Review: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Someday, I may forgive SouthPeak for X-Blades, but it’ll be a long time coming. I know it only published the thing, but that’s like saying “I was only obeying orders”. However, it has released Mushroom Men, so the path to redemption lies before the company.

In fact, what SouthPeak did was buy Gamecock and along with them this little rough diamond from developer Red Fly Studio – the guys doing the whole Ghostbusters thing. Like I said, the path to redemption…

Third party games on the Wii are a bit of a hit or miss affair – all too often the latter. With Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars you can relax. What you get for your hard-earned is a quirky, well-executed platformer that doesn’t overstay its welcome. In fact, at around six hours for any gamer with Mario Galaxy experience, it’s maybe just a little short.

Pax’s Path

There’s a prequel game to Spore Wars on the DS, but the essence of the plot is as follows. Green glowing meteorite thingies land on Earth and are declared no threat at all. In fact, their radiation causes mushrooms to become sentient and telekinetic (something they call sporekinesis). Forming into tribes, all is well until one lot decide to gather all the meteorites together and use them to take over the world.

A particular tribe cannot absorb the meteors, so they get wiped out bar one little guy called Pax. He wanders around until he arrives in a small village that uses one of the meteors to birth its spore children. Pax accidentally absorbs the meteor (during the tutorial bit of the game), but agrees to go on a quest to find a meteor he can’t absorb. He’s such a nice chap.

Three Inches of Violence

You’ll very quickly find, as Pax, that the meteors haven’t just mutated mushies. Moles, mice, ants, rabbits, possums and even a turtle have been affected by the glowing rocks, and are now in the employ of the bad guy – a mushroom called Pester with a real Darth Vader complex. Fortunately, Pax is a dab hand with a pointy stick, and can defend himself admirably. By collecting scrap pieces of human rubbish, he can build a variety of weapons to help him kill off the wild wildlife. Some of these require fuel or ammo, which is widely scattered throughout the levels in the form of batteries, lighter fluid and the like. There are bonus collectibles sprinkled around that unlock concept art which, for a change, is genuinely worth a look.

Pax can walk, run and jump as expected. Double-tapping the A button means Pax can cap-glide which, to be honest, you’ll be using a lot as it’s the fastest way to get about. The B button unleashes Pax’s Spore Powers. These are Force-lite excuses to manipulate the environment to create platforms in the main, or to throw objects at enemies, and even occasionally to deliver a final blow to a near-defeated enemy. The B button also flings out Pax’s Sticky Hand toy; a reward for completing an early quest. This toy sticks to certain objects, giving Pax access to other platforms; a bit like a cross between Mario’s ability to latch on to certain stars in Galaxy and Spider-Man’s web-slinging.

Mushroom for Fun?

The controls work well enough, and quickly feel pretty natural. The little icon that tells you which Spore Power you’re about to use is a little muddy, but that’s not an issue – the icon changes, you press B, job done whatever happens. In combat if Pax takes damage, his head loses slices, revealing his glowing brain. Regaining health and covering up Pax’s vitals is a matter of defeating bad guys, or whacking at green and glowing growths erupting from the fetid corpses of dead animals, and then eating the goo that spurts out. Yum!

It’s actually quite hard to die in the game, once you get the hang of it. Even if you do, you immediately restart fairly close by with no real penalty. I guess that’s no bad thing as it means you quickly make progress, but in a game as short as this one it verges on being an issue. However, as this game is I suppose for younger players (seven and up), it might take them a bit longer.

One thing that will help add to the time taken for less experienced gamers to finish the thing is the camera. For 98 percent of the time, it’s not fixed. When it is, it’s for a good reason – generally a quick bit of intense platforming. The rest of the time it can be swung around using the D-pad while you guide Pax with the analogue stick on the ‘chuck. The default setting on the camera isn’t bad, but I found myself adjusting the view a lot – intuitively, I’ll admit, but would a younger player find it so easy?

Pretty Gross!

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars looks very pretty, up to a point. The environments, made up of US hicktown human cast-offs or set in familiar places viewed from Pax’s perspective, are fascinating. Imagine Pikmin done as a B-movie horror flick and you’ve got the right idea. I was also reminded a lot of Buck Bumble on the N64. However, you can see the joins in the scenery quite often, and it is possible to get stuck, if only briefly, in bits of geometry.

This will happen from time to time, as you’re encouraged to use Pax’s agility, powers and sticky hand to find your own way to your target – sometimes the obvious route isn’t the quickest way up. It has to be said, though, that there were times when I felt that I was doing something the designers hadn’t intended or tested for, but that could just be me falsely impressing myself while playing a kids game. Furthermore, the pseudo-open nature of some of the levels, coupled with some samey-looking surroundings, means that it’s not too hard to get turned around or be unsure where to go next. There’s a hint system, but it’s not too useful.

Sporeing?

Audio in the game presented me with something of an issue. The lack of threat felt in the combat, and there being no real sense of urgency delivered in the play or the plot, the music could occasionally lull you into a near somnambulistic state. OK, it’s atmospheric and creepy, but even in action sections it’s never more than a background drone.

So, is this more than an average, ho-hum, third-party platformer? The gameplay is formulaic, yes, but never less than well-executed. The characters are full of, well, character. I was particularly fond of the ninja Shiitake mushrooms, and the level set in and under a graveyard. Oddly, the later levels are the better ones, but there are only really nine environments, four of which are divided into two sections (the latter usually involving some kind of boss fight). There are some uninspiring mini games to be played, should you so wish, and a two-player co-op mode (not online, sadly). With all that, however, you’re still getting only an average of some seven or eight hours play if you wanted to be fussy and try to hunt out everything.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is, nonetheless, probably worth checking out – though not, perhaps, at full price unless you’re buying for a younger gamer. However, I’m looking forward to seeing what Red Fly Studio get up to next, as there’s lots of good stuff in those mutated ‘shrooms.