Monday, August 3, 2009

Om nom nom nom

Now I'm pretty bad for getting video games and not finishing them. My XBox 360 games I'll try to complete as much as possible, but only for the gamer score. My pile of Wii games are another story. I have games I've barely played or not even played at all! I got Wii Play just the Wii-mote and not even touched it at all. Despite having a stack of unfinished games I picked a new game from NamcoBandai called The Munchables.

In The Munchables you play as either Chomper or Munchy as you defend your home planet of Star Ving with the Great Elder against the evil invading pirates who have stolen the legendary orbs. The Munchables mixes Pac-Man and Katamari style gameplay where you eat your enemies while the more bad guys you eat, the bigger you get. That being said all the baddies you will fight/eat are food based and there are 150 different types in the game. You can eat any enemy that has a lower level than you, but when you run into an enemy who has a higher level than you, then you must attack them and break them down into smaller edible pieces. Along the way you can pick up power-ups like a vacuum, stun, rocket and throwing star looking power up that lets you zip around and chop up enemies bigger than you. When you get to boss fights you'll end up facing off against massive baddies like Brocco Lee, Rice Baller, Mushroom Thriller and more.

Once a level is completed you'll be judged by the Great Elder on how many orbs you can produce. The more meals or enemies you eat will results in more orbs. It's funny because you'll turn around and basically crap out orbs onto the Great Elder. If he gets completed buried under orbs then you've attained a "S" rank, the highest level. Scattered around levels are also golden acorns. When you find all the acorns for a level you will rewarded with an accessory you can outfit on your Munchables like an afro, 3D glasses, or sombrero. Also, once you've defeated a boss pirate and got the legendary orb (which looks like a turd) back you'll also earn more stuff. Finishing the game will unlock a mirror mode as well as Robo, a robotic Munchable character.

The game play isn't too complex because all you do is eat stuff. It's also not that difficult, while I did take damage during the game I didn't die once. The game might look and sound very "kiddie", but maybe that's why it is so fun. It's got tons of goofy characters, bright colorful art, fun music, and you do get to crap on a guy. I did wish it was a little bit longer as I beat the game on my third sit down with it. But if you are looking to do everything then you could go back to collect all the golden acorns and try to beat all the levels in mirror mode.

The controls are pretty simple, more around with the stick on the nunchuk, Z is lock on to an enemy while on the Wii-mote you can A for eating, B for attack and to jump just flip upwards on the Wii-mote. If you hit by an enemy attack just wave the Wii-mote back and forth to recover. The Munchables also supports the classic controller and the GameCube controller. You can also play with a friend to help you along the way, but it's not like you'll need the it.

In addition to the game play modes, there is a encyclopedia of tabemon (baddies) that you eaten and my favorite the media player. In the media player you can watch videos or listen to unlocked music tracks. I love the intro movie, I've watched it like a dozen plus times already!

Check out the official Munchables website! You can pick a character and run around and eating enemies will unlock music you can listen to. Look for colouring pages, wall papers and the gallery where you can watch the trailer, game play footage and my fav the intro. Hint, it's the second video with Chomper and Munchy with hearts in their eyes. Also, there is a link to Munchables merch!! If you've always wanted a Munchables shirt then here is your chance. I remember I checked this site out before the game was released and then had more shirts, so they are going fast. As a bonus of sorts you can get a decal inside the game. I looked and didn't see a decal in my case. All I found was a sticker of Brocco Lee, it's still cool though.

While it's always fun to shoot Nazis, zombies or Nazi zombies, sometimes you have to take a step away and play something goofy. I like playing the Munchables and will continue to do so. Now, I'm off to work on my Munchables colouring pages.

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