MadWorld

Jack/Jack/He's a psycho maniac/that's right/it's death on sight/don't matter who's wrong or right.

It's a Mad, Mad World, and you caught in the game/You put yo life on the line/I put a HOLE IN YO BRAIN!

This Comic Book-style tale follows Jack Cayman, a chainsaw-wielding contestant in the world's goriest game show: Death Watch. Contestants, sponsored by, well, sponsors, compete in a vicious bloodbath to see who will emerge as the victor. The show has temporarily taken over a Manhattan-like metropolis island, leaving authorities in a panic. Jack is one of the contestants under the hand of sponsor "XIII", and his boss has high hopes for him. There's more to Jack than there appears on the surface, however...

This game was made by Platinum Games, which includes some of the developers from the now-defunct Clover Studios, creators of Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand. The story writer was Yasumi Matsuno, of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story fame.

Has a Shout Out page.

Platinum Games has announced an online-multiplayer centered game (possibly a sequel) for the Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 called Anarchy Reigns (Max Anarchy in Japan), featuring Jack, Big Bull, RinRin, The Black Baron, Mathilda and Leo as playable characters... in color!

Tropes used in MadWorld include:
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Jack's chainsaw. So sharp as to slice cleanly through flatbed train cars and military vehicles. Shipping containers too. And bones. So many bones.
  • Acrofatic: Yee Fun, who is almost perfectly round yet is one of the quickest and most agile mini bosses.
  • Action Commands: Counter moves and many of the finishing moves. Also for "power struggles", similar to counter moves.
  • Action Survivor: Kreese, if anything he says is to be believed. In some cases, he technically did not survive.
  • Alliterative Name: The commentators are named Howard "Buckshot" Holmes and Kreese Kreeley.
  • Ambiguously Gay: The second boss, Jude the Dude, a Dual Wielding, kung-fu kicking, rollerblade wearing killseeker in cowboy costume, is referred to by the commentators as "the Ambiguously Gay cowboy" and "the Brokest Back in the West."
    • There are also posters with the latter moniker scattered on the walls of Jude the Dude's arena, both before and after the boss challenge.
    • A deleted execution of Jude involves sodomizing him with his own pistols.
  • Amusing Injuries: Some of the stuff that happened to Kreese in DeathWatch are mentioned in some of the announcers' lines. It's usually extremely humorous.

Kreese: (refering to Jude the Dude) Howard, I hate that prick. When we fought, that dirty bastard kicked me with his spures and tore my scrotum.
Howard: Hmm.
Kreese: You know, my nuts unraveled like two balls of yarn - you know how fuckin' long two balls of yarn is?

  • Ancient Conspiracy: Deathwatch had its origins in Aztec-era power struggles in Mexico, where people decided to stop wasting huge armies when they could just the best of the best to slap each other silly over power struggles. Since then, it's often been used to settle wars, feuds and other such stuff.
  • Announcer Chatter: The commentators talk over everything you do, act as a sort of subtle Exposition Fairy by offering you hints as to score more points, but mostly make crude yet hilarious comments that act as a Crowning Soundtrack of Funny.
  • Anti-Hero: Jack doesn't help people. He kills them.
    • Jack never smiles or displays genuine satisfaction in his work, and even left DeathWatch after he got tired of the killing. Which is not to say he displays one iota of repentance, oh no...
    • He doesn't target civilians, excusing it away that he came here to kill people who actually put up a fight.
    • He's disgusted at DeathWatch's latest choice of venue - and how they acquired it (murdering all the civilians with a lethal virus and letting the psychos do the rest, while also promising a cure to the civilians on the condition that they become participants themselves).
    • The second point is debatable, if you consider "Soul" to be, like most of the songs in the game, sung from Jacks' point of view.
  • Anything That Moves: Quotes from the announcers:

Kreese: Solid hit! He should try for a double!
Howard: I tried a double with a donkey and a dwarf. I walked with a limp for a week, but the dwarf grew six inches if you know what I mean.
Kreese: I know too much already!

