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Before I mention what Mushroom Wars is, let me tell you what it isn’t.  Despite any impressions you may have got from the above picture, other gamers, or even the developers themselves, Mushroom Wars isn’t a Real-Time Strategy game.  It’s close, but it’s not one.  The game is more about opportunism, timing and observation than strategy.  “Tactics” I would accept, as moving your mushroom armies around is clearly tactical, but “strategy”?  Well, there’s just no time for it!

Mushroom Wars is the 7th PSN title from Russian-American developers, Creat Studios.  Their latest effort is RTS-like affair, combining the look and feel of fellow PSN title PixelJunk Monsters, and the gameplay of PC and iPhone strategy game Galcon.  In Mushroom Wars you take control of armies of tiny mushroom people in order to conquer armies of different coloured mushroom people.  A cuttingly insightful commentary on racial harmony it isn’t, but Mushroom Wars isn’t about story; it’s all about fun and frenetic gameplay.

You start the game with a few mushroom houses, with each gradually generating your fungal-footsoldiers.  Each structure can be upgraded to increase their generating potential, and the little guys can be moved between buildings in order to either help defend your own buildings, or to attack your opponents.  That’s the game in a nutshell, but to stop there would be to do the game a disservice.  The premise may be simple, but the gameplay is fast and furious, and the skill involved is know when and where to make your moves.  Expanding your boundaries can often leave you vulnerable to attack, and managing your own risks while also taking advantage of your opponent’s is something that takes time to master.  The game also includes a morale system so that the momentum of the war can ebb and flow depending on the outcome of the smaller battles.  The games are fast paced and generally only last a few minutes each.  While this means that a single mistake can often be the difference between victory and defeat, it has that addictive “one more go” appeal that will draw you in for more.  

Mushroom Wars does a lot to make itself accessible.  The gameplay is simple but fun, the art-style bold and colourful.  The tutorial process is so drawn out that it isn’t until halfway through the single player Campaign mode that the game really kicks off with defensive towers and stat-boosting mushroom houses.  Gamers who are new to this type of game will be eased in gently, but RTS veterans may see this simplicity only as a “lack of depth”.

A good sign of a fun enemy AI in a strategy game is if it can replicate humanlike behaviour.  After all, it’s far more fun to know you’ve outsmarted another person rather than defeating some predictable code!  Human tacticians are cunning, deceitful, but also fallible.  Your AI opponents are disappointingly robotic though, usually knowing the exact number of units to send to capture bases, in way that only a machine would.  The flipside of this added difficulty is that the AI is easy to outsmart once you have the upper hand.  It really is a shame because it doesn’t make you feel clever for winning, and this is where the true joy comes from in strategy games.  There’s also no online multiplayer to speak of, so your tactical number-juggling prowess is limited to the confines of your living room.  The local multiplayer can be a lot of fun, but although there are 3 different game modes, games can only be played 1 vs 1, rather than the 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 1 skirmishes available in single player.  Massive shame.  Also the multiplayer doesn’t stretch to the campaign mode, so there’s no co-operative multiplayer like in its PSN brethren PixelJunk Monsters and Comet Crash.

Creat’s experience on the PSN circuit is beginning to pay off, and this shows with additional features like XMB custom soundtrack support, online leaderboards and YouTube video uploads.  Sadly they failed to include what would have been a very fitting Remote Play option, and the lack of online multiplayer is a massive unchecked box.  The presentation is great though, and the beautiful hand-drawn graphics and quirky music really appeal.  At the end of the day, the game is still a lot of fun, but it’s disappointing that Creat missed so many chances to make it a more complete package.  In all though, Mushroom Wars is an enjoyable little jaunt and there’s still easily enough fun to be had to justify its price tag.

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Mushroom Wars is available to download on the PlayStation Network now, priced at £7.99 / €9.99 / $9.99 / $15.95AUD.