The weirder a game, the more I want to play it. This rule of thumb, which disregards quality and polish in search of something that subverts the status quo, has led to many great gaming experiences over the years, whether it’s psychedelic walking simulators or wacky roguelikes that challenge the senses of sight and sound. One passing glance at Smells Like a Mushroom (and a look at its oddball name) and you’ll quickly see that this indie effort from first-timers Red Limb Studio is a passion project of perplexity, where fruits fight fungi across the Milky Way. Is it worth picking up?

Smells Like a Mushroom starts with insanity as Earth is attacked by a mushroom invasion and you’re quickly forced into the third-person action. It’s evident from the start that the devs at Red Limb Studio have experience programming this genre as its gunplay and movement feel almost as good as any AAA game in this genre. The difference between Smells Like a Mushroom and AAA games is that easy does it: the ridiculous premise spreads its wings as tearing down the mushrooms with a bunch of weapons is somehow a consistent blast from start to finish.

The action in Smells Like a Mushroom gets so intense that it can be categorized as a 3D bullet hell at a lot of junctures. Thankfully, with a quickly refreshing dash and an ample arsenal, Carrotado can take on the challenge. The only real thing in the way of skilled third-person shooter players is the scarcely-dropped ammunition, as you’ll run out of one weapon’s ammo in no time unless you’ve leveled it up a good bit in between missions. It’s a gamble between upgrading that, the amount of hits you can take, the lives you can have stocked, or the functionality of one of the 10+ firearms.

While the shooting in Smells Like a Mushroom is always a thrill, its platforming can be touchy if you’re utilizing a mouse/keyboard. While that is best done with a controller, plenty of PC players will prefer the mouse for aiming their shots. Other gripes include some bullet-spongy bosses and some difficulty spikes that will make your head spin, but at the forefront lies outstanding gameplay, which is the biggest common denominator for players looking to have a good time. If you can get past some tricky puzzles and a rough boss or two, this core moment-to-moment gameplay will make it all worth it.

Smells Like a Mushroom isn’t garnering a lot of attention in its first week of release, with only one Steam review at the time of writing. It’s not easy to market an oddball game like this, but there’s certainly a crowd that would enjoy a competent TPS platformer and another that revels in obtuse games such as this. For those to overlap for me is a winning formula, so if either of these catch your fancy, Smells Like a Mushroom might be worth your time when it hits a sale.

A review code for Smells Like a Mushroom was provided courtesy of the publisher for this review.

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Smells Like a Mushroom

16.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Fantastic TPS Gameplay
• Hysterical Moments
• Strong Optimization

Cons

• Wild Difficulty Fluctuation
• Gross AI Boxart