Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble Review (PC)

Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble aims to revive the universe of the popular Wii fungal adventure of a similar name, but with a much more limited scope.

First of all, the game is a quasi-2D puzzle platformer, and that's pretty much it, there is no exploration and none of the wonder of an enthralling world that sucks you in and makes hours pass.

Since indie platformers are notorious for being overabundant, it really takes something unique to shine, something more than a cameo shoehorned in to forcibly make the game more appealing.

Truffle Trouble stars the protagonist of Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, Pax, and even features the same catchy music in the original, and very similar visuals and overall styling, but unfortunately lacks in depth.

Well, maybe it's not all that bad, so why don't we find out?

The game looks very creepy

Gameplay

First of all, there is no story, aside from you being on the run, trapped in a horrible nightmare where the Truffle Princess, a truly ogrish character, is pursuing you. Being the brute's love interest does not sit well with you, so you try to make your way out of the convoluted dream world.

The premise is not horrible by any means, but it's not exploited well enough. The game combines classic platforming with some puzzle solving that generally involves moving and pushing crates in order to create a path and get on with running in a straight line.

There is a bit of variation, as the semi 3D world is a couple of squares deep, which means that there is a higher degree of freedom and more variety than in a two dimensional environment, but things are generally very straightforward and linear.

I'm conflicted regarding this game, due to the fact that there are a lot of great mechanics such as pushing, pulling and picking up blocks, hanging off ledges and using alternate routes, even ones that are hidden behind the scenery, as well as 2.5D jumps that let you avoid some of the legwork, but are tricky to pull off.

Also, whenever you fall off the map, mostly due to the difficult way to approximate depth due to the fixed perspective, you instantly respawn right where you died, so you don't have to start the whole thing all over, and it's the same with monsters.

Unfortunately, it just feels like instead of being given a certain tool set and a world to navigate using it, you're forced to run a course where you have almost no freedom at all. You have to use move X at position Y, and given the limited scope of the actions allowed to you, it soon becomes very repetitive.

I remember distinctly how, during the early levels, everything started to blur together, as there were some stacking puzzles that revolved around trial and error that you had no chance to solve with the big ugly princess on your tail.

Being shot out of a cannon is great fun

I moved the difficulty slider to easy, removing the chase mechanic from the game, affording me all the time I needed, and I found the experience to be much more rewarding, because I didn't have to start the level over each time.

The difficulty slider is a welcome feature, as you get to spend more time with the puzzles, which translates into less frustration as you try out various combinations and attempt to master the many situations relying on twitch reflexes.

Given the fact that there aren't many extra pieces, and solving each of the puzzles usually translates into finding out the right series of events to perform, it makes a real difference between a tedious, hurried fiddling with the controls and a more thought-out experience.

In any case, having the princess chase you in order to snuggle you to death makes for a neat challenge mode once you have everything figured out and are looking to test your dexterity.

However, that doesn't change the fact that the platforming and puzzle solving part feels bland and recycled; it's like you're doing the same thing over and over again with only a slight variation.

In addition to this, there are also some clunky parts that don't really fit well, like roaches that kill you on touch, and that you can stomp on, that don't really feel tied into the game in any way aside from making the levels seem less barren.

I would also have nightmares about her

Interesting mechanics that don't really help out

Throughout each of the levels you'll find numerous spores to collect, some more difficult to reach than others, and managing to nab them all not only gives you a point bonus at the end but also the ability to transform into several forms with special abilities.

You can become a ghost, being able to travel through enemies without being affected by them, a spider, able to cling to any surface and immune to the effects of gravity, or a moth, flying over obstacles.

You can activate the abilities at any point in the game, so if you find a section that isn't to your liking, you can theoretically skip it by using the right metamorphosis.

However, things aren't really like that. You gain each form at a certain random point, you don't collect them in any fashion that would make sense, and in each of the levels where you get a new one, you know there is a point where you just have to use it, otherwise you're stuck.

This severely limits your choice, given the fact that there aren't that many spores to collect, and forces you to learn the levels and keep the super powers for when they're required, instead of using them whenever you would like.

“There are sections where you move fast and things start looking exciting, only to come to a full halt a few seconds later, because you have to stop and do some block stacking.”

This feels very contrived, and somehow mars your gameplay experience, as you have to learn the points where you must absolutely use an ability and make sure to have enough spores collected up until then, making the level design feel like it's forcing you down a predefined path instead of offering you an opportunity to experiment.

This isn't the only area where gameplay suffers. The enemies that you can jump on and kick into the sunset are a nice nod to Mario, but aside from that, they don't serve any use other than to occasionally annoy you, and don't really feel like an integral part of the experience.

Furthermore, the pacing feels pretty poor. You can even grind ledges in order to get a speed boost, but that's something you only discover by accident, and it's never used, partly due to the fact that the levels are designed in a very unimaginative way.

There are sections where you move fast and things start looking exciting, only to come to a full halt a few seconds later, because you have to stop and do some block stacking.

There isn't a sense of flow, it feels like a committee sat down and decided that each of the elements should get an equal amount of space and time, and they should be interspersed in such a manner so that nobody feels like any particular element steals the show from the others or offends them in any way by providing a sense of congruence or fun.

Play Video

Visuals and sound

From a visual standpoint, Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble looks pretty good, with plenty of special effects, good character models and animations, and a bit of variation in the overall level aesthetic, but it fails to deliver a compelling experience.

The game has some great-looking pre-rendered cinematics, and a lot of the charm and style of the original game has been flawlessly replicated.

Still, it somehow feels like it's very limited, even with all the extra doodads that are placed there for your viewing pleasure, like one would expect to find in a dream world.

The fact that the levels assemble themselves on the fly, as you push ahead, makes a lot of sense and ties in nicely with the oneiric theme, conveying the uncertainty of a dream-like world, but I feel that much more could have been done.

It feels somehow conservative, as if each of the levels and locations sit neatly in their own box, without any overlapping and without trying to do anything crazy.

The level design has the same overall feel, with a few exceptions, and the stages are also constructed in a very deliberate manner, forcing you to use your powers at certain points in order to progress without it feeling natural.

The sounds and music are good, paying their respects to the classic Wii adventure platformer, but the ogre lady gets really annoying if you play for a longer time, since she only has a handful of lines.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion