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Mushroom Men = more and more intriguing

bryehn said:
Holy crap, Les Claypool OST! I had no idea.
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Yeah thats one thing I forgot to mention, the music. Its awesome. It does some weird blending of envirmomental sounds into the mix as well. Its sorta hard to describe but let me try.

For instance, the beat is going on in one level and I enter some pipes. Suddenly I hear the echoing sound of water dripping in the pipes, but actually the dripping is going along with the musical beat. Theres more instances of this as well. Love it. :D
 
MiamiWesker said:
Rented it, it is really good. Reminds me of psychonauts, not in story or humor but in the way the levels are. It has good wiimote uses, some cool levels, decent puzzles, average combat but at least you have a good assortment of weapons. Above all it just feels right, its a quality game on the wii.

The major issue is, according to how many collectables are left to find I dont have much longer to go. I think this game maybe only 5 hours long.
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Thanks. I'll get it when the price drops then.
 
Some things worth mentioning:

* You can point your reticle at bleeding enemies and press trigger to turn them into living bombs

* You can pick up physics objects and throw them at enemies

* Player 2 can jump in at any time to do anything with a reticle that player 1 can do. Player 2 can also heal the player by mashing A

* NewGame+... a la Chrono Trigger style. Once you beat a level, you can go back and collect things you've missed. You can use your newfound powers in areas that you were not able to use them before. You can recollect ammo for that special weapon to abuse it if you want to. There is a special reward for those that finish the game with all items collected:
infinite ammo
.

* The 3 melee weapons differentiate themselves in terms of what their aerial attacks are, and the movement of certain enemies were specifically tuned to be suckers for certain weapon types
 
scitek said:
The IGN review is up: 7.9

Good score.
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That is a good score. Sounds like the true winner here is the style, but the gameplay sounds interesting enough. I will probably rent it, perhaps buy it after the holiday season.
 
Nooo don't make me want this game any more! I have resigned myself to buy it when it's out in the EU (preorder has already been placed), I can't afford to import it right now! Auuugh!
 
CTLance said:
Nooo don't make me want this game any more! I have resigned myself to buy it when it's out in the EU (preorder has already been placed), I can't afford to import it right now! Auuugh!
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Then don't! :P


I'd really like to know who is going to handle the distribution of this title in the rest of American continent...
 
Completed it. Took about 5 hours. Great ideas. Story could have used more fleshing out, its a wii bit on the thin side. Loved the final level.

Might sell it though. Hmmmmmmm decisions decisions.
 
My copy finally arrived today. Played through he first chapter and it's pretty good so far.

I don't know why 1up knocked it for "sloppy" combat as it's essentially the same as in Super Mario Galaxy (actually, with the multiple weapons and your telekinesis attacks there's much more variety than SMG). It's a platformer and it has appropriate combat for the genre *shrug*. It's like they were expecting Ninja Gaiden or something.

Art, music and overall presentation are very good.

If slasher_thrasher21's playtime is accurate then that's a bit of a disappointment. IGN says 10 hours so we'll see who's right.

Camera AI is pretty basic. You have to babysit it a lot.

That's it for now, I'll have more time to play this weekend.
 
VideoMan said:
If slasher_thrasher21's playtime is accurate then that's a bit of a disappointment. IGN says 10 hours so we'll see who's right.
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Well theres only 9 chapters. I was also being gracious. My final counter time told me 4 hours and 32 minutes though I swear it took me longer. I didn't find all the hidden items but I did manage to get enough meteor peices to be upgraded twice.

I really wish it was alot longer and the story more fleshed out because its a solid wii platformer and really unique in its setting.

I can't wait for Deadly Creatures now since the two titles are similar in scope.
 
The combat is terrible in here...it feels so sloppy. Im not sure why there isnt any sort of z-targeting(unless i missed it somehow), but it certainly would have been a great benefit. Even though i saw this coming a mile away, its still disappointing. The camera is also pretty terrible as some have said, and the framerate could most certainly have been tweaked more. That said, its still an enjoyable piece of work, one that seems to be a case of being greater than the sum of its parts. If it gets a sequel(i pray it does somehow) and the main issues are addressed, it could be stellar indeed. So much personality here, with the little details that were put into the environment, the characters, and whatnot.

Was the forward roll put in this game solely to mock zelda as a means of getting from point A to B faster than running? You can do this with the glide, but this roll is just...yeah...zelda...
 
Try jumping at the end of your forward roll. Newton's law of conservation comes into play, and it makes moving around a lot more... interesting.

Also, unlike jumping or gliding, you are invincible during that roll. It is intended to be a part of your anti-gang combat strategy.

And yeah... combat was never intended to be of Ninja Gaiden caliber. Mushroom Men offers more combat options than Mario Galaxy or Psychonauts. Sadly, some of the more strategic portions of combat (telekinesis attacks, turning bleeders into living bombs, and the ability to bat projectiles back at enemies) may not have had enough opportunity to sway most people's overall opinions on combat :(

Some more things to note:
* Player 2 can sustain telekinesis much longer than player 1 can... and so if you're playing co-op, player 2 could potentially find a neat object to carry around through levels to use as physics ammo for telekinesis.

