feel for them; the effects are fantastic; the humor works. The blend of the real-world with the fantastic -- trolls under the Brooklyn Bridge, fighting a monster in Manhattan -- made this a bit more fun than most superhero films. And there is a real feeling that every one of the main characters could die. Hellboy II raises the stakes, and just about everything else, over its predecessor. A really fun, weird and overall excellent film.

Now the real debate: was it better than The Dark Knight?

RS Grade: A

Sort of a Review: Noby Noby Boy

Describing the concept of Noby Noby Boy for the Playstation 3 is similar to describing what it is like to watch Unicorns making love with Leprechauns video taping. It just isn’t possible until you see it first hand. While I will try my hardest to explain what the hell is going on (at least from my point of view), you will want to plunk the five bucks down and actually play the title in the long run.

Created by Keita Takahashi, creator of the sleeper hit turned big time sellout hit Katamari Damacy, you find yourself in a world with a similar flat polygon style. You take the role of BOY, a four legged creature that seems to be made up of two pink balls. With the front half being controlled with the left analog stick and the rear legs controlled with the right analog stick, you are able to move each half independently to stretch out as far as possible. (picture the old snake cell phone game, but you get bigger just by walking in opposite directions).

Now here is the game: you stretch out as far as possible on the map. Go wild, wrap around objects (be careful not to snap) climb through buildings, weave your way through windows. Your goal is to stretch out, submit your length stretched to SUN who then delivers it GIRL who is stretching in space with the length scores submitted to everyone playing the game on PSN. As girl stretches, she reaches new planets (as of this moment, the MOON was reached in 4 days) which unlock new randomly generated levels to be created with new objects to interact with. Oh and you can also eat the people, plants, random objects you come in contact with and fart them out with the R2 button.

Now keep in mind this is all I have figured out so far. I am still not sure if that is the concept of the game.

What really is going to pull you in or push you as far away from the game is the style. As someone who is sick and tired of photorealistic textures, mutli-arcing storylines, extravagant controls and learning curves, Noby Noby Boy comes as a welcome relief (yet I still play those other games). Simple non textured, colored polygons: check. A lot of crazy stuff going on at once: double check. Twisted soundtrack and effects: triple check. The ability to eat things and then fart them out: we have a winner here. Fans of Katamari’s simple shaded/colored polygons and character designs (me) will feel right at home here. The style is so similar that you may even see some crossovers from the game appear in BOY’s world.

Controls are primarily your two analog sticks for movement and the L2 and R2 buttons for eating, farting, jumping. You can also lift objects but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet. Some pretty slick physics and gameplay techniques are used to allow BOY to interact with just about anything on the screen. The camera is controlled primarily with the L1 and R1 buttons and SIXAXIS controller movements to turn or zoom (and these controls aren’t super sensitive like in other games).

A nice compliment to Noby Noby Boy are all of the PS3 specific features that the game takes advantage of. You already have the aforementioned SIXAXIS controls, but you also have the ability to take in game screenshots (I know for 90% of you that means absolutely nothing to you). Another cool feature is the ability to record in game videos of you doing stuff and save it to your PS3 or upload it directly to YouTube. The videos I have in this review are all taken using the in game recorder. It may not mean much now, but start thinking of the possibilities with this feature in other titles. The sooner it starts getting supported, the better. There are also 12 trophies that are completely unknown for you to unlock. Having the whole game be a collaborative project over PSN is a nice touch as well.

On the Playstation Network, thankfully there is a semi decent range of independent titles to buy. While sometimes it seems that it may not have the quantity of Xbox Live or even Wii Shop (Virtual Console titles are games too), it is nice to see unique, original titles like Noby Noby Boy become exclusives for the network. While it isn’t going to sell systems, it is definitely a nice bonus and at five bucks the game makes a great cheap diversion to Killzone 2 and Street Fighter 4.

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen - Working On a Dream

After keeping a fairly low profile in the '90s, Bruce Springsteen has been churning out albums as if he's making up for lost time. His creative resurgence (and first album with The E Street Band since Born in the USA) was kicked off with 2002's The Rising, a strong record, but often a chore to get through, with a bloated running time and tracks that could be just plain boring ("World Apart," "Further On," I'm looking at you). Next came Devil's and Dust, a mostly dark folk album; the excellent We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions; and last year we got Magic, his second album of the decade with The E Street Band, which was perhaps the poppiest album of his career, and featured gems like supremely melodic "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and the piledriving "Radio Nowhere."

