Who would win in a fight to the death: a bunny rabbit or a mushroom? What if the mushroom wielded a weapon comprised of a matchstick, gum, a shard of glass, and had telekinetic powers due to some stuff called "spore". Also, the bunny's been infected by that same "spore" stuff.

These are exactly the kind of questions that I'm sure keep you up at night and Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars answers them and many more. Like a '50s B movie introduction, a meteorite has crashed to Earth, released a strange green gas upon the world, and... doesn't seem to do a whole lot. Well, to humans anyway.

Animals and plants, from cockroaches to kudzu, have been changed by the aftermath of the enormous rock from the sky – the aforementioned "spore." Intelligence among flora and fauna has increased to the point where mushrooms specifically have created civilization. Language, tribes, weapons, and even war have sprouted from these spores.

Of course, there's not just one civilization of 'shroom. There's a whole myriad of them, each with their own capabilities, cultures, and general outlooks on life. Wouldn't you be more warlike if more stuff could eat you? Well, it seems the Bolete and the Morels are the more edible, but less begrudging species. However, the Shitake are mysterious, deadly, and very much ninjas. Yep, ninja mushrooms. The more hateful Amanitas and Lepiotas dislike the other three tribes for different reasons and start a large-scale war against their small-scale brethren.

In the midst of this conflict, drifting in on the wind, is our hero Pax, a Bolete who's stumbled across the festival that celebrates the day mushrooms became sentient. Thus the mushrooms have become a severe threat to pizza-lovers everywhere (unless you don't like them on your pizza, so you're safe but everyone else, be warned.) As Pax, you traverse the world to find a meteorite piece due to complications during the festival.

Using the Wiimote for camera control, combat, and menu selection, and the Nunchuck for both movement and rolling, Pax explores the massive expanse of the world (and by massive I mean things like a tool shed – we are talking tiny mushrooms here.)

What appealed most to me in Mushroom Men was the humor and sheer fun of the game. Wielding a corkscrew one minute and a matchstick the next to dispatch my carrot-eating foe was, to put it bluntly, awesome. The combat was intuitive, and I didn't feel like a total dork moving the Wiimote around to kill a cockroach. The Wii's technology is used well without making someone feel awkward in executing attacks. Well, I didn't feel awkward, but my dog gave me a look a few times.

Or the dog might've heard the way the mushrooms were speaking to one another in their unique languages, or heard the intriguing and engaging soundtrack. The music of Mushroom Men has an almost surreal feel to it that fits the game well. Each level has its own track that helps the mood that much more. Add to that that Les Claypool (from the band Primus) helped create music and you've got a great listening experience throughout.

Along with the different music tracks, Mushroom Men has a vast collection of weapons which have distinctive sounds each their own and are assembled by collecting "Scav" AKA trash. The method of building weapons is broken down into the very scientific process of "pick up trash you find, mash it together, and make a cool looking thing to smack stuff with."

When Pax isn't able to beat down all his enemies quick enough with his makeshift weapons, he'll get attacked and a very interesting thing happens. A piece of his mushroom cap will pop off, as his health meter is his head. Since I assume you want to see glowy purple mushroom brain about as often as I do (it's just... it's glowy and purple, c'mon!), you'll want to keep Pax from getting hurt too often. Luckily, he can block some attacks, and the really cool thing about his health being his cap is that screen space isn't taken up by a large HUD. Add to that the fact that the pointer has a small bar for how much spore Pax has left on it, and you've got a game where you can really enjoy the visuals without anything getting in the way and you really see the beauty of it.

Now, outside of the combat, Mushroom Men is a platformer. You jump, you glide with your mushroom cap from place to place (or what little parts of it you have left if you're showing off your brains. Eww, mushroom brains), and you use a toy sticky hand (loved those as a kid) to get to hard to reach platforms that only a powerful sticky hand grappling item can get to.

Throughout the adventure of Pax, I encountered memorable characters, amazing environments, and a gameworld I became immersed in. I enjoyed it and laughed at the pure goofiness of it all. I did fight with the camera in a few spots, but it wasn't horrendous. As far as difficulty, Mushroom Men isn't the hardest game, but you decide how hard you want the game to be. Want the game to be harder? Use your weakest weapon and see what happens when you're in a standoff with a bunch of cockroaches. Plus, the fun of smacking around said 'roaches with weird armaments makes up for it if they're not too tough at times.

The fun of Mushroom Men is its wackiness, the B movie feel, and discovering about Pax, his world, and his abilities (i.e. the telekinesis mentioned earlier.) Although I'd have to say putting together the weapons and finding out what the next one would be was my favorite part. I'd go back to levels to find all the pieces. Man, are the final weapons cool!

From watching a cactus and a huge Amanita (about as "huge" as a human hand) battle it out near lava to the mushroom ninjas, the weapons, and the full storyline, there's a lot packed into this game. So much so that it spilled over into my daily life and a friend of mine found a wonderful recipe for Wild Mushroom Cactus Stew: here, which I'm tempted to try. My only problem with the game is that it didn't take too long to complete, but who knows; maybe it was because I enjoyed it so much. Despite that, I'd highly recommend playing this oddball 'shroom-filled escapade. You'll laugh, you'll smile, and then you'll probably look twice at the produce aisle at the grocery store... just in case there's special fungus among us.