10. Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi (Red Fly Studio, Nintendo DS, 2008)

Why did I buy this game? Because it was three dollars in the GameStop bargain bin and I knew it had music from Primus bassist Les Claypool.

Why did I choose to play this game tonight? Because I wasn't in the mood for something that I would have to write a lot about, I just wrote way too much about Space Raiders.

Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi is a 2D platformer with 3D graphics. On the DS. The jumping is bad. There is a small amount of crafting. The graphics are decent for a DS game but I absolutely hate the aesthetic. I also hate when they make me draw a grappling hook, I just wanna throw it, but even then the swinging is awful. The game feels pretty low budget, and while there are no super glaring flaws, there is little to no joy to be found for me here. I will say that I appreciate that there are multiple control schemes offered, though a couple of them just seem bizarre.

Apparently this is a prequel to the Mushroom Men game released (simultaneously with the DS game) on the Wii that was a bit better received than this entry. I guess I wish I played that one. The music was...fine. Not any of Les Claypool's best work, I would say. I think maybe I'll go listen to some "Too Many Puppies"

1/5, I would rather eat that one kind of mushroom I don't really like than play this game.