Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Overview

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is a 3D platforming game developed by Red Fly Studios and published by Gamecock Media Group for the Nintendo Wii. It was released on December 2nd 2008 in North America and March 27th 2009 in Europe. A prequel, Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi was developed alongside the game for the Nintendo DS, which was also released on the same day as the game.

Plot

After a meteorite crash lands on earth, showering the planet with a mysterious green space dust, regular plant life and fungal are given life and are transformed into living, breathing, thinking creatures. The Mushrooms which are the largest group effected by the meteor soon form tribes, with each species forming their own tribe. While some such as Morels and the Boletes developed into peaceful, utopian creatures others, the poisonous Amanitas and Lepiota, became warlike and aggressive and were determined to gain control of the remnants of the life-giving meteorite and thus the Spore Wars began.

The story of The Spore Wars follows a lone bolete drifter named Pax who possesses the ability to absorb chunks of the meteorite to gain strength. Struggling to find his place in the world, Pax sets out into the wider world looking for answers and as he progresses encounters a Lepiota named Pester who plans to take over the world. After following Pester through various locations, Pax eventually arrives at a trailer park where the two battle with Pester meeting his demise when he falls to the floor and is devoured by a mutated fungi dog. Pax then returns to his home village to say goodbye to his hometown villagers and exits claiming he'll go wherever the wind takes him.

Game Mechanics

Basic Combat

As a Mushroom you will find many items throughout the world that would not normally be thought of as weapons. Different weapons can be combined together to create new more exciting combos.

Spore Powers

Ever wonder what it would be like if the power of The Force was in the hands of a mushroom? That is exactly what the spore powers are like. By gathering spores at certain locations, Pax will be able to use his spore powers to manipulate objects in the environment to solve puzzles, wield large weapons to fight off enemies, heal from any damage you have taken, etc.

Health System

Unlike most games now-a-days, Mushroom Men does not possess a health bar to show the remaining health of Pax. Instead, as Pax is hurt, pieces of his cap will begin to chip away. Eventually enough of the cap will be destroyed so that the brain of the mushroom is visible. At this time he will be near his doom and will require to be healed.

Platforming

Mushroom Men possesses standard platforming mechanics like many other games. Pax will need to jump from platform to platform usually at high altitudes (for a mushroom) to reach other areas of a level. However, Pax is also equipped with a standard glove tool that can stretch to far away locations and can be used as a grappling hook to carry the mushroom up to higher areas.