Topic: The Mushroom Men Fan Club

I've had this game on my radar since last year's E3 and really liked the look and the concept. Then I heard they were sticking with the motion input for primary attack and I was a bit turned off. The NL review did convince me to rethink, but I just had other things come up so I didn't pick it up until a few week's ago when I had some trade-in to do and it was on sale at GAME for the low-low price of £14.99.

I have to say it's a really nice title. The controls really could have been done better (why not Z for jump and use Z+control stick for roll/dodge rather than a separate button and then A for attack?), though bashing and slashing with the remote is somewhat satisfying. The game isn't non-stop combat, so unlike, say Marvel Ultimate Alliance, it can get away without having a button alternative for attack.

Design and story is great platforming action/exploration. It looks great and the music is excellent. It's also not too long and there's so many things to find both for unlocking bonus artwork and building new weapons that replays are invited, plus there's a few mini-games as extras.

I'm pretty far into it and I'm very much enjoying it; you really shouldn't pass it up if you're into action-platform games; especially at a budget price. I think if Red Fly had done as the Deadly Creatures devs had and delayed release to change the controls this game would have had a much better reception, though it also seems to have fallen victim to the same fate as Monster Lab and other quirky 3rd party Wii titles by getting attention from the gaming press leading up to release and then being completely ignored after hitting the store shelves.

I have the ds version, and will eventually buy the wii version. It's really cheap now i might invest in it sooner.

The Wii version is far and away better than the DS version.

About the controls... I really barely ever used the roll because, like you said, it was kind of badly mapped. My biggest issue though is with the blocking. The blocking felt sluggish, and it seemed that after getting hit or after hitting he wouldn't snap back into a block if you had held down the button, which really annoyed me! Oh, and it was wagglerific. Should have been optional to map it to a button press.

I really looooved cap-gliding and sticky hand. It would be cool to be able to use that more often and with the same level of freedom as in that early level with all the rabbits.

It's interesting you bring up Deadly Creatures in relation to this. Both games played with perspective so well by making the main character tiny in a human-sized world. The levels where they did that were the best ones in both games, imo. (Though it was also really clever how they made miniature worlds out of the humans' trash in MM. Loved that Chinatown.)

I just finished the game yesterday. Really nice; I thoroughly enjoyed it and have lots of art to unlock. The variety of ways to get about was very cool as were the combat options (chuck a bottle or slice his face?). I never got totally stuck (towards the end in the ruined Bolete village I got confused after the tunnel floods, but I figured it out) and it's short enough and fun enough I can definitely see giving it another play someday.

I wouldn't mind seeing another game set in the same world, but I suspect this didn't sell that well -- anyone have numbers?

Mushroom Men is my game of the year for 2008. It is one of the few games that I enjoyed the whole way through. Every level was fun and the music was so fitting. I'll probably play through it again soon. It was short, but sweet.

I haven't gotten the DS version yet, but I'll pick it up eventually.

I actually didn't find it that short, but then again, I finished the game with 100% completion, so i was really scouring the place as i went along.

And SMW, you're so right about the music. The music and sound effects were so great. Well, I guess that goes without saying since it was by Les Claypool. The sound design was rivaled only by the graphical design.

The people who complain about The Conduit's art direction should really get this game or stop complaining.

Wow, I'm glad I checked this thread out. The game sort of slipped under the radar for me, but I've added it to my backlog. Looks really cool. I love mushrooms.

I too cleared it with 100%, I think it was that I just loved the game so much that I was sad to see it end.

See, I knew i should of picked up the Wii version instead ( they had a killer sale on the Ds version at Walmart). I'm totally loving the art style level , level design, music,but i can't stand the sloppy hit detection and combat issues of the Ds version.That can easily be overlooked with a Action Replay code though =) I'm still having a blast with it.