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Oh snap! Mushroom Men dev has Deadly words

by JC Fletcher { Jan 7th 2009 at 10:55AM }

In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Dan Borth, lead developer on Red Fly Studio's Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, offers his thoughts on the market for "core" Wii games, his own game's chances on a system dominated by Wii Fit and such, and designing a game to be accessible to a wide and varied audience.

Oh, and he calls out Deadly Creatures. When asked if he's familiar with Rainbow Studios' critter-based brawler, Borth responded with: "I have heard about Deadly Creatures. I have many opinions on that game, especially how it came into being right after THQ received our pitch document for Mushroom Men. I will let you draw your own conclusions."

We can't say if there really was any such malevolent behavior behind the conception of Deadly Creatures, but oh snap just the same. And while we may not have seen a parallel before, now that he mentions it, they're both 3D action/fighting games about small creatures adventuring, unseen, in the human world. But we still think Creatures could turn out awesome.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Metareview: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

by Chris Greenhough { Dec 5th 2008 at 3:32PM }

We've been raving about Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars for the best part of a year. Starved of a top-drawer platformer since Mario did his thing in oh-seven, hopes are high in these parts for Red Fly's platformer. The big question: can the gameplay match the undoubtedly stellar art design (as seen in the latest trailer above)? Let's copy and paste text to find out together:

Official Nintendo Magazine UK (86%) provides the most effusive review to date: "It'd have a Gold Award but for the camera. That aside, it's pretty wonderful." [Dec 2008, p.75]

Game Informer (58%) is less enamored (in its really, really short review): "Mushroom Men has a few things going for it, like cool characters and clever sound design. Unfortunately, none of the good stuff has any bearing on the gameplay, which is a total mess. The camera is awful, the level designs are boring, and combat is comprised of whipping the remote around and hoping that you hit something."

Nintendo Power (80%) found it to be vintage platforming fungi: "If you're hungry for some classic 3-D platforming, Mushroom Men is definitely worth checking out." [Holiday 2008, p.84]

1UP (C) thinks it's just a pretty face, and is reminded of generic PS1 platformers (surely it's not as bad as Croc?): "The rich presentation fills out its role in the game just fine, but the core mechanics simply can't back it up. Visually intriguing environments break down to straightforward platforming and switch-flipping puzzles; inspired design rears its head every now and then, but -- by and large -- Mushroom Men's stages are anything but progressive, falling right alongside a forgotten swath of PS1 platformers."

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

DS releases for the week of December 1st

by Alisha Karabinus { Dec 1st 2008 at 4:00PM }

The holiday march continues, bringing with it legions of new games. Well, not quite legions. A solid unit, perhaps. Half a unit? Okay, Slingo Quest and some mushrooms that specialize in pummeling animals while wearing big, puffy gloves. It's better than Elf Bowling, at least.

Animal Boxing
Dreamer: Puppy Trainer
Emma at the Farm
Emma in the Mountains
Happy Cooking
M&Ms Adventure
Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi
My Fun Facts Coach
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King
Slingo Quest
The Tale of Despereaux
Wordfish

Continued →

Retail and download releases for the week of December 1st

by David Hinkle { Dec 1st 2008 at 10:00AM }

This week, we've got a few notable retail releases and WiiWare title Space Invaders Get Even. There's also a new Virtual Console title up for grabs. Head on past the break for the full list and let us know what you're looking forward to playing.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Continued →

Mushroom Men: Radical Weapons for Tiny Overkill

by JC Fletcher { Nov 10th 2008 at 10:00AM }

We conclude our exploration of Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars' freaky arsenal this week with two categories of weapons: thrusting weapons and Radical! Weapons. The idea of a thrusting weapon is fairly simple to understand: it's a pointy thing of some kind on a stick, and your mushroom uses it to poke at stuff.

Radical! Weapons are special weapons that have limited ammunition and are used at certain specific points in a level to obscure a hole in the wall or otherwise destroy an area that is the source of repeated enemy spawns. They're slightly more sadistic and demented than the normal weapons. And by "sadistic and demented" we mean "a flamethrower made from a match, a whistle, an aspirator, and a football bobblehead."

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Weapons

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Mushroom Men: Delay of the Fungi

by Alisha Karabinus { Nov 5th 2008 at 12:00PM }

We've been gearing up for the Rise of the Fungi, prepping our weapons, messing up perfectly good clothing, and what do we get for our efforts? The DS title, originally slated for, uh, last month, has been delayed. Surprised? Not if you were paying attention, but happily, we can report that the game is now scheduled for December 2. Let's just hope Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi doesn't get lost in the holiday crush. We've got our fingers crossed for this one.

Gallery: Mushroom Men

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wait

by JC Fletcher { Nov 5th 2008 at 11:45AM }

Unfortunately, we can no longer claim that Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is one of the most promising games of this fall -- not because we've changed our minds about the game or anything, but because it's no longer a game of this fall. Gamecock announced that both the DS and Wii Mushroom Men games have been delayed to December 2nd. The Spore Wars was originally planned for this month, following an October release of the DS Rise of the Fungi.

Provided that Mushroom Men actually comes out this holiday season, it could do well as the only major platformer being released on the Wii (that doesn't star a werehog). Or we could be wrong and it could be swallowed by the mass of holiday releases in general! The point is, one of those processes will begin in December.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Mushroom Men: Rise of the Exploding Canisters

by JC Fletcher { Nov 3rd 2008 at 7:00PM }

The final installment in our look at the hacked-together weapons in Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi on the DS brings some more second-generation weapons -- items that a Mushroom Man thought was okay at killing other mushrooms, but could be better. And then in come the compressed air canisters and electric motors. It takes a big brain to come up with this kind of stuff, and luckily Mushroom Men happen to have enormous, umbrella-shaped canopies in which to hold said brains.

