Spore-power your way through 10 action-packed levels
The weapon creation system is one of the game's biggest draws. You can jump in and out of the menu to see what items you need to collect to create a certain weapon and you'll soon discover that some weapons are best suited to killing certain enemies, which effectively encourages you to explore each location and stray off the beaten track to find what you need. Spore powers also come into play and are fun to use thanks to the refined control scheme, including sporekenisis, which allows Pax to pick objects up through the power of his mind and chuck them around - throwing baseballs at rats is great fun. Pax also has other abilities, which are equally as entertaining as well as an integral part of the gameplay, such as his spore punisher which he uses to blow up stunned enemies or his stretchy hand toy that allows him to grab onto objects far away and pull himself around the environment.Puzzle solving also plays a small, yet significant part in the game. Not only do you have to work out how to reach certain areas of the environment as you search for missing pieces ot the meteoritic or objects for weapon building, but other mini tasks provide some variation in the gameplay. One such scenario sees you having to dispose of an area of rabbits who have been nibbling away at a vine tree who has become rather annoyed and wants them out of his way. You can either tackle them head on or work out other inventive ways to get rid of the bunny threat one by one (we won't spoil it here.) Puzzle solving also comes into play when tackling the big bosses as you seek to work out their weaknesses.
Frustration can occasionally kick in during these big boss battles thanks to some of the dodgy camera angles and indeed during combat in general, which can get repetitive at times. This does threaten briefly to spoil an otherwise thoroughly entertaining game, but the developer has done a good job with keeping the level designs fresh to ensure that your mind is taken off such annoyances and has made sure that the range of things to do are nicely broken up so you don't get bored doing the same thing over and over again. There are also some other decent features thrown in, such as incentives for beating big bosses without getting killed, a brilliant two-player co-op mode and some entertaining mini-games.
It's true that the gameplay in Mushroom Men: Spore Wars has all been seen and done before, but its art-style, character design and audio work do a great a job at drawing you into its world and once you do get past the first few linear levels and start to enjoy the excellent implementation of the Wii Remote we'd be very surprised if you didn't have a great time playing as Pax and meeting the cast of delightfully designed funghi.
Pros
Fun combat system with excellent Wii Remote implementation
Surreal visuals and captivating soundtrack
Strong level design keeps things entertaining
Cons
Camera angles can make combat frustrating
The most entertaining platform game on Wii since Super Mario Galaxy.
HEXUS Awards
Mushroom Men: Spore Wars (8/10)
