How much easier would life be if you could just devour your enemies (not to mention if you were invincible unless struck twice in quick succession)? In the interest of quelling all our collective curiosity, Namco Bandai presents to us The Munchables, a game which, perhaps surprisingly, bears no relation to the popular prepackaged meat-and-crackers children’s lunch combinations. Instead, we’re met with a formula that feels more like someone put Katamari Damacy and Pac-Man in a Horadric Cube and published the result.
The Munchables is a good-humored romp through over a dozen (regrettably) fixed-camera 3-D environments (not including boss battles) populated by a variety of enemies of different sizes. While the stages don’t ever provide much in the way of difficulty, in true Namco fashion, the real challenge is scoring high. You play a Munchable living on your home planet of Star Ving, a beautiful celestial body spotted with islands connected to one another by rainbows. The Munchables are beholden to the presence of their treasured Legendary Orbs (think colored ornamental piles of poop… or, at least, so they appear), which provide endless food for all of Star Ving’s inhabitants. And wouldn’t you know it, now these strange so-called Tabemon Monsters have landed on the planet to try and steal the Legendary Orbs for their own selfish benefit (don’t you hate it when that happens?).
Eat your heart out
These monsters which have landed on Star Ving are faced with one major problem, however: they’re walking fruits and vegetables… yeah. So, as one might expect, considering that the Munchables are termed such (and that they amount to little more than a Pac-Man-like curiously mobile chomping head), their logical plan for defense consists of eating the invaders. And that’s precisely what you’ll be doing in the game (right after you view the slick opening FMV, that is).
As such, you’re soon dumped right into the first level, which is a small trip through one of the wrecked villages on Star Ving. The analog stick moves your little bouncing head monster around, and the A button chomps at anything in front of you (lock on with Z if you choose). Jumping isn’t quite as convenient—you have to flick the Wii remote upward (ugh). This isn’t so much of an issue until you reach the later levels where platforming is a stronger focus (specifically, Worlds 7 and 8); at that point, it just feels awkward and inadequate.
As you eat, your level will increase and your stomach will fill (depicted in the upper-left hand corner of the screen). Higher levels grant you the ability to swallow larger enemies whole, which eventually earns you access to more and more areas of the level. A “meals” counter keeps track of how many items and enemies you’ve devoured and takes combos into account as well (eating lots of things in quick succession). Each time your stomach fills, your creature grows in size slightly (a few times per level). The whole formula has a very Katamari feel to it, and the pleasure of growing gradually stronger and larger as you chomp around the environments is as addictive and intuitive as ever.
Now, let’s say you run up against a monster (the game calls them “pirates”, by the way) which happens to be just a few levels higher than you. You can’t gulp it down in one bite, of course, but you can break it up; you do this by attacking the enemy with the B button. This helps to blur the otherwise hard line between “strong enough” and “not strong enough” that otherwise might make for a pretty rigid explorative experience. Having said that, however, in many of the later levels, some more interesting (and more demanding) mechanics see introduction, such as changeable “weather” which affects the presence of cloud barriers/platforms and traditional lock-and-key sequences.
And, of course, other variables pepper the design, as well, such as a range of helpful power-ups—from vacuums to rocket packs which enhance your pirate-consuming abilities for a short time—and collectible acorns which serve as a separate challenge. Those acorns are scattered rather conspicuously throughout each stage, and during the post-level ranking, they can earn you a reward if collected in full.
Accessorize your life
If that’s what you’re into I suppose. And you’re probably not—thus the problem. Remember what you read earlier about scoring high and collecting all those acorns? Well, what type of aforementioned reward do you get for all this hard work? Sadly, the answer is terribly boring: accessories. Stuff like Santa hats, Mohawks, and sunglasses—that’s what you get. Sure, you can outfit your little Munchable (male or female—your choice) with one of whatever you earn, but unless you’re just a habitual completionist, it won’t take long for you to lose interest almost entirely in hunting for those last couple of acorns or avoiding being hit (and thus losing some of your meals score).
And that makes the game entirely too easy, right up until the very last couple of levels. It’s practically impossible to die in most cases (even falling off the stage simply lands you right back on safe ground again in the “hurt” state… after which you simply waggle the Wii-mote to return to normalcy). The difficulty does pick up noticeably around the sixth world—at least to the point where you feel like you have to try to some degree—but it’s never much of a challenge, especially if you’re a seasoned gamer. The entire game, provided you don’t replay every level in pursuit of perfection, will probably only take you a few hours total to complete (it took me around 4 –5 I believe), and that’s just not enough. Once you’re finished, there really isn’t anything else to do. Earning an “S” rank on every level—though I did not attempt it—reportedly nets you just a single accessory. Lame!
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Thanks for all the fun
So that leaves the fun: is it worth it for just a few hours of gameplay?
Well, fortunately, while the formula begins to stale a bit through the first few worlds, the game quickly redeems itself with some interesting variations on the theme. World six is a “sweets factory” where you witness cookies being made from start to finish—and play among them, avoiding all of the relevant industrial hazards. World seven isn’t quite as interesting, but it’s undoubtedly a challenge, and the lava-rising episode in the second half will have you flashing back to some of the older 3-D platformers (at least it’s slightly challenging!).
Then there’s the bosses. They, too, are far too simple—but at least they’re fun and creative most of the time. The major antagonists range from a giant “Broco-Lee” plant to an enormous anthropomorphic faux-Hershey’s chocolate bar. All of them are under the control of their creator, the diabolical Don Onion, who created them long ago in secret as part of a scheme to take over the world (what else?). Unfortunately, when I say easy, I really mean it; even most of the later bosses probably won’t take you more than a single attempt, and they’ll always go down in under five minutes—except for the final boss, who’s actually partially respectable, even if the battle is a little bit monotonous. Of course, it doesn’t help matters that the village Elder constantly pops up and pauses the battles to tell you precisely what to do to beat the boss (“Use the matching-colored worlds to attack the boss!” “Press B to attack the Legendary Orb now!”).
There is one interesting addition to the game that actually helps to offset its overly-simple difficult to some extent (slight unlockable spoilers here): the “Mirror Mode”, which also happens to go by the rules of Time Attack as opposed to the regular “eat everything” design. This forces you to play against a time limit in each of the game’s levels to try and beat the clock and finish as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter how much stuff you eat as long as you’re big enough to complete the level; you’re ranked instead entirely based on how much time is left when you complete the level.
Returning to the original question, however—is the game worth a purchase considering how easy most of it is and how quickly the experience is over with? I’d definitely suggest a rental first. However, be sure to try and push your way through the first few worlds; the more interesting content is near the end of the game. I could see some gamers spending time trying to perfect some of levels in the unlockable mode, too. It’s just too bad the single-player campaign isn’t more of a challenge to begin with!
Full Disclosure: Reviewer completed entire single-player campaign, scored S on most missions, and collected all acorns on roughly two-thirds of the levels in the game. Also, several time trial missions were attempted ranging across various worlds to test the change in difficulty.