* You don't have to waggle like crazy to do a combo. You have a very large window within each attack of the combo to swing once in order to buffer the next hit of the combo. In other words, if you swing to the rhythm you see in the hero's animation, you should be able to do the three-hit combo with ease

* The whole shooting at bleeding enemies thing is really meant to reduce your need for waggle. The more you upgrade your spore power, the more powerful that bomb becomes. You can take out an entire squad of enemies with a single cast of that "spore punisher" spell on a bleeding enemy.
 
JulioConQueso said:
Sadly, some of the more strategic portions of combat (telekinesis attacks, turning bleeders into living bombs, and the ability to bat projectiles back at enemies) may not have had enough opportunity to sway most people's overall opinions on combat :(
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This design philosophy is amazing, as the stunning quality of the art design and sound. MM clearly needs to have a sequel, for 360 too if you like.
 
So I finished the game yesterday. Took me ~7 hours and ended up with 80% Meteorites and 70% collectibles. Length-wise it's pretty much on par with PS2 era platformers like Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper.

I still don't get the complaints about the combat. It was never a problem for me and was very much in line with other platformers like the aforementioned Jak and Sly.

Probably my biggest complaint with the game is the boss battles. Some of them were really stiff, slow and simple. If there's going to be a sequel they definitely need to improve on this.

All in all it's a pretty good little platformer. I'd recommend it to anyone who liked the early PS2 era platformers as it's similar to those games in gameplay and scope. I do really like that Red Fly didn't go with a stereotypical mascot design. The Mushroom Men universe is a little bit dark and twisted which sets it apart from most other games in the genre.
 
Az987 said:
question to someone whos played it:

Would this be a good gift for an 8 yr old??
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If you mean content-wise then yes, it's rated E (Everyone) and there isn't anything inappropriate in it for an 8 year old.

It's a descent, fun platformer. It's got a pretty mellow difficulty level as well, good for the younger crowd I'd say.
 
VideoMan said:
If you mean content-wise then yes, it's rated E (Everyone) and there isn't anything inappropriate in it for an 8 year old.

It's a descent, fun platformer. It's got a pretty mellow difficulty level as well, good for the younger crowd I'd say.
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is it difficult?
 
I finally can play this game a little (on a friend house) and I surprised. This is pure fun game with a really good graphics for what wii can do. I'm impressed and I will buy this game.

If you are a Wii owner and like games like Rayman (no-party games) this is one of the best games in this genre you will find this days. A good solid game that deserve be in your wii collection.

If you like good games, give support for this and BUY IT TOO. I hope that Mushroom Man can make good numbers with the time.
 
I want this title, but I have so many unfinished Wii titles (Wario, Okami most notably), many DS and PSP RPGs, and now we have a 360 in the house hold. I might have to wait a while on this, but I want to help the sales. What to do, what to do.

And thanks for the impressions everyone. :D
 
I've got some Gamestop gift cards from Christmas so I'm going to try to pick this and The Godfather up for the Wii at some point today.
 
So what about the sales in the us?
50.000? maybe more?

The recorded clips of the game that someone has showed here in this thread really impressed me.
 
Frencherman said:
So what about the sales in the us?
50.000? maybe more?

The recorded clips of the game that someone has showed here in this thread really impressed me.
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It was not in the NPD Top 20, it was not in the Wii Top 10 so we know it did not hit anywhere near 100k, 20-50k could be realistic given the userbase size

Not even sure what the expectations are either, never seen 1 commerical online for it (only internet ads and word of mouth) and its not available for rental at any place I visit (Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, or Hastings)
 
markatisu said:
It was not in the NPD Top 20, it was not in the Wii Top 10 so we know it did not hit anywhere near 100k, 20-50k could be realistic given the userbase size

Not even sure what the expectations are either, never seen 1 commerical online for it (only internet ads and word of mouth) and its not available for rental at any place I visit (Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, or Hastings)
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The 10th Wii game could have easily sold 125k so I don't think that really tells us anything.
 
Mejilan said:
Has anyone ever played the DS game?
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Yes, and it's terrible. I really enjoyed Spore Wars, but Rise of the Fungi is nearly unplayable IMO. You'd think the designers would have made it so that the stylus was used for most inputs with little button use like Star Fox Command, but that's not the case. Instead, you have to use nearly all the buttons as well as the stylus, and that makes the game very tedious to control. I don't recommend it at all.
 
So the Wii game was in Circuit City's last ad yesterday. If it's actually still in the stores somewhere, will they honor the $29.99 price?
 
VideoMan said:
So I finished the game yesterday. Took me ~7 hours and ended up with 80% Meteorites and 70% collectibles. Length-wise it's pretty much on par with PS2 era platformers like Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper.

I still don't get the complaints about the combat. It was never a problem for me and was very much in line with other platformers like the aforementioned Jak and Sly.

Probably my biggest complaint with the game is the boss battles. Some of them were really stiff, slow and simple. If there's going to be a sequel they definitely need to improve on this.