Howard: I can't tell if that alien's a man or a woman, but Jack sure made it his bitch!
Kreese: How do you sex an alien, anyway?
Howard: As often as I can!

Howard: Jack just ate a happy ending!
Kreese: Don't you mean Happy Onion?
Howard: Clearly you've never had sex with an onion!

  • Area 51: The fourth area, called Area 66 in game.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: The upper class of Varrigan City bribed DeathWatch to not only keep them safe during the madness, but to also give them front row seats and simulate a Damsel in Distress plot for their entertainment. Furthermore, one of these seemingly innocent upper class is the main reason DeathWatch even took place in the city just so his family could regain losses of money; they even helped place the death traps.
  • Ass Kicks You: "Looks like Little Eddie's turning the other cheek!"
  • Awesomeness Meter: Runs your chainsaw.
  • Badass: Paging Jack. Jack to the black-and-white courtesy phone, please.
  • Badass Biker: Jack is a motorcycle enthusiast and even carries a few wrenches with him.
  • Bait and Switch Gunshot: In the ending, Noa orders some gun-toting mooks to off Jack after the latter has won the games. However, the gunshot belongs to none of the mooks. Instead, it was Leo's pistol that shot through Noa's head. Played with in that A) Jack was too badass to shiver at the shot, and B) Leo was one of the actual villains all along.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Well, one of the female bosses is simply kicked out a window to her death. The other is crushed to death by a giant mascot via eating... Yeah.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: The third area.
  • Bloody Hilarious: Some of the deaths such as the swirly of doom really must be seen to be believed. And laughed at. Unfortunately, many of the more ludicrous methods are only available in one or (if you're lucky) two stages (the piranhas, the catapult, the swirlie mentioned above, flash-frying, flash freezing, gong ringing, firecracker snacking, soda gouging...).
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Kreese, most of the time.
  • Boastful Rap/Bragging Theme Tune: "Ain't That Funny", "Look Pimpin!" and "You Don't Know Me".
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Howard's elaboration of his ex-wife's explanations of throwing his stuff out of the house.

Howard: Jack lobs those losers like they were like my ex-wife tossing my belongings out the second story window of our house!... Without even so much as a warning. I asked her why, but all I got was the same old "I want to be treated like a woman!" and "You never put the lid down on the toilet!"
Kreese: Aaannnddd we're back! From the sad epic that is Howard's life to rejoin DeathWatch!"
Howard: "Why can't you get it out like your brother?"
Kreese: Shut yer trap!

    • When "The Strip" stage is first shown, the camera begins with a shot of Jack riding his motorcycle down a typical neon-lit casino street, then pans out to reveal more casino-themed decorations such as pinball bumpers, flashing lights on attractions and... a wall of bloodied spikes.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: The announcers during the credits.
  • Breast Attack: Jack headbutts Elise's breasts.
  • Broken Aesop: "Remember kids, stay off the drugs - drink booze, like I do!"
  • Bullfight Miniboss: Big Bull Crocker, Yee Fung and Big Long Driller.
  • Butt Monkey: The Black Baron (stop staring), main host of DeathWatch, is constantly thrown into his own death traps by his girlfriend. Even when it turns out he's the final boss, every time he recovers from a power struggle down to the end of the battle, it's still pretty hilarious.
  • The Can Kicked Him: "Death by swirly. Harsh."
  • Captain Ersatz: The Masters are totally not taken from any existing movie franchise. This is obviously lampshaded by the announcers.
  • Car Fu: Jack vs. Kojack, with bikes!
    • And whenever you ride your bike on your way to smash a boss.
  • Catch Phrase:
    • The Black Baron's (stop staring) "Aw, hell naw", followed by him dying from one of his own minigames.
    • If you listen to enough of the commentary, we also get Kreese's "I blame our schools!".
      • Nobody said there'd be math!
      • I like scotch!
    • Jack's seems to be "I don't help people. I kill them."
  • Chainsaw Good: Plenty of the death traps are such. It's also Jack's cybernetic, artificial arm.

Amala: Be careful, Jack.
Jack: I have a chainsaw on my arm. I'll be fine.

