My editor hadn't told me what games I'd be seeing at EIEIO's 2008 game preview event, so several of the titles were new to me. One of these was Mushroom Men, a title I'd hear little about but I definitely liked what I saw.
Mushroom Men is set to release on both Nintendo platforms, the DS and the Wii. The two titles take place in the same world, but that's where the similarities end. The DS title, Rise of the Fungi, is a side-scroller while the Wii title, The Spore Wars, is fully 3D. The world of Mushroom Men is actually Earth. A strange comet has passed over the planet leaving a green dust that has caused certain previously non-sentient life forms (mostly plants like Mushroom and Kudzu) to evolve and take on new life.
Rise of the Fungi covers the early stages of this transformation, as the Mushroom Men form into three tribes and immediately begin beating the hell out of each other... intelligence breeds aggression right? You will take control of one of these mushroom men (there are classes to choose from as well, so pick your play style - scout, heavy melee, or caster) and go through the game by collecting random items found around the world and fashioning them into weapons. I was impressed to see that the DS world was changeable by your actions, although I can't say for sure whether or not all the changes are scripted. There is also cooperative multiplayer through DS Wi-Fi.
Third person action platformers all have a certain feel to them, and Mushroom Men -The Spore War for the Wii, definitely has that feel. In the game, you will play a Bolete Mushroom Man, the scout class. This is the smaller, lighter type and you definitely use that to your advantage as you travel around the world.
To be honest, the travel alone looked to be something that will take up hours of my time. Your character has a pretty good vertical jump on him, but he also carries around a sticky-hand toy (you've all seen those right? it's about 2 inches long with a hand on the end until you throw it and it stretches to 15 inches and sticks to a wall?) that he uses as a grappling hook to take him higher than he could normally reach. Once you've achieved some altitude, your mushroom cap can be used as a hang-glider to control your falling.
There are also plenty of objects that you can move around using your spore-powers, one of which is telekinesis to lift objects and manipulate them via the Wiimote. You can also change the world by communicating with the plant life and convincing it to help you. During the demo we saw a kudzu elevator and vine stairways be formed.
You'll find yourself doing battle with various creatures in the world - you are after all, only a 3-inch tall mushroom. Not only will you find weapons throughout the world, you can make them. The come in four flavors: slash, pierce, blunt and bad-ass (the bobble-headed flamethrower falls into this category). Each one has more than one attack and is effective against different types of enemies.
The UI is very minimal. Determining damage is a matter of watching the cap on your character. Chunks of it will start to fall off as you become injured. The more of a "stem" you become, the closer to death you are. This is rather important when running from say...fluffy white bunnies and the like.
Overall, the title looks promising. I'm excited about seeing more of it when I get the opportunity. Until then, I plan to keep my head down because quite frankly, the idea of mushroom men and cacti running rampant is just a little bit...unnerving.
