The real time strategy genre is one that thrives on PC. There are so many options and games that for fans of the genre. PC is heaven. But what about fans of the genre on console? While in other consoles, you can find several games in the genre, for the Nintendo Switch, the genre is under represented in comparison with PC and mobile, and it is definitely a missed opportunity. However, for the genre to increase in popularity ,the RTS genre needs to have a balance between accessibility and depth in order to attract newcomers, instead of just veterans, and it has to be done in a way that the different mechanics and game play elements are presented in a simple way to prevent overwhelming newcomers. I think Mushroom Wars 2 does just that.
Mushroom Wars 2 takes place thousands of years after a great cataclysm that destroyed all life on earth. Humans and their stupid wars brought their demise. However, because of that, the Mushroom Men evolved and started to repopulate the planet. The planet was green again, and it was a beautiful place to live. However, from the shadows, the dark fungi men were waiting for the precise moment that earth was livable and full of resources and they move to conquer. It is a ruthless battle for survival–or at least that is what I think, since the story is presented in beautiful painted art style but without dialogue. So, for the sake of understanding where they come from I decided to use the creative muscle and add a little atmosphere.
Mushroom Wars 2 premise is simple: you must conquer all enemy buildings in order to be victorious. It sounds simple, but it isn’t, since the enemy has the same goal as you. The interesting part is that you can decide how you want to approach each map, be it be aggressive and conquer all buildings possible or keep it in a more conservative way and upgrade your buildings so they can produce more troops and conquer in a swift but sure way. The first maps serve as a tutorial of sorts, teaching you the basics and different buildings like towers that do not produce units but attack enemy units on range (and if you send troops to the tower the range is bigger), or forges that do not produce units but for each forge you have on your possession your attack power rises. So there are a lot of different strategies you can use to achieve victory. In later conquests (stages), there are traps, rivers, and slopes to keep it fresh and challenging.
At the beginning of some stages, there are some grey (neutral) buildings, that you can conquer to add more troops to your army. However, enemy units can also conquer them. Some good advice is to make them priority. This is wspecially true in some stages in campaign mode that you are heavily outnumbered, so it’s good to know that you have options to turn the tide in your favor. Speaking of options, like I previously mentioned , there are forges and towers, but you aren’t limited to the ones on the map, since you can upgrade your buildings and transform them into a forge or a tower. Conversely, you can turn a tower or forge into a normal building in case you need to add more troops to the fray. This is done by moving the cursor with the stick and pressing the L button to bring a quick menu, and there you press the button to change the building as long as you have the number of troops required already on the building.
MW2 doesn’t just offer single player campaingn mode (that has two different stories with more than 100 missions each and as you progress you unlock 12 different heroes with different skills and traits). Mushroom Wars 2 also features both a local and online multiplayer components. The local mode allows up to four players to play together in 1v1, three and four way free-for-all, or 2v2 modes. It even features CPU bots, so you can always have someone to play with, which is a welcome addition especially considering the portable nature of the Switch itself. The online game play itself is really well done. It features both ranked and unranked multiplayer modes, a leaderboard, and the ability to save replays of your multiplayer matches. The online is very steady and in my few online matches, I had absolutely zero lag or performance issues in both TV mode and handheld/tabletop mode. I won most of my matches, and I am not a good strategist.
Graphically, the art style suits the game really well. While you view everything in a top down style, the different backgrounds and detailed landscapes are great to see. If I hadn’t done a little research about the game beforehand, I would say that it was tailor-made for Switch first. The music is good, and while I mentioned before that there is no dialogue, the sounds of your troops while fighting and the clashing of the weapons (when you have a forge you see that they carry halberds sort of) go well with the general theme of the game.
Bottom Line: Mushroom Wars 2 is a good game in the real time strategy genre and a good entry game for newcomers. It has tons of missions for single player mode, but it also includes a robust multiplayer mode with online matches as well. With a lot of options in this mode with 50 different maps and over 12 different heroes to choose from (available from the beginning even if you didn’t finish campaign), it is a game that must conquer your Switch, because its fun but in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you with long and tiresome matches (unless you play against someone really good online). I definitely recommend it.
A Review copy was provided by the developer for this review.