Howard: You know, a cockroach can live for a year without its head.
Kreese: Big deal! I once went eight years of marriage without any head!

    • Aaannnnd an example from Kreese:

Howard: (after Jack throws a Mook into a meat grinder back first) Did you hear the one about the butcher who backed into his meat grinder and got a little behind in his work?
Kreese: No, what happened to him?
Howard: He backed into his fucking meat grinde- Oh fuck it, never mind!

  • Crapsack World: A world where not only can DeathWatch be set up on a kidnapped island by one pharmaceutical company, but a world where apparently this has been going on for centuries.
  • Crate Expectations: "Varrigan City is the crate capital of the world!"
  • Creative Closing Credits: After spending the entire game mocking and insulting the characters in the game, Howard and Kreese turn their wrath to the developers.
  • Cross Counter: The Action Commands in the final boss fight has Jack do this at the end of a series of Pummel Duels (with a variety of punches, including an uppercut and a headbutt), though it arguably hurts the other guy even more since Jack's using his mechanical arm.
  • Damsel in Distress: Straight on with the three Geishas. Subverted with Naomi. She was never in any danger at all, and the whole thing was only set up as entertainment for her and her friends. When Jack finds out, he not only pimp slaps the girl, but actually regrets not killing her.
  • A Date with Rosie Palms/Twincest: One of Kreese's lines during the boss battle with Kojack:

Howard: Jack is ramming himself against Kojack!
Kreese: So, basically, Jack is ramming himself against himself. We are watching the most violent masturbation ever!
Howard: (said quietly) Heh-heh... this is nothing.

Kreese: I slide down a wire once. Couldn't jerk off for two days!
Howard: Took two days to heal?
Kreese: Took four weeks to heal, I just had no willpower.

  • Deadly Game/Blood Sport
  • Death World: Inverted. Everything in the environment is out to kill, yes. However, most of it is there to kill the opponent. Most of the stuff involved doesn't actually hurt you.
  • Defector From Decadence:
    • Jack, the former Grand Champion of the games who left after getting tired of killing.
    • XIII (a.k.a. Lord Gesser) could count for his efforts at trying to destroy the games due to them not filling any real agenda besides money.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The entire game is done in black and white, with only red splashes for human blood and light blue for aliens, and the occasional patch of yellow to identify a goal.
  • Depraved Pansexual: Howard. Buckshot. Holmes.

Kreese: (when the "Frame Designers" credit comes up) Frame designers? These guys couldn't frame Howard for sex crimes!
Howard: Wow, they must really suck!

  • Destination Defenestration: Jack can do this to mooks, limited mainly by there being few areas with windows available for it. More notable is the finishing blow against Elise, where Jack sends her through a high-up, stained glass window by spanking her.
  • Dissimile: When Jack shoves an oil can over a Mook and impales him with a signpole:

Howard: Like shooting fish in a barrel!
Kreese: Actually, stabbing a signpost through fish in a barrel, and instead of fish, it's a dude.[1]

  • Distracted by the Sexy: Elise's power struggle. Awesome rack on her, though!
  • Dual-Wielding:
    • Two relatively small (keyword: relatively) knives allow some of the most epic kills ever.
    • DUAL CHAINSAWS. Not truly dual wielding since it's more like two chainsaws strapped together, but still cool and worth mentioning.
  • Dual Boss: The Masters, though they share the lifebar and tend to stick together.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?:
    • Averted. Jack's in-universe fanbase is the main reason the higher ups can't just shoot him.
    • XIII continues to sponsor Jack even after their contract is broken due to Jack's skill.
    • The three Geishas that Jack rescues return the favor by tossing him health-restoring items during the final boss fight.
  • Dumb Muscle:
    • Little Eddie is easily several times Jack's size, wields a spiked ball bigger than his head, and is gigantically muscular, but from his behavior, it's clear that he's borderline retarded. Little Eddie loves his big bada-booms!
    • While the prefight intro text describes Frank as "brainy" in addition to brawny, this proves an Informed Ability; Kreese specifically points out that he's really, really, really stupid, but really, really, really strong. He may even be dumber than Little Eddie - at least Eddie could put together complete sentences.
    • Kreese seems to be a case, being a former DeathWatch contestant for the muscle part, with not getting Little Eddie's nickname being ironic (or understanding the word ironic, even). He occasionally complains about Howard using big words (of which aren't very complicated at all) and usually responds to him doing so with threats.
  • Early-Bird Cameo/Trailers Always Spoil. One of the later bosses in the game is Jack's "evil" counterpart, Kojack. Why does he look familiar? He's Jack's opponent in the multiplayer matches, which are unlocked after the very first Bloodbath Challenge. Also, he's on the back cover of the game.
  • Epic Flail:
    • Little Eddie's weapon of choice is a gargantuan spiked ball with a chain on it.
    • In a later stage, if Jack smashes a spiked ball over a guy's head, Kreese will accuse him of stealing that move from Little Eddie.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being a foul-mouthed violence-loving psycho, Kreese Kreeley makes it clear in several lines that some of "Buckshot's" quirks and kinks disgust even him:

