Joystiq hands-on: The Munchables
You could rename The Munchables as Eat Everything: The Game and actually have one of the more fittingly descriptive titles in gaming history. Much like another Namco character -- Pac-Man -- the star of this Wii-exclusive game is out to eat anything and everything in sight, even if there's no real point.
Well, there is a backstory about a nefarious vegetable named Don Onion and his band of space pirates ... yeah, you're right, it's best to just focus on the gameplay.
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Our hands-on time with The Munchables couldn't have taken place inside a more appropriate game world. While we'd already seen glimpses of levels set under the sea or on grassy plains, we got to eat our way through a dessert factory. Doing so was, admittedly, ridiculously simple. Players move the character with the Nunchuk's analog stick and chomp by pressing "A." Basic.
Getting further in the colorful worlds demands a little more finger activity, as we found. The primary game mechanic revolves around eating enough creatures to level up. Enemies, like the player character, have their level displayed floating above them. If the player's level is lower, the enemy can't be consumed. However, it's possible to ram enemies using "B" and break them down into more digestible enemies.
Growing larger lets players defeat larger enemies (and, ultimately, mini-bosses and bosses) but is also used to activate switches that enable access to later parts of each level. Attempting to keep players from doing so are Don Onion's pirates, but also specialized baddies (time bombs for brunch, anyone?) and environment-based obstacles (jets of fire, laser gates and the like). Thankfully, players can pick up a variety of power-ups which transform their character into a crazy-powerful vacuum, a giant smashing weight, a rocket and more.
Beyond clearing levels and beating bosses the likes of Brocco-Lee, there's a meta game involving collecting orbs for bonus points, a mirror mode and time trials. Given the simplicity of the game, we can see the latter being of most interest to the more "core" gamers, but overall the game is very charming and surprisingly Zen-like. The Munchables hits stores May 26 for $29.99.
