PAX 2008 Impressions: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, de Blob and Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball

Getting around the exhibition hall at PAX '08 was no easy task: the entire floor was opened up and filled to the brim with developers and publishers, eager to show off their wares. While companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Harmonix, EA and Activision rolled out some very impressive line-ups, there were good games to be found elsewhere. Two of those other places were in the Gamecock and THQ booths. Each had a number of games on display, including two very impressive Wii titles:

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Release date: Nov. 11, 2008)

Not to be confused with the DS game Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi, Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is the kind of game Wii fans have been waiting for on their console. Especially after the numerous complaints from Wii owners about the lack of third-party support to date. Developed by Red Fly Studios, Mushroom Men for the Wii tells the story of Pax, a little mushroom on a quest to save the mushroom world from the terrors caused by a space meteorite. Those terrors include terribly mutated creatures and sinister bugs that you'll encounter along your journey.

To help him out, Pax can find little items humans might consider garbage and combine them; for example, a discarded match and a X-Acto knife blade becomes the "Hell Hatchet" when combined. Other tools, like a sticky hand that stretches, work by themselves to aid Pax in his quest. Mushroom Men is, at its core, a traditional platformer, but one that plays remarkably well.

The controls themselves are rather simple to play with. The nunchuk's joystick controls movement, while the Wii remote is used to control attacking and aiming for special powers. Those powers are simply triggered with the B button. In the level I played at PAX, these powers are actually very important. The level featured Pax arriving in a shed controlled by some kudzu plants that were recently brought to life by the meteor's powers. They are under assault from some rabid rabbits munching on them, also affected by the meteor, and ask for your help in return for safe passage out of the shed.

Article Author: Brian Szabelski

Brian Szabelski is the Assistant Gaming Editor at Blogcritics.org as well as Associate Editor at Tomopop. He also maintains his own blog on IGN, "The Minus World".

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