Kreese:When those wankers wobble you can do any fucked up shit you want to em'.
Howard: Same principle as roofies!
Kreese:You're a sick puppy.

    • Jack, while certainly not that evil, isn't fond of DeathWatch massacring a civilian population for their latest game this time.
    • Also, Lord Gesser was disgusted by the fact that rather than actually deciding the fate of the known world, the current DeathWatch games was merely meaningless slaughter for fun and profit. As such, he helps Jack take down the games.
  • Exploding Barrels: While these don't score any points intrinsically, they can be used with lures to score some brutally epic combos.
  • Expy: Big Long Driller is one of Big Bull Crocker. Essentially the same guy with a different mask and weapon.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: In-universe - Eating a happy onion can give this little gem:

Howard: Pay attention, kids! Jack's enjoying the benefits of eating his vegetables!
Kreese: Dude, you are so full of shit!
Howard: Guilty as charged! Everybody knows that vegetables are poison, and the only food real men eat are bull testicles and moonshine!

  • Finishing Move: The point of the game. Invariably Bloody Hilarious.
  • Flung Clothing: The Black Baron's coat prior to the final battle.
  • Forced Prize Fight
  • For the Evulz: The reason that Leo set up the DeathWatch games despite the fact that there were probably more practical ways of advertising his family's cure is because he wanted to personally experience the games for himself.
  • Free-Floor Fighting: There are fights that are as simple as a plane, and others that are as complex as the entire castle of the last level you just played.
  • Fun with Flushing: One of the ways your enemies can be defeated is by stuffing or throwing them in the toilet. They get flushed seconds later.
  • Gang of Hats:Yes. Varrigan City is home to a bunch of gangs. The stages in the first area consist of punks and thugs, Asian Town (mishmash with Japanese and Chinese cultures) is homed to guys in martial artist gear and ninjas, Mad Castle is a full on Monster Mash (zombies, psycho killers and grim reapers), Area 66 has soldiers, robots and aliens, and almost all of them appear again at different intervals at Casino Land.
  • Genius Bruiser: Jack.
  • Giant Mook: In every area: the thugs with motorcycle helmets, spiked armor and chainsaws; the firebreathers; the masked ninjas; the gardeners; the mohawked guards. Slightly harder to take care of than the usual enemy, but still nothing a solid chainsaw swing won't fix - though unlike normal baddies, these guys tend to block often.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Averted. Jack uses his goggles while riding his bike during the road rage levels, probably to see through all that blood splattering at high speeds.
  • Gorn:

Kreese: He musta been working 24-7!

