The profound un-comfiness of Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble
His green eyes disturb the shadows as he places fresh wood within the iron furnace. It must be cold, beneath the moss and dew. The fungus have always been closest to the earth, where it is wet and icy. But he is but part shroom, an abomination of man and spore that god forgot which nonetheless desires the comforts of men. A warm house; the unconditional love of a pet; companionship. As his mind wanders a cold wind rushes in bringing with it living nightmares. A letter. No, a valentine. One which will accept nothing but undying love and affection from his spongy arms. So now he runs. Some problems are too big to reason with. Some problems are 50-foot truffle demons wearing a tiara.
Red Fly Studios’ Mushroom Men series has perplexed for the better part of a decade. I learned of it first through a full-page magazine ad featuring stylized artwork of a mushroom man (with a sword!) and a quote from Playboy. Many questions went through my brain: what was a mushroom man? Why was Playboy reviewing video games? Why did this kids game look so scary? I could deduce no answers from the glossy ad, and following luke-warm reviews of The Spore Wars (2008) and Rise of the Fungi (2008) I put the problem to rest. Then Truffle Trouble (2015) appeared in my Steam account.
I can’t remember why it was there or when it arrived. At some point in my overeager desire to hoard digital trinkets it slipped in and now I had no choice. I expected a middling platformer, something stylish but clumsily executed. But Truffle Troubles is not interested in what you and I expect or what good taste demands. Instead, it is a singularly disturbing experience, so odd and haunting I was caught entirely off guard.
After the opening cutscene, wherein Pax the titular mushroom man is beset upon by an inconsolable crush, the game funnels the player through a series of block puzzles as they are pursued by a lumbering maw. It is as if the puzzle sequences from Catherine (Atlus, 2011) were placed in a radioactive compost bin and allowed to form a new civilization.
Screenshot courtesy Red Fly Studios
Like Catherine, these puzzles are unenjoyable and unwieldy, but the trappings surrounding the puzzles evolve them into literal night terrors. Nothing prepared me for the screeching voice of my decomposing lover, the ooze and crunch of a pill bug under mushroom legs, all while a five-second music clip loops just irregularly enough to never let my mind rest. I am afraid I will never unhear the truffle queen howling that “we will make beautiful babies” and that she “would need a foot massage after all this walking.” I do not dare imagine what the toes of a demonic fungus possibly look like.
The disconnect between the meticulously choreographed cutscenes and the embarrassing bluntness of the menu designs causes irreconcilable tension throughout every game. Truffle Troubles at once fully embraces its nightmarish theme while simultaneously pulling back towards mobile game design tropes. It is not enough to outrun the truffle queen if I don’t earn three spore stars on each level and the best time on the leaderboards. Who is speedrunning this game? And why do so many of their usernames draw from southern United States racism?
Truffle Troubles has given me no answers to the wonder and bemusement I felt from that old magazine. It has filled me with the purest and most incomprehensible unease, the way one feels when they find something molding in the back of their refrigerator. There is nothing to do. Nothing to say. The mold must leave, if so the nightmares stop.
Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble was reviewed on PC and is availible via Steam.