SEATTLE -- The last thing I expected to say while playing Mushroom Men was, "Wow, this is what Force Unleashed should have been like."
And yet, there I was at PAX, getting hands-on in Gamecock's booth, and lo and behold it does exactly what I thought the Wii version of the new Star Wars game should have. Among his other powers, your fungal main character has "Sporekinesis" -- he can levitate and move objects around using the Wiimote. Aim the pointer at something with spores growing on it, and you can pick it up and move it around the level with motion controls. If you want to throw it at the nearest enemy (or anywhere), just flick.
Meanwhile, Force Unleashed on the Wii doesn't offer that -- it's a port of the PlayStation 2 version, with canned gestures substituting for button presses.
Besides the fact that *Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars *cleverly out-forces Star Wars, it's tough to get a read on whether or not this third-person action-platformer will turn out to be fun in the long-term. It certainly demoed well.
I don't play many games like Mushroom Men these days -- it's quite rare to find a cartoon-styled adventure game that borrows from* Mario* and Zelda but isn't a licensed kids' game. Developer Red Fly is clearly attempting to keep the disappearing genre alive, and it's tempting to want to fall in love with Mushroom Men based on that alone.
The combat is set up quite a bit like Twilight Princess; you use the Z button to lock on to an enemy and shake the Wiimote to attack. All over the place, you can find new parts with which to build weapons -- this is as easy as opening up the menu screen and clicking on any highlighted weapon once you find the junk that makes it up. For example, your first weapon is made out of a DS stylus, some gum, and a thimble.
But there's also a good deal of platforming; especially if you want to run all over the levels and collect the hidden bits and pieces that make up your weapons. The levels are quite polished -- there's plenty of parody products littering the levels, like "Jello Kitty" lunchboxes, and lots of other clever touches that make the levels much more than a random series of caves and dirt hills. You regenerate your energy by eating the spores that grow out of dead rats. It's a funny game, but that's more due to the visual gags than to the dialogue.
I enjoyed my time playing Mushroom Men, although as I said, it's tough to know whether that's because it's fundamentally entertaining or because I really want a new experience in this genre. If you feel the same way I do, keep an eye on this one as it nears its November release date. The Nintendo DS version will be out in October.
Image: Red Fly