  • The Greys: In the fourth area. They're perhaps the only enemies in the game who aren't necessarily hostile towards Jack, but only because they're running away from the stage's normal enemies.
  • Hidden Depths: It's implied that Kreese Kreeley likes to play golf when he's not taking part in Deathwatch.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: About half the bosses are done in with their own weapons.
  • Horny Devils: Elise, the boss of the Castle level, though it's more heavily implied she's actually a vampire rather then a succubus, what with the Vampirella outfit, swarms of bats, coffin hiding places, mentions of blood-drinking, and the note in the level description about a bat spirit that attacked and devoured a woman who used to come to this chapel to pray. The main reason she's speculated to be a succubus is because she's got demonic horns. Awesome rack on her though!
    • Aww, true dat.
  • Hyperspace Mallet: Just how does Jack's chainsaw fit in his arm? Rule of Cool.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Howard constantly mocks his wife for sexual promiscuity... while he also talks about his own sexuality which is more or less Anything That Moves... and onions.
  • I Always Wanted to Say That: Howard's cry of "Release...the HOUNDS!" upon unlocking the boss battle against The Shamans is immediately followed by that phrase.
  • Idiosyncratic Combo Levels: How many "Ultra Violence"s have you gotten?
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How many variants of spike traps can one think of? Answer: PLENTY. And for extra fun, enemies killed by spike traps leave their corpses behind, letting Jack take up a second career as an extremely morbid decorator.
  • Incredibly Lame Hurricane of Puns: Howard. Kreese too, on occasion, but Howard really gets into it during the Von Twirlenkiller fight, to the point of a Lampshade Hanging.

Howard: (After Jack wins a Power Struggle against Twirlenkiller) Jack gives new meaning to breaking wind!
Kreese: You're just in fucking heaven with this wind shit, aren't you?
Howard: Yes. Yes I am.

Kreese: It's an extra life for Jack.
Howard: I wonder why those other guys didn't grab that extra life?
Kreese: Yeah, it's almost as if they didn't see it.
Howard: Same with the Happy Onions and power ups. It's like only Jack can see them.
Kreese: Weird!

  • Large Ham Announcer: Howard and Kreese.
  • Leitmotif:
    • Every time the Black Baron (stop staring) struts in, horns and drums play. They also make up his Boss Theme.
    • The whole hip-hop soundtrack is very guitar heavy. Play it for your friends who like rock!
  • Lightning Bruiser: The Black Baron... in every sense of the word
  • Lost Forever: According to the producers, if you die during the La Lusty Geisha Bistro level, the geisha can die... and stay dead for the rest of the save file. The only way to save them is to start the game over.
  • Made of Iron: While enemies can survive metal poles to the face...
  • Made of Plasticine: ...they get ripped in half by chainsaws pretty easily.
  • Manipulative Bastard: XIII A.K.A. Lord Gesser.
  • Memetic Mutation: Invoked. The commentators discuss "pwned" at one point.
  • Mini Boss: Several different ones for different areas; Big Bull Crocker, Yee Fung, Tengu, Death Blade, Big Long Driller and the Cyber Slashers in order of appearance. They have surprisingly high health, a variety of attacks, and the ability to get into Power Struggles with Jack. Naturally, you tangle with nearly all of them in the stage leading up to the final boss (Death Blade and the Cyber Slashers, for whatever reason, weren't in on that action). In that stage, the Quirky Mini-Boss Rush turns Yee Fung into a Mook Master, has Tengu flanked by dozens of ninjas, and finally has two Bulls and a Driller.
  • Mini Game: Done in the form of completely over-the-top "Bloodbath Challenges" which task you will killing as many Mooks as possible in hilariously gory ways. Can also be played as multiplayer once unlocked.
  • Mirror Boss: Kojack, 10th boss of the game who rides a motorcycle and has a chainsaw-arm like you. Given that he appears in the sci-fi themed area, he might actually be a clone.
    • A fact lampshaded throughout the fight by the commentators, who liken the battle to Jack beating up himself. Made funnier the fact that Kreese is actually rooting for Kojack instead of Jack:

Kreese: C'mon Kojack! You gonna take that?!
Howard: Sounds like someone's pulling for Kojack!
Kreese: Hell yeah! Kojack is just evil Jack - and evil makes everything BETTER!

