If you take three sub-par action titles that didn’t do well on the Wii because they weren’t really all that good to begin with, and then package them into a three pack with the word “violence” on the cover, will they sell better and be received warmly by the enthusiast gaming press?

Multi-part answer: No, and *probably* not, depending on who’s writing the article.

Also, bonus question: Will the publisher that brought these games to fruition use said multi-pack’s inevitable failure as an excuse to further blame the platform and not the games themselves? Answer: Depends. This is Sega we’re talking about, and their track record on Nintendo platforms over the past three years has been a mixed bag, to say the least. I’m chalking this up to simple inventory cleaning.

Out of the top 20 selling games of 2008, less than half of them fit the profile of what type of game this MSNBC article considers appealing to the hard-core or serious gamer.  So I think the question shouldn’t be “can the Wii win back the hard-core gamer,” but rather “does the hard-core gamer still matter?”

The article goes on to say that Nintendo’s original ‘core gamers’ who grew up on Super Mario Bros are disappointed in games like Wii Sports Resort, but I think high sales of games like Mario Kart and Guitar Hero prove that the core audience is shifting to less mature titles.

Do you think violent/mature game fans should still be considered core gamers?

Is this the beginning, or the end? Has Sega risen from the ashes of its hedgehog-on-human kissing scenes? Has PlatinumGames unlocked the much sought-after “mature third party game that works on the Wii?”

Who knows. All I know is that the mags and rags are gushing over MadWorld right now. The art style works. The violence connects. A third party game has clicked. It’s not the first, but this one, especially, had a pretty big wave of hype driving it forward.

Now, will it sell?

This week, a massive list of releases with a lot of great titles … is this November or something? Big games this week include New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin, Madworld, and Samurai Shodown Anthology.  Sadly, not much on the DS.

Hit the break for the full list.

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It would seem antithetical for a visually striking Wii game to settle for standard resolution.

But according to Matt Casamassina, MadWorld is doing precisely that.

The IGN Nintendo editor confirmed in his blog SEGA’s stylish MadWorld does not support 480p on Wii.

“It runs in widescreen 480i,” wrote Casamassina. “Not 480p. I confirmed it today, and it’s unfortunate.”

He says the game still looks “damned good,” however, and he didn’t notice until capturing video, when the equipment read it as 480i.

Unlike Sony and Microsoft’s high-definition competitors, Nintendo’s Wii outputs in standard 480i resolution. With a set of separately sold component cables, the system can present games in progressive scan 480p, essentially a sort of crisper and cleaner “enhanced definition.”

MadWorld hacks its way onto store shelves worldwide next month.