All in all it's a pretty good little platformer. I'd recommend it to anyone who liked the early PS2 era platformers as it's similar to those games in gameplay and scope. I do really like that Red Fly didn't go with a stereotypical mascot design. The Mushroom Men universe is a little bit dark and twisted which sets it apart from most other games in the genre.
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i agree with all of this. i'm about halfway through the game and i think the combat is fine, z targeting would be nice, but it's easy enough without it. that said the camera control is awful and really needs a center on player button.

the boss battles are eh, which is surprising because the normal enemies seem to pose a greater challenge and are far more interesting than the bosses.

the best part of the game is the sound, effects they are really well done - though are far more polished than the rest of the game.
 
Diortem7 said:
Yes, and it's terrible. I really enjoyed Spore Wars, but Rise of the Fungi is nearly unplayable IMO. You'd think the designers would have made it so that the stylus was used for most inputs with little button use like Star Fox Command, but that's not the case. Instead, you have to use nearly all the buttons as well as the stylus, and that makes the game very tedious to control. I don't recommend it at all.
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I was supposed to try this but well... Thanks for the warning.
 
Diortem7 said:
Yes, and it's terrible. I really enjoyed Spore Wars, but Rise of the Fungi is nearly unplayable IMO. You'd think the designers would have made it so that the stylus was used for most inputs with little button use like Star Fox Command, but that's not the case. Instead, you have to use nearly all the buttons as well as the stylus, and that makes the game very tedious to control. I don't recommend it at all.
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I agree 100% with this, and will add a bit more: the game is dark, as in shadows all over, and that added to the bad control, I feel.

Its been a while since I have been frustrated with a game, and I *really* wanted to like this, but the controls and lack of lighting did it in for me.
 
JulioConQueso said:
I believe that is the + button... either + or -, can't remember.

(We ran out of buttons)
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So, now that mushroom men is out and its being enjoyed...whats going on now? Sequels, new IP, wii, ps3, no comment?
 
abstract alien said:
So, now that mushroom men is out and its being enjoyed...whats going on now? Sequels, new IP, wii, ps3, no comment?
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Heh, sorry for the delayed reply. I left that company (Red Fly) after finishing the game.
Mushroom Men was very much a labor of love, but I eventually had to come to terms with the notion that my particular tastes might be a bit too hardcore for the target audience of games like Mushroom Men (I'm more of a Looking Glass kind of gamer).

To answer your question, we did brainstorm some mechanics for MushMen 2 at the time I left, but much as happened since then (Ghostbusters Wii, Food Network Cooking Game, Force Unleashed Wii, Thor Wii). I can't say that I know what Red Fly has been up to these days other than license games.

I do know that the folks at Red Fly have built an ace team since I've left, and that team is capable of doing some great things. Hopefully, Red Fly can get itself out of the license gaming biz spiral that it seems to have fallen into... assuming they want to get out of that.
 
Sagitario said:
Hey! Can you ask the publisher about the distribution in Latinamerica [if there is any]?
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The chance of this is very low, I'm afraid. GameCock is dead, and SouthPeak is... umm... limited.

However, something tells me that you can probably get an American Wii and Mushroom Men on the used market for very cheap, these days.
 
JulioConQueso said:
Heh, sorry for the delayed reply. I left that company (Red Fly) after finishing the game.
Mushroom Men was very much a labor of love, but I eventually had to come to terms with the notion that my particular tastes might be a bit too hardcore for the target audience of games like Mushroom Men (I'm more of a Looking Glass kind of gamer).

To answer your question, we did brainstorm some mechanics for MushMen 2 at the time I left, but much as happened since then (Ghostbusters Wii, Food Network Cooking Game, Force Unleashed Wii, Thor Wii). I can't say that I know what Red Fly has been up to these days other than license games.

I do know that the folks at Red Fly have built an ace team since I've left, and that team is capable of doing some great things. Hopefully, Red Fly can get itself out of the license gaming biz spiral that it seems to have fallen into... assuming they want to get out of that.
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I hope so too. I am a fan of Red Fly and they often end up making me pick up the Wii version of games over the other console versions, but I really liked the originality in the world of Mushroom Men. I would've loved to see another one...or at least something nearly as unique and original.
 
Arooguy said:
I hope so too. I am a fan of Red Fly and they often end up making me pick up the Wii version of games over the other console versions, but I really liked the originality in the world of Mushroom Men. I would've loved to see another one...or at least something nearly as unique and original.
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Same here. After the Galaxy games, Mushroom Men is my favorite platformer on the Wii. I've played through it at least three times.
 
JulioConQueso said:
The chance of this is very low, I'm afraid. GameCock is dead, and SouthPeak is... umm... limited.

However, something tells me that you can probably get an American Wii and Mushroom Men on the used market for very cheap, these days.
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WOW! 2 years later :P
The problem was finding the game, not the console [with the exception of Brazil and Argentina, all american Wii consoles are the same].
 
Sagitario said:
WOW! 2 years later :P
The problem was finding the game, not the console [with the exception of Brazil and Argentina, all american Wii consoles are the same].
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Ha! It took me two years to bring myself to be curious about the game :)
 
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