Have a look around our Mushroom Men weapons gallery to learn the "recipes" behind the game's hand-crafted mini-disasterpieces. In addition, two new screenshots from the DS game can be found in our main Mushroom Men gallery.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Weapons

Gallery: Mushroom Men

Mushroom Men and Mushroom Minigames

by JC Fletcher { Oct 30th 2008 at 10:50AM }

Screens of Red Fly Studio's Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars are, in general, a joy to look at, not just because of technically lovely graphics, but because of creepy mood lighting and the ridiculous detail that went into modeling the mundane world in which the little guys wage their battles. We have kind of a systematic distrust of screenshots, but we've seen Mushroom Men and we can confirm that it looks great.

These screens feature the same level we've seen previously, but it's the one with the giant mutated bunnies, so we don't mind. We're looking forward to the game's release so we can see more environments, though. There's also a puzzle-based minigame that appears to be based on Pipe Dream -- we're guessing it's the one on the minigame menu titled "Morel Mine Car." We'll try not to dwell on it. Nothing wrong with minigames, but we really hope we aren't forced to play Pipe Dream.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Mushroom Men: The Tools of the Spore Wars -- Part 2: Slashing

by JC Fletcher { Oct 27th 2008 at 11:45AM }

Our second set of weapons from Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars shows how a resourceful mushroom can turn everyday items into slashing weapons. There was always potential for extreme pain in items like bottle caps and pull tabs; it just took the right amount of good old alien-ray-enhanced ingenuity to realize that potential in the form of weaponry. Yes, pretty much the first thing these mushrooms have done after gaining intelligence is to learn how to kill each other. Oh, well, it works out for us, because we'll get to play a game with all these cool weapons in it.

In addition to the seven new items in our weapons gallery, our main Mushroom Men gallery has two new screenshots.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Weapons

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Red Fly talks Mushroom Men

by Chris Greenhough { Oct 21st 2008 at 7:15PM }

We're amazed that Red Fly has managed to finish Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars in time for its November 11th release. Whenever we check in on the game, someone from the studio always seems to be showing the press the latest build, or taking gamers behind the scenes, or chatting to us. Sincerely though, we appreciate the attention, chaps (and Shiggy never returns our calls).

Interactions Design Lead James Clarendon is the latest to be thrust in front of the camera and show off Red Fly's baby, and a mighty fine job he does too. Amongst other things, Clarendon shows us the tutorial level, the clever home-made weapons, the slightly grotesque life meter, and the "SCAV" system. You may have seen much of this before if you've been following the game closely, but now it's all condensed into this one walkthrough. And when is it not a good time to watch Mushroom Men? Never, that's when.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

[Via press release]

Mushroom Men: Improvised Arsenal of the Fungi

by JC Fletcher { Oct 20th 2008 at 5:00PM }

Last week on Wii Fanboy, we featured some of the crazy weapons that can be cobbled together in Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars. Its side-scrolling DS cohort, Rise of the Fungi, features the same SCAV system for building an artillery out of garbage and found items, and this week we'll have a look at some of the options your sentient mushroom pal can use to defend himself from other mushroom tribes, environmental hazards, and mutant insects. There's also a new screen from Rise of the Fungi.

Some of the weapons in this week's gallery are second-generation SCAV items -- two items crammed together to make one weapon, then augmented with extra junk added to remake them into something more deadly.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Weapons

Mushroom Men: The Tools of the Spore Wars

by JC Fletcher { Oct 13th 2008 at 4:21PM }

Easily one of the most interesting aspects of Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is its weapon creation system. Since your mushroom warriors are teensy, everyday household items and junk found on the ground can be made into deadly weapons. Mushroom Men's "SCAV" system allows you to combine found items into various types of weapons.

This week, we have an exclusive gallery featuring examples of the game's "bashing" weapons -- heavy melee weapons built from seemingly useless items like a pipe, sardine can keys, and even a toy Viking. It's almost guaranteed to give you a new way to look at your living room: as an ad-hoc arsenal in the making. In our main Mushroom Men gallery, we've also got a few new in-game screenshots!

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Weapons

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Kicking over some Mushroom Men

by Alisha Karabinus { Oct 4th 2008 at 1:45PM }

The latest screens from the quirky Mushroom Men have forced us to ponder a number of alternate titles for the forthcoming title from Red Fly Studio. Les Claypool's Mushroom Men would work, or Trash Men, Pool Floaty Men or Sumo Men, or -- no, actually, Mushroom Men works best. This entire post goes a long way toward explaining why we write about video games rather than writing actual video games. Just go look at the screens.

And yes, JC, that does appear to be a jackalope.

Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Preview: Putting on our thinking caps in Mushroom Men

by JC Fletcher { Sep 9th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Gamecock graciously sent a preview copy of Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi, allowing me to play it in an environment as non-E3-like as possible: my own home. And now, playing through it again, I've found that the only real problem I had with my initial playthrough isn't actually a problem at all. Which leaves nothing but cool platforming. I played through the initial few levels and found my mushroom hero guy saving the world by, uh, knocking over some cans! And moving a shoe full of mosquitoes! And then a fish got in my way and I couldn't make any more progress. Fish.

What won't come through in screens is just how nice the game looks. The bizarre lighting effects and high framerate lend Mushroom Men an extraordinarily crisp appearance that is especially nice for DS 3D.