Ok i'm not really the type to hype games but what the hell, i'm bored and people need to give this game a shot. It looks like fun, it has a great art-style/concept and its a platformer, a rare genre these days.
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Developer: Red Fly Studios
Publisher: Gamecock Media Group
Genre: Action/Adventure/Platform
Release Date: November 11, 2008
The Game
Mushroom Men traffics in pure fantasy -- the mushroom designs are wonderfully quirky, complete with glowing green eyes, rolled leaf backpacks, and multiple caps that stretch high above character heads. (Imagine the Ents, but much, much smaller.) The bad mushrooms are particularly nasty, looking like little nightmares with red peepers and combat horrible poses. The mushrooms are not the only sentient vegetation in the game. Players will interact with self-aware kudzu and a cactus gang called Los Cactos.
You see the world from the three-inch vantage point -- humans are colossi that throw long shadows across the landscape. The mushrooms scavenge human artifacts to create their buildings and equipment. Train tracks are composed of discarded clothespins. Weapons are assembled from staple removers and corn cob holders. In fact, players will take an active role in developing weapons from recovered human objects, working to build gear that will put the poisonous mushrooms under the dirt.
The brief game clips showed off an emphasis on exploration. The levels look quite large, such as a stage set inside a human house. The mushroom hero scurries across the floor and then fires a sticky line to climb a box. The goal is a box across a gap, so the mushroom makes a leap of faith and then glides through the air, using his mushroom cap as a parachute - IGN
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The Tribes
In the August 2007 issue of Gamepro magazine, four different tribes of mushrooms were revealed. The names and characteristics of all the tribes correspond to the species of real-world mushrooms for which they are named.
- Bolete - The Bolete are the innocent aboriginal tribe of the mushroom universe, a shamanistic society with heavy emphasis on creative production and the well-being of their general populace. They are good melee fighters and they would prefer to live at peace with the land and their fellow mushroom men. They are the protagonists of both games.
- Amanitas - Of all the poisonous mushrooms, Amanitas are the most lethal. The Amanitas are extremely pale and very thin. They ride spiders and use small spiders as attack beasts.
- Morel - The mysterious Morel brotherhood delves into science and advancing their spore powers more than any other mushroom species. Their weapons, built primarily for defense, are technically advanced, though they are not war-like at all.
- Lepiota - The evil Lepiota use poisonous spore powers as well as dark magic to enforce their aggressive religious beliefs. They build shrines in antique human hardware like old jukeboxes and automobiles.
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The Sound and Les Claypool
The theme song for the games and several original tracks are being done by Les Claypool of Primus fame. He is contributing some original tracks to the game's soundtrack, which is a groundbreaking metronome-based system developed by Gl33k, a music and sound design group located in Austin, TX.
- Mushroom Men: Developer Commentary - The Music
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Concept Art
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Images
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Hands-On
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.
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-**** 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 - Source
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Videos
- Developer Walkthrough - Part 1- The Beginning
- Developer Walk Through Part 2 - Pax's Journey
- Developer Walkthrough Part 3 - Pax Goes To The Bathroom
- Developer Walk Through Video Part 4 - Pax Heads Home
- Here They Come - Trailer
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