As someone with a widescreen SDTV I can confirm it isn't anamorphic widescreen like most games/widescreen dvd's are.

The only way it fills the screen is if you zoom in to stretch the image... or if your tv has a smart mode which stretches the image to fit.

In normal widescreen mode the image is crushed with big black borders. It's the same as it used to be in the days of the SNES/N64....it's displaying the US NTSC image...in a PAL 50hz mode..in other words it's not even slightly tailored to the PAL TV system.

 I own 27 Wii games..this is the first that doesn't have a 60hz 480i mode. There's no excuse for it...as we know the US machine displays at 480i 60hz..so the UK machine can.

 If there was a problem putting both 50/60hz moides in..then they should have gone for 60hz as standard (as Nintendo did with Metroid Prime 2 in europe).

Have you tried setting the Wii to 60 Hz mode (if your TV supports it)?

@RolStoppable: I see. I guess I overestimated developers :P

My Wii is set to 60hz/widescreen as standard. Always has been..that's why the mess they made with this game is so obvious.

Thanks, I guess that answers all the questions. It will either be the NTSC version or nothing for me.

The game runs and looks just fine and really, if graphics and widescreen are the reasons that you buy games....why do you even own a Wii?

Ok, I tested it some more. Here are the results:

The PAL version of MadWorld cannot run at 60Hz, even if your Wii is set to 60Hz mode. The game runs at widescreen, but not anamorphic widescreen. What does this mean?

1. The refresh rate is lower than NTSC or 480p games. That means the game doesn't look to run as fluid as other Wii games.

2. The game has black borders at the top, bottom, and side.

3. To illustrate, here is an image.

The dark gray area is full-screen. 90% of all Wii games run at this on 480p, 16/9 anamorphic widescreen. This means it has a clear image, fast refresh rate, and full-screen.

The light gray area is the screen MadWorld takes. It isn't full-screen, it has black borders, and the refresh rate it slow.

In other words, MadWorld looks great, but it's hampered by terrible image quality. It's either imcompetence or laziness from Platinum Games. I'd guess the latter.

Who said graphics and widescreen is the reason I buy games? The point is that games look much better with widescreen on my TV (i.e. they actually use the whole screen), and it gets worse when you find out they could easily have implemented it if they wanted to.

I don't get that kind of argument. The Wii is a current-gen system and I have a minimum standard for games. I don't think asking for 16:9 support is asking for too much in 2009, especially when even crappy shovelware games can do it... I'm not even going to complain too much about the lack of 480p.

I can't wait when the new generation of gamers replace this generation.

Its so for the best.   Maybe they'll appreciate good games.

Oh another one of those replies... See the reply I wrote above yours.

I can and do appreciate good games, and I don't have a problem with lower-quality graphics. I do want developers to make decent PAL versions of their games though.

Yeah, if a game is good people may not have any criticism about it.

Look buddy, nobody here is saying MadWorld is a bad game. In my opinion, it's a pretty good game, with lots of humor and good production values.

However, the PAL version is severely gimped in the display department. And I'm sure the NTSC version has its own share of problems (lack of 480p is also in the NTSC version). That is unacceptable this day when even Petz games support 480p widescreen.