While eleven isn’t a hallmark birthday, PlatinumGames decided to still mark one of its games’ anniversary with something special. New MadWorld Jack artwork by Masaki Yamanaka was shared as part of its eleventh anniversary. The game launched on March 10, 2009 on the Nintendo Wii in North America, followed by a European and Australian debut later that month. The beat’em up is also one of those notable titles that actually appeared outside Japan first, as it didn’t come to the region until almost a year later in February 2010.
Here’s the tweet sharing Yamanaka’s MadWorld Jack design. He’s standard in front of the number eleven and looks as though he just finished with a fight. He isn’t brandishing his trademark chainsaw arm in this image, though!
March 10 is the anniversary of MadWorld’s original release! Eleven years ago today, we left Nintendo Wii systems across North America black, white and red all over.
Masaki Yamanaka, MadWorld’s lead character designer, marks the occasion with this new artwork of Jack! #MadWorld pic.twitter.com/zpQtAA49bn— PlatinumGames Inc. (@platinumgames) March 10, 2020
Here’s a better look at this new take on Jack.
In MadWorld, players follow Jack as the former marine and police officer heads into a city captured by terrorists. The group, known as The Organizers, have unleashed a plague upon everyone living there and said only people who were willing to become murderers would be allowed to live. Jack takes part in the group’s DeathWatch game show, fighting to overthrow all of The Organizers and save people from the virus. It is known for its stark black and white presentation, with red as its only accent and its violence.
MadWorld had plenty of notable names behind it. Yamanaka, who later went on to direct Anarchy Reigns, help design The Wonderful 101 and Star Fox Guard, and worked on Resident Evil, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Resident Evil 4, was the lead character designer. Yasumi Matsuno, who worked on the stories for Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Vagrant Story, was its story writer. The soundtrack was composed by Naoto Tanaka, who also worked on Ace Attorney installments, Anarchy Reigns, Bayonetta 2, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, and both Mega Man and Mega Man X entries, was composed its soundtrack. Unfortunately, while director Shigenori Nishikawa expressed interest in developing a sequel, one never happened.
MadWorld is available for the Nintendo Wii.
