The Munchables Preview
- April 01, 2009 00:00 AM PST
The Munchables is like gorging yourself on grotesque amounts of Cadbury eggs when they go on sale post-Easter (don't judge me), once you start playing you can't seem to stop no matter how guilty you feel.
The Munchables is a Katamari-style action game, but instead of rolling around a ball of junk, you romp around as a cute creature eating a bunch of junk. You can play as either the all-business orange creature called Chomper, or Munchy the pink Munchable who has a striking resemblance to Jiggly Puff. I chose the cuter Munchable, Munchy, since I had no clue what Chomper was supposed to be besides hard to look at.
Metamorphosis of Cute
The controls are fairly basic. You move around using the joystick on the Nunchuk and lock on with the Z-button. Your main chomp is the A-button, and if you hold A, you blast forward with your mouth wide open gobbling up everything in your path. Attacking higher level food is done by pressing the B-button. Lastly, to jump around jerk up on the Wii remote.
At the base level you are just an average bunny/dog/bear-thing, better known as a Munchy. When you eat a set amount of fruits and veggies you become a Pretty Munchy with pretty bangs and a more colorful tail. At your next level you become Cutey Munchy adorned with curlicues and double the previous amount of cute. Your max level transforms you into the winged Divine Munchy with a heart shaped tail of doom. As you level up you'll become a larger blob of cute in addition to the style change.
Munch Gone Wild
When you have reached your exploding point and are "stuffed," the level is over. As a Munchable, you process your meals into rainbow-colored orbs and in return you receive glasses and various other articles of clothing. Collecting all the acorns strung about the level earns you an additional present. At the end of the level, you are ranked by the amount of orbs you produce. Ranks range from "S" (meaning awesome), to... well, since I never ranked below B, I can't really say. All in all, getting a good rank is no sweat if you're into that sort of thing.
You begin on Star Ving Island, the starting point of your first action-packed blockbuster battle against veggies and fruits alike. There are three levels to each world, and the first two levels are usually straightforward; destroy the alien fruits and veggies overrunning the town and seeking out special aliens to slaughter to progress. Oftentimes when you reach the third level a boss battle occurs, usually thanks to stupidity of the Elder Onion who guides you along. My first battle was with a boss of the vegetable variety and man, was he MEAN.
The Good, the Bad, and the Broccoli
As my epic battle unfolded with the afro clad Brocco-Lee, things began to look grim. The carrot demons were surrounding me, and it was hard to escape the clutches of the large green veggie. To take out the healthy opponent, target his weakness in the back and attack away, breaking him apart piece by piece. Other bosses have equally as inventive names. For example, there are pirate grapes known as Great Grapy and a large mechanical fish known as Big Fishy. There are eight bosses in all, some of which I have yet to meet.
There are over 150 edible enemies in all, which makes for an all out health food buffet for the Munchables. Common enemies include mischievous turnips that knock you out when you're not paying attention and adorable cabbage birds. For some strange reason, many of the veggies you'll encounter have electrical attacks. If you just so happen to get nailed by electricity you must shake the Wii mote to rid yourself of the shock and as a result, your Munchable will lose a few meals in the process. Larger enemies that are above your level can be broken down into smaller, more manageable portions to scarf down. When you get larger, enemies will attempt to scurry away from the depths of your fat mouth but ultimately, just like in real life, there is no escape.
Munchables is weirdly addicting, and I can't decide whether it's my morbid curiosity in these strange creatures or the cute virus infecting my brain. The dialogue and names are seemingly written by a 2nd grader, but that just adds to the game's odd charm. The Munchables is looking to be one of those games that you know is silly, and you'll feel guilty for playing it, yet you can't help but love it.
