Review: March of Shrooms offers a colorful, pixelated brawler you’ll want to make shroom for

I’ll be honest, I wanted this game before I even knew anything about it because of the visuals alone. The bright colors, the pixelated art style, and the mushrooms sold me entirely.

I don’t know what it is about mushrooms that immediately evoke this idea of coziness in my brain, but I was convinced this game would be exactly what I wanted.

Weirdly, it wasn’t what I thought it would be, but it’s still what I ended up wanting. 

March of Shrooms Gameplay and Story

March of Shrooms is light on the story side of things but still holds a charming premise. For 99 years, Shroomkind has been separated by islands. The goal is to unite all the different mushrooms into one village.

Every 10 years, a big storm rolls in that decimates the isles and the hope is that by uniting you can withstand the coming storm. I played up to the Autumn Isles stage and haven’t seen too much about the storm, so if it plays a part, it’s later toward the end of the game.

I’ll fully admit that I played on easy. I’m here for a good time, not a challenging time. So, from the easy mode perspective, this game was pretty chill. You have four different types of Shrooms; attack, defense, special, and heal. (Special is still an attack, it just hits a bit harder with a cool-down timer so you can’t spam it.)

Early on, I played with a mix of all four types because they were what was available, but as I unlocked more Shrooms, I began moving to a more aggressive setup. By the time I was ready to start writing this article, I had a squad filled to the brim with attack and special, focusing mostly on attack.

With this build, I’m able to just run through the level, wiping the field in about 2 minutes pretty routinely. My Shrooms take damage, but there was only one time that my frontline died and I still finished it with only two casualties. Just be mindful of your lineup since you can change the order that they run in and it matters for Shrooms that don’t do ranged moves. 

Because you can pretty much speed through these levels, you unlock new Shrooms at a good pace, meaning you can constantly upgrade your build to tackle the slowly increasing difficulty.

In addition to enemy Shrooms, you have bubbles constantly drifting down from above, some good and some bad. Generally, they offer help with energy and healing. On Easy mode, you don’t really have to be too concerned about them, but I can imagine how they’d be helpful in harder modes.

There are a few mini-game-type levels sprinkled in and I’m not quite sure what they do. The first few games were simply catching as many falling bubbles as possible while the second bit was about keeping them from hitting the ground. I’m not sure since I was focused, but I think you play on an internal timer to build up points and then get a star if you accumulate enough points. It seems there are various other mini-games I haven’t encountered yet in the future.

Stars are something you’ll want to aim for if you’re interested in painting your Shrooms different colors. You get a standard palette to start, but more colors don’t unlock until you reach the required amount of stars. 

Art and Music

Growing up in the 90’s, I’m very familiar with the pixelated art style. March of Shrooms feels nostalgic and fresh at the same time. I wouldn’t liken the gameplay to Super Mario World, but the background design reminds me a lot of what you’d see in SMW. 

The Shrooms all have their own designs and homes that make them feel unique and being able to change their colors takes it that step further. There’s something very cozy and charming in the design and the color palette.

The music is exceptional, but it takes getting through some isles to hear more than just the standard tune that starts up. It’s an earworm that you won’t be able to get rid of.

I felt the music was intriguing enough that I didn’t get sick of it, but it’s definitely not the kind of song that fades into the background. You’re very aware of the music at all times. 

My favorite is probably the softer track that they play during storytelling levels. I wish that had been featured more because it’s lovely. 

Coziness

At first, I wasn’t convinced that the cozy vibes were here. I struggled with the controllers and felt like I was getting heaps of information loaded on top, but that’s just the stress of learning any new game taking over.

Once the tutorial mode was over and I had a feel for what things did, it was pretty easy to zone out and zip through the levels without much thought. Then again, I tend to go the aggressive route. If you’re worried about defense and health, there may be a bit more strategic thought needed.

I ended up having a lot of fun with March of Shrooms and it’s not even my usual genre. I don’t generally reach for brawler-type games, but on easy mode, this one has been a joy.

The levels never go beyond 3 minutes, so you never feel like things are dragging. And about an hour into the game, it seems like there is always a new Shroom to unlock and change colors for, or a Shroom ready for an upgrade.

If you play Normal or Hard modes, you’ll likely have a less cozy time. 

Cons

Initially, I struggled to figure this game out. It’s not fully controller-supported, but I actually prefer to use it for the bulk of gameplay. You will still have to use your mouse to get around the menus because it’s so much easier that way, but it’s not a big problem.

Personally, I found the configuration on the keyboard to hurt my hands and decided against using it. If you prefer to use the keyboard or don’t have a controller, then you can remap your keys to a better configuration. I recommend doing this since you’ll be spamming your attack button regularly.

Maybe it was the frustration of learning everything and fooling with the controllers, but I wasn’t initially sold on the gameplay of this game. It felt like it had a slow start for me. I left the first hour of gameplay so sure that I wasn’t going to enjoy this.

The next time – and every time after – that I picked up the controller, this game was fun and engaging. It just takes that full hour to get far enough in to start unlocking your shrooms.

Verdict

Weirdly, I started the first hour of gameplay thinking I wasn’t going to enjoy this game. But the last several hours have been so much fun. The music is incredibly catchy, the visuals are darling, and I love the pacing on Easy mode.

Being able to blast through a few levels, allowed me to open up new Shrooms. Doing so, lets me change their colors and then alternate my build. Because these things seemed to be happening often, it kept me engaged the entire time.

Other than figuring out what controls work best for you early on, I have no complaints. And for only $6.99, I feel like this little game is worth every dollar.

If you want to play March of Shrooms, you can grab it over on Steam, GOG, or Epic Games.