A Preview of the New Video Game Series Mushroom Men

Mushroom Men is the newest series being developed by Red Fly Studio, located in Austin, Texas. They have teamed up with publisher Gamecock Media to bring you this one of a kind, lighthearted comic romp through an alien civil war of sorts. With a projected rating of "E For Everyone" with the ESRB, not only is it fun for the entire family but it is appropriate too - although it does contain mild fantasy violence and animated blood.

The plot starts off when a meteorite comes crashing through the Earth's atmosphere, covering everything in green space dust. This gives plant life and fungal life alike the ability to walk and talk just like humans can. According to the story, mushroom species such as Morel and Boletes become peaceful, sentient beings, while some of the deadly types of poisonous mushrooms, Amanitas and Lepiota become evil, cruel beings bent on destruction.

Mushroom Men will be making its United States debut in the form of two separate video games, one for Nintendo's Wii, which is known as The Spore Wars and is set for release on November 11, 2008, and the other, Rise of the Fungi, for the Nintendo DS is scheduled to be released on October 14, 2008. Each version will tell a different story of the civil war going on between mushroom tribes. Rise of the Fungi is considered part one in the series, as The Spore Wars for the Wii continues the story where the DS left off.

Both titles in the video game series revolve around the main mushroom man in the game, Pax. He is a bolete mushroom living life on his own in the mushroom society, and struggling to find exactly where he fits in. While training with his mentor one day he accidently absorbs one of the meteorites. Because of this, he is banished until he can find and bring back one of the green meteorites that gave life to the mushrooms in the first place.

This is a completely unique, innovative idea for a video game, and we won't have to wait long to find out how it compares to other games of the action/adventure/platform game genre. But with such a fun and exciting story and original songs by Les Claypool (probably best known for his work in the alternative rock group Primus), Mushroom Men is sure to have gamers buzzing for some time to come.