Hype Muffin
When Pax, alone and aimless, wanders into a Morel mushroom village and accidentally absorbs the sacred meteorite fragment, the young fungi goes on a quest to find another fragment for the village, as well as learn more about his strange ability. It's not the most elaborate or deep beginning to a story but it puts the main character out into the wild, ready to adventure. The only problem is, the story doesn't really flow from this starting point. Pax learns that the Amanita mushrooms are bent on war, and a mysterious Lamita mushroom, Pester, hides a sinister plan of domination in his fungal brain, but the flow of the narrative is fairly choppy, and fails to draw the player's interest. It is an unquestionably original and definitely bizarre setting, however, and ends with the trappings for a sequel.
Gameplay focuses upon two main components, platform exploration and combat. However, both suffer from an awkward and perpetually misplaced camera. It seems to prefer finding the most uncomfortable position--made worse by Pax's diminutive size--making looking around, a key concept for exploration and combat, a chore. Though the player is able to manipulate the camera through the D-pad, the control is loose, takes more practice than it should, and is really just a hassle.
Exploration is a blast in the exotic locales cleverly composed of trash (bottles, cans, license plates) or other human residences, such as a bathroom or kitchen. These sprawling environments provide plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, and the visuals match the grand stages. Neon colors pop against the otherwise bland atmosphere of brown and shadow (of course, several levels are below ground), providing a vibrant and funky color scheme. To help you explore, Pax can use sporekinesis, which allows him to manipulate objects with his mind. By simply pointing at the screen with the Wiimote and selecting applicable objects, Pax can clear paths of debris, or even use that debris to smash an enemy. Later, Pax earns a sticky hand which allows him to ascend to new heights. Lack of a minimap means you'll have to rely on what you can directly see to navigate. This can be annoying in tunnel areas, but other stages often have massive structures you can scale to get a better view. There's plenty to see in the mushroom world, even if you have to fight the camera to see it all.
Combat pits Pax against waves of insects, animals, and evil Amanita mushrooms with whatever tools you can find scattered throughout each level. Pax can construct weapons from seeming garbage, transforming a pencil and broken shard of glass into a deadly ax. This weapon construction is done automatically when you find the required parts, and while putting together your own weapon creations would certainly have yielded some interesting results, it would most likely have been a frustrating trial and error experience.
The actual fighting in Spore Wars can be a little clunky, and definitely takes some getting used to. Swinging the Wiimote allows Pax to attack with whatever weapon he has equipped, including "radical" weapons--elaborate constructions that require fuel such as batteries or lighter fluid. Enemies tend to be significantly faster and stronger than the young hero, making dodging and blocking essential tactics. Even so it is easy to get trapped in a cycle of attacks as multiple or even a single persistent foe backs you into a corner, leading to some irritation, but if--or more accurately, when--Pax dies, he returns immediately, and only a few steps before the site of his demise. This no-penalty death system certainly eases the tension, but also makes watching Pax's energy (indicated by the amount of mushroom cap broken off of his head) rather superfluous.
The music in the game flows wonderfully with the visuals and overall quirky tone of the game, featuring the funky beats and trippy tunes of Les Claypool. The music sets a perfect atmosphere for the extraordinary and oddball environments that Pax traverses in the mushroom world, adding the final touch to the game's distinctly outlandish presentation.
Spore Wars is not a long game, lasting only 5 or 7 hours spread over a handful of levels. Though each stage features hidden collectibles--meteorite fragments extend your life and sporekinesis power, other collectible items unlock images in the art gallery--they fail to really draw the player into a second play through, and end up being merely minor sidequests to the main game. Additionally the game features a small collection of mini games that can be played outside of the main game, as well as a co-op mode where the second player controls sporekinesis, but again, these aren't great incentives to continue playing the game.
Ultimately Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars pushes through a unique and eccentric setting with great presentation, but falls flat in delivering a compelling narrative or even smooth gameplay. These underdeveloped core elements detract from an otherwise notably offbeat adventure.
7.0/10
Images from IGN.com
