Mushroom Men (Wii) Review

Posted by Sean Garmer on 01.25.2009

Gamecock and Redfly team up to give us one quirky adventure. Is it something you should check out?





In a world that is ruled by all these big publishers, sometimes it takes a gem from one of these unknown little developers to make us remember what video games are really about. New IP’s that show us the originality the industry once flourished on before it began to rely a tad too heavily on sequels and milking franchises. SouthPeak Interactive attempts to do the same here with Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars for the Nintendo Wii. Though they do deliver in giving us great originality with the art direction and a nice concept. However, it is hampered by run of the mill gameplay and a slow story.



Graphics:






The art direction for Mushroom Men is fantastic, probably some of the best graphics seen in a Wii game. The game puts you in control of Pax, a youngster Mushroom that is in the middle of a war between the two Mushroom factions. He has a special connection with meteorite chunks from where the Mushrooms originated and decides to help the Peaceful Mushrooms. The enemy fungi of course don’t like this and plot ways to stop Pax. The game does a great job of putting you right into this large (well large for a Mushroom) and grungy place full of Moles, Rats, Cans, and other things. Everything makes the player feel like they are inhabiting the shoes of Pax, which really gives the game a unique feel. I would have never thought Moles are so big, or that scaling a bunch of cans would be a task. All the NPC’s you meet have their own look as well, which involves you even more.


Gameplay:





This is where the game falters a bit. It seems Gamecock and Redfly tried so hard to immerse you in the world that they forgot that there is a game to play here. It is kinda sad because the rest of the game stands out, but the most important part is generic in comparison. Before getting to the bad stuff, let’s praise it for the good first. Mushroom Men is a platformer and of course, there is an item collection system. You collect concept art and meteorite parts, as well as Scav. Scav is random junk that is found in the environment. Scav is used to construct weapons for Pax, and the weapons become exactly what you pick up. Tweezers and two Diamonds become a sharp object, which is tweezers and two diamonds stuck together, while a pick, and thimble on a stick is a club. These weapons have different types but the problem is every new weapon you make is automatically stronger. This is expected in an RPG because most of the time you have to pay for the item or combine it with other things, but in a Platformer we should have the option of using whatever weapon we choose. It makes it more fun for the player if they are allowed to decide which weapon they want to use in certain situations. You also have the ability to use a power like telekinesis to move objects and you gain a few more powers like that through the game. Maybe for a next installment they should expand on that a little more, and make it a greater part of the gameplay.

So I guess I have to get to the bad stuff now, which saddens me to do. For one, the story is kinda slow to get going and with a Wii game that has no voiceover (where you may also be standing while playing) the saunter of having to read a bunch of dialogue in text boxes doesn’t bode well for this type of game. Especially when the story seems to drag along and playing through the game doesn’t seem to explain much of what is going on either. I almost felt like they could have just told me the story with some cinematics (with text) and let the player just keep playing. It does provide a nice break in the action, but because it fleshes out nothing, it almost felt unnecessary. They are obviously setting up for sequels, hopefully in the next installment they give us a bit more information about Pax and these creatures that are opposing him. This is something new and different; they should use that to their advantage.

Secondly, Redfly Studios decided to use the gimmicky and at times annoying flailing of the Wii Remote to use weapons. This is why I said they should mix that telekinesis stuff in a bit more, because the flailing gets boring extremely fast. Essentially every weapon is the same it just looks different because of all the flailing. There is so much of it that it started to become tedious to play through the very short five-hour game. I’m not going to bash its length because this is sort of aimed at the kids. However, that doesn’t mean they cannot add some deviation to the gameplay, because if the next game is like this that does not bode too well.

Finally, the camera is a big issue. For one I have no idea why they decided to use the “Halo system” where you use part of the d-pad to move forwards and backwards and then the other part to move the camera left and right. In Halo it works because there are two thumbsticks, it works badly on the Wii. It becomes very frustrating to have to constantly move the camera and Pax because it will naturally lag behind him. They make trying to solve puzzles or even battling more of a problem because of the camera issues.






Sound:


This side of things is done very well, all the sound effects are in the right places and help remind you that you are small creature in a big world. The music (done by Les Claypool) fits perfectly its upbeat with the action and even accelerating and descending when necessary. It also matches the times when you are platforming and going through the beautiful and expansive levels. You’ll hear the jibber jabber of the mushrooms, clang of certain objects, and even rain too. Again, Redfly does a great job with the whole immersion aspect.


Lasting Appeal:


As with most Wii games there is no online function for this game. There is a co-op mode but it is not like you would expect. All it does, is allow the other player to controller a cursor that appears on screen to help your friend pick up objects or activate things. It just seems tacked on and useless. Maybe they will figure out how to make this a useful feature in the future, but for this it didn’t even seem like it should be in the game. You can go around trying to collect all the items to make the different weapons, but there is not much of anything to keep you playing once the short main quest is over.





Fun Factor:


Depending on your tolerance level and possibly your age, is going to determine how much fun you have with Mushroom Men. Going through the expansive and cool worlds has its moments. Seeing all the beauty in the characters is great too, however the fact remains that the actual part of the game you play has more minuses than pluses and that’s not good. If you like, clunky cameras and using the Wii Remote like a sword you should have a blast. If you don’t, I would not pick this up.


The 411: In the end, Mushroom Men turns out to be a great idea and a unique concept that goes for the pretty and then kills the nice things about the game by making the gameplay elements too simple, boring, and clunky. If they can find a way to flesh out the good things about the game and make them more prominent, while erasing the bad mistakes in another installment we could see a great franchise form on the Wii. For now, the series has a lot of work to do.

Graphics	8.5	Beautiful and expansive levels help immerse you in the world of a Mushroom
Gameplay	6.5	There are good things like picking up items and telekinesis, but there's a clunky camera, boring Wii Remote flaling to attack, and story is slow
Sound	8.5	Done by Les Claypool of Primus fame, the music is great and the sound effects help keep you into the game
Lasting Appeal	6.0	There is a very bad co-op mode, the story is only five hours, not much to keep you playing past the first run
Fun Factor	7.0	If you like quirky games and like the art it may keep you intrigued, but for me, the less than stellar gameplay hurt my experience
Overall	7.0   [ Good ]

Screenshots
All 12 Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Wii) Screenshots