Mushroom Men

The Mushroom Men video games were developed for Nintendo DS and Wii systems. Both games were developed by American company Red Fly Studio and published by Gamecock Media Group. The story revolves around a civil war between 3-inch-high (76 mm) Mushroom Men in a human world. According to the game's designer Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi for the Nintendo DS is a side-scrolling platformer as well as a prequel to Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, the Wii version, which is a full 3D platforming game. Red Fly Studio used Gambitious to try to crowdfund a sequel, known as Pax's Truffle Trouble for PC,[1] which eventually came out on Steam as Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble on March 10, 2015.

Mushroom Men
Developer(s)Red Fly Studio
Publisher(s)Gamecock Media Group
Composer(s)Les Claypool
Platform(s)Wii (The Spore Wars), Nintendo DS (Rise of the Fungi)
Release
  • NA: December 2, 2008
  • EU: March 27, 2009
  • AU: May 14, 2009
Genre(s)Action Adventure/Platform
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Story

The story begins when a comet crashes to the Earth, raining down a strange green dust in its wake. The space dust is harmless to humans and goes unnoticed, but they failed to notice that flora, fauna and fungi including mushrooms, cacti, and kudzu gained sentience. Also, this strange green dust mutated some of the animals too (such as rabbits, moles, spiders and possums). In order to survive, the newly conscious mushroom people soon formed into tribes, and war inevitably followed. The story of The Spore Wars on Wii also chronicles the life of the main character Pax, a lone bolete mushroom who is trying to find his place in mushroom society. As Pax progresses he discovers a lepiota called Pester that plans to take over the world. Pax follows him to a trailer park where Pax battles him and causes him to fall to the floor below them, leaving Pester to be killed by a mutated fungi dog that devours him. Pax returns to the village and says good bye to the mushroom villagers, saying he'll go where ever the wind takes him.

Tribes

In the August 2007 issue of GamePro, five 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. The tribes are the Bolete, Morel, Amanita, Lepiota, and Shiitake. A short description of each tribe is below.

  • Bolete – These mushrooms are a peaceful, Utopian society, and want nothing more than the entire mushroom world to be at peace. This is the tribe to which the main character, Pax, belongs. They have telekinetic abilities, which they call "Sporekinesis", which most other tribes don't exhibit. They are experts at surprise attacks, and are believed to be the first sentient mushrooms or "alpha" mushrooms.
  • Morel – This mushroom tribe consists of intelligent inventors of machines. This tribe is also peaceful and assists Pax. However, they are poor fighters. They are masters of mechanical defense systems.
  • Amanita – An evil mushroom tribe who started the mushroom wars in the first game "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi" for the DS platform. They are master fighters, and always attack in groups. Their weapon of choice tends to be scavenged spears. Their leader, the Amanita General managed to grow to a massive size. Whether this is natural or caused by involvement with the meteors is unknown.
  • Lepiota – Another evil mushroom tribe, characterized by mystery and dark mysticism. Their cities are shrines and they are very religious. Tough and resourceful, they secure human artifacts and insects to use as weapons, using them in slashing attacks. Pester, their leader, has also exhibited Sporekinesis, although it is unknown if this natural or caused by his tampering with the meteors.
  • Shiitake – An order of elemental monks.

Weapons

The game features weapon construction, as the player finds everyday items that can be converted into weaponry. For example, an axe can be made of a corncob holder attached to a popsicle stick or even a Nintendo DS stylus. These weapons fall into four categories: slashing, bashing, thrusting, and radical. Each weapon category has its strengths in combat; for example, a slashing weapon is excellent when being swarmed by a group of enemies, while the thrusting weapons are useful for eliminating hard-to-reach flying enemies.

Music

The theme song for the games and several original tracks were composed and performed by Les Claypool of Primus fame.[2] He contributed 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. The songs include "Eye of the Mushroom," "Sidescroll my Heart," and "Opposoumly Dangerous." Some of these are featured on Claypool's 2009 solo album, Of Fungi and Foe.

Reception

The game received mixed or average reviews for the Wii version, and mixed to negative reviews for the Nintendo DS version. The Spore Wars received "average" reviews, while Rise of the Fungi received "generally unfavorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[3][4]

References
  1. Patrick Klepek (August 5, 2008). "I've Seen 'Mushroom Men''s Hidden Fungi Civil War". MTV. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  2. "MUSHROOM MEN VIDEO GAMES – Featuring Music From Les Claypool!". Les Claypool. Archived from the original on December 16, 2008. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  3. "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi for DS Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  4. "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars for Wii Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  5. Nick Suttner (December 4, 2008). "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars Review". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  6. Nick Chester (January 20, 2009). "Destructoid review: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 19, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  7. Edge staff (February 2009). "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars". Edge. No. 198. p. 88.
  8. Joe Juba (December 2008). "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars". Game Informer. No. 188. p. 124. Archived from the original on December 6, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  9. Aaron Koehn (March 30, 2009). "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi". GamePro. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  10. Austin Light (January 5, 2009). "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  11. Austin Light (January 6, 2009). "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  12. Phil Theobald (December 22, 2008). "GameSpy: Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi". GameSpy. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  13. Phil Theobald (December 22, 2008). "GameSpy: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars". GameSpy. Archived from the original on January 22, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  14. Dakota Grabowski (December 21, 2008). "Mushroom Men – Rise of the Fungi – NDS – Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  15. Louis Bedigian (December 15, 2008). "Mushroom Men – [The] Spore Wars – WII – Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 17, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  16. Daemon Hatfield (December 16, 2008). "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi Review". IGN. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  17. Daemon Hatfield (December 8, 2008). "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars Review". IGN. Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  18. "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi". Nintendo Power. Vol. 236. December 25, 2008. p. 86.
  19. "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars". Nintendo Power. Vol. 236. December 25, 2008. p. 84.
  20. Natalie Shoemaker (January 29, 2009). "Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi (DS) Review". 411Mania. Archived from the original on February 4, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  21. Sean Garmer (January 25, 2009). "Mushroom Men [The Spore Wars] (Wii) Review". 411Mania. Archived from the original on February 4, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
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