Kreese continues to insist that Kojack will win even after Jack kills him.
  • Mission Control: For DeathWatch, Agent XIII; for the Chasers Bureau, Amala.
  • Monster Mash: The whole theme of the castle chapter. Along with zombies, mummies and psychotic drill men. The bosses consist of a pack of werewolves, a Frankenstein's monster and a vampire.
  • Mook Chivalry: Played straight somewhat and subverted. Enemies will take their time to attack on at least the earlier levels during Normal mode (mainly area 1 and 2). Adverted with Hard mode as even simple enemies like the street punks will do huge damage and will actually coordinate their attacks. Sometimes they will let one of their own be killed so they can trap Jack and pummel the crap outta him. This is also played straight when in a power struggle with the levels' Mini Boss (with the exception of Death Blade). It justified considering the mini bosses are huge guys and Jack is well... Jack.
  • Mooks: "It's like those guys exist only to be killed by Jack!"
  • Ms. Fanservice:
  • Nigh Invulnerable: The Black Baron just keeps coming back.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: More like: zombie, punk, robot, grey, soldier, samurai, cowboy, war mech, giant, mutant, sumo, assassin, bounty hunter, pimp and probably a whole lot more... As with everything else, the boss design quite intentionally lacks subtlety.
  • Not So Harmless: There's a reason the Black Baron can take so much abuse from Mathilda.
  • Pummel Duel: Found in the final boss, where if won Jack ends with a Cross Counter.
  • Punch Clock Hero: Jack cares nothing for heroics. He even abandons Amala for revenge at the game's conclusion.
  • Pungeon Master: Howard, much to Kreese's chagrin. For example, when Jack electrocutes a Mooks:

Howard: Reeeee-volting! Get it? Revolting? 'Cause you know, electricity is measured in--!
Kreese: I'm gonna stab you in the EYE!

    • His other threat is "I'm gonna kill you NOW!"
  • Rasputinian Death: You get more points the more over the top your kills are. Hell, this is practically the whole point of this game.
  • Rated "M" for Manly
  • Rated "M" for Money: It's even the other purpose of DeathWatch when it's not being used to settle power struggles!
  • Recycled in Space: It's Battle Royale meets Escape from New York in SIN CIT-AAAAAAAY!
  • Refuge in Audacity: The violence is more Itchy and Scratchy than anything else, which is how they get away with so much of it.
  • Retired Monster:
    • Jack is the former reigning Grand Champion of DeathWatch, which explains why he's such a Badass when it comes to the games.
    • Kreese also used to be a monstrous murderer, and encourages Jack to make trophies out of his fallen victims' body parts.
  • Rollerblade Good: Death Blade is, well, death on wheels. His name is even partially in reference to this (and partially in reference to his Sinister Scythe). Jude the Dude has what appear to be actual ice skates, though.
  • Sandbox Mode: OF DOOM!
  • Scary Black Man: Subverted, slightly. The Black Baron (stop staring) gets killed so often and is such an over-the-top, comical character that he's not really scary... Except when you fight him... And the trope gets played straight as all hell when he gets pissed off and So Cold starts playing.
  • Serial Escalation: How many ways can you kill someone?
  • Sickening Crunch: ...Yes?
  • Single-Stroke Battle:
    • Played with. When you beat the Shogun and its time to finish him off, he jumps to the top of the roof so that you can dash and slice him to death. Jack knocks him backward onto a conveniently placed spike instead.
    • A variation of this appears in the Final Boss, where Jack must try and counter the Black Baron with a Cross Counter. If he doesn't, he suffers the hand-to-hand combat version of a Diagonal Cut.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Averted. Not a lot of people thought upbeat hip-hop would mesh well with a beat em' up. Turns out it does! Though it's not all upbeat, especially when it comes to the Castle.
  • Spank the Cutie: As a finisher Shout-Out to God Hand.
  • Spikes of Doom: The rose bushes. Inverted in that they're no threat to the player, but perfect for violently impaling Mooks.
  • Spiritual Successor: The game is made by a bunch of ex-Clover Studio developers and takes a lot of influence from its "parent" God Hand, featuring shout-outs around every corner. Notable mentions include the finisher for the Horny Devil boss and the entire final boss fight, which references the Devil Hand fights like crazy.
  • Testosterone Poisoning: Those commentators seem really obsessed with manliness. And just being general jerkasses.
  • The Theme Park Version: In game, Asiantown was made by throwing together a bunch of different Asian motifs, icons and stereotypes, and is heavily lampshaded. This being a Japanese game made exclusively for Western audiences makes you wonder who is ribbing who?
  • There Can Be Only One: During the final battle:

Kreese: There can be only one number one in this fight to the death!
Howard: Well,duh! It's a mathematical fact that there can only be ONE number one!
Kreese: For the last fucking time, NOBODY SAID THERE'D BE MATH!
Howard and Kreese: (singing) I blame our schools!