With Working On a Dream, Springsteen has completed what is essentially a trilogy of albums with The E Street Band chronicling the country's mood since 9/11. The Rising documented the saddness, Magic talked about the anger at Bush's bungling of our response to the tragedy, and Working On a Dream chronicles the glimmer of hope we now seem to feel. Interesting, but is Working any good?

The answer is yes, it's definitely good, but it's not the 5-star album Rolling Stone said it was. The songs here are even catchier than anything on Magic (which is not a bad thing -- Springsteen has always been a great pop writer) and it's nice to see him embracing his love of Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Phil Spector on tracks like "Queen of the Supermarket." To be sure, there are some excellent vocals on here, and some truly great songs. Lyrically, Springsteen seems like he's on autopilot, but it's hard to care when he's churning out some of the best melodies of his career ("Surprise, Surprise," "Tomorrow Never Knows"). (On the other hand, "Outlaw Pete" may be the worst thing you'll ever hear in your life, with annoying, unfunny lines like, "He robbed a bank in his diapers and his little bare baby feet/
All he said was 'Folks, my name is Outlaw Pete.'" And it lasts for over 8 minutes. Ugh.)

My main problem with the album is Brendan O'brien's suffocating production. What was great about all the E Street albums, up to and including Born in the USA, was the full band sound. On "Born to Run," every instrument is given its own space, exemplifying the warmth of analog, and is one of the most beautiful rock epics ever recorded. But Working is a digital record through and through, with instruments burying each other in a compressed mix. It's unfortunate, but it makes this album sound rushed and bland.

Still, if you can get past the production, it's a solid record. It's hummable, positive, and fun, in ways that Springsteen hasn't been in a long time.

Grade: B

The Wrestler - The Story Behind The Guy Who Lives In A Van Down By The River...

I just saw Mickey Rourke's highly anticipated comeback vehicle The Wrestler, and (spoiler alert), he does live in a van and though no river is specified, a close proximity to a river (or rivulet or stream) is inferred since it is set in NJ (Rahway and Linden mostly - exit 136 or exit 137 on the Garden State Parkway depending on who you ask) and since most towns in NJ are near a flowing watercourse of some sort, Mickey Rourke is actually playing a guy who lives down by the river. Thank you, Chris Farley for a lesson in art imitating art.

Rourke's performance is nothing short of immersive. Director/producer Darren Aranofsky drops us into Randy "The Ram" Robinson's life as if he's pushing us out of a low-flying airplane with a barely working chute. Upon landing, we surey the cold landscape of a lesser New Jersey, a county somewhere central that appears as if it hasn't seen a spring in years. Think desolate town roads punctuated with 99 cent stores and hardly lit bars. And while The Ram suffers through the working week, working in the stockroom of a grocery store under the hulimiating thumb of NYC alt-comedy scene's Todd Barry, the Ram's weekends are when he steps into the intoxicating light of fan adulation, though just barely since walking requires his damaged bones and tendons to function as they did in his prime. Forget Candian Destroyers, Graveyard Smashes, and Tiger Drivers, it's a physical feat to see him put one foot in front of the other and make it to his van (an appropriate Dodge Ram).

Marisa Tomei gives voice and face to NJ strippers and does so with a matching accuracy to Rourke's performance. Working in the actual ill-famed Cheeks strip club in Pemberton, NJ (Route 38, east of 206, it was also the sight of several prostitution stings over the years, remember Burlington County?), Tomei plays both single mother and seasoned older stripper and best tries to alternate between the two in her interactions with Randy. Evan Rachel Wood cannot help being shadowed by Tomei and Rourke, but she keeps a strong foothold in Randy's story and without her, we can't see Randy for what he truly is, a man who sacrificed it all for the one thing he was best at, and ultimately for a life of lonely VFW bars and American Legion Hall backrooms.

Rourke's own troubled and enigmatic life provides the vehicle for a man beaten down by his profession and the mistakes of a life long forgotten by most. But when approached by die-hard fans with faces lit up and flushed with ecstatic 1980s memories, Rourke responds with an all-too-creepily genuine reaction of self-validation and pride. Go up to Rourke right now and tell him how much you loved him in Pope of Greenwich Village and you may experience the same reaction.