  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Even the "routine" kills are insane.
  • They Killed Kenny Again:
    • How many times does the Black Baron (stop staring) get maimed AND killed, again? Although his final boss status suggests he can take it.
    • Same with Kreese... If we choose to believe everything he says before some bosses. Kreese apparently uses the Extra Lives. Same might apply for the Black Baron.

Kreese: I used an extra life once and came back as a roach.
Howard: Sounds like you got the "Wheel of Karma" extra life.
Kreese: I actually enjoyed it. You know that a cockroach can live for a year without its head?
Howard: Big deal. I went through eight years of marriage without any head.

  • This Is a Drill: Wielded by a giant miniboss with an elephant mask no less. They call him the Big Long Driller. "He used to have one of those old timey hand drills, but his victims would never stay down long enough for him to really get drillin'."
  • Title Drop:

Jack: A mad world, huh? Hm. I'll fit right in.

    • Also happens within the soundtrack itself on several songs.
    • Also can happen while fighting the Black Baron. Some power struggles result in Jack knocking his teeth out which spell out "Madworld" as they fly by.
  • Trademark Favourite Food: Jack is often seen chowing down on onions. They even restore him to full health.
  • Turns Red: Almost every boss or mini boss does this when hit hard enough. For example, Bib Bull Crocker's eyes will glow white when damaged enough or stabbed with a caution sign.
  • Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: This game actually lives up to this trope.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The commentators don't seem particularly surprised by the aliens being stored in the secret underground military base beneath Varrigan City. They (Kreese, at least) have seen them before.

Kreese: Go on, Jack! Show us the color of their insides!
Howard: What color is that?
Kreese: I don't know, but it sure ain't red. Fucking aliens!

  • Up to Eleven: Beat the game and you unlock DUAL CHAINSAWS!
  • Vicious Cycle: According to Agent XIII, DeathWatch has been going on for quite some time. In prior games, it was used as a less bloody substitute for war between nations. The main reason XIII wants the games destroyed is because the most recent incarnation is for nothing but carnage and profit.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: In the final boss fight, the three Geishas pull health items from their cleavage and toss them to Jack if he's running low.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Hell, it's practically a Videogame Cruelty Prerequisite.
  • Villain Song: "Look Pimpin!", "So Cold" and "You Don't Know Me".
  • The Voice: You never see the commentators.
  • The Voiceless: The Black Baron's (stop staring) hoe Matilda never says a word. She does pose after killing him, and some of her thoughts are referenced in the song "Look Pimpin!".
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: XIII via communicator and Amala via Jack's inner-ear codec.
  • Wasted Song: "Crimson Rain" only plays during the fairly short entrance to the Elise boss battle. A player probably wouldn't even hear half of it going through at full speed.
  • What a Drag: Jack defeats the leader of Shamans this way by leashing it to his bike.
  • Wolfpack Boss/Flunky Boss: The fight with The Shamans blurs the distinction between these.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Jack is just as brutal to women as he is to men.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: One of Jack's moves/finishers is the jumping back breaker. Performing it on a enemy with low health will have that said enemy split vertically in half.
  • Wutai: The second area, viciously lampshaded.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It: How you rank up. Luckily, unlike No More Heroes, you do not have to kill the next rank: you get the rank of whoever you kill as long as it's higher than your current one. Since you start ranked 256th, this is a godsend; then again, beating the very first boss propels you to rank 198.

"And we gon' RIDE!!"

  1. ↑ Howard: Have you tried thinking? Kreese: No.
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