Archives February 2022

Mushroom Wars 2 has finally arrived on consoles, over three years after it’s initial release!

The mushroom kingdoms are at war and this time it isn’t between Mario and Bowser/Koopa. No, it’s not between Luigi and a bunch of ghosts either. This is a true war. Thousands of mushroom soldiers marching to battle. Lead by a mushroom themed general, these soldiers fight for their homes and for the sake of glory. Zillion Whales brings us Mushroom Wars 2 which has a unique take on the traditional RTS gameplay that was made famous by games like Warcraft and Starcraft. Your armies pour across the battlefield and each body ticks a point off of each structure it takes until the building becomes yours.

The pace of the game gets hectic quite fast as wave after wave of green mushrooms move across the screen you must think and react quickly. The tutorial takes it’s time with you to teach new tactics but they don’t pull their punches as soon as you learn new ways to kill the green mushrooms. I found the game to be simple but very enjoyable and looks even better on consoles than it did on computer.

Space Marine Adventures is back for another round of murder fun with Doomsday Countdown courtesy of Games Workshop and local bookstores like Barnes and Noble.

With the first volume of Space Marine Adventures players took turns facing down the Necron threat, however this time, in Doomsday countdown, it’s time for hunting Chaos cultists. Players take on the roles of three Space Marines and move about the map trying to defuse a bomb before it detonates. All three Marines are members of the illustrious Ultramarines Chapter and facing off against seven cultists, these particular models were previously featured alongside Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress.

These Adventure boxes are intended to be an introduction into the world of Warhammer 40,000. The models for both the Space Marines and Cultists are push to fit and easy to assemble, making that part of the hobby much less difficult to ease in to. Even in this game there will be lots of dice rolling to be had so it feels like a Warhammer game in that respect while using common model types.

The previous release had used tokens instead of models for the enemies so the fact they return to models, especially these cultist models, is a huge improvement. The mechanics are very much the same to the previous version so if you’ve played before this is very much a continuation. Even though this is the third volume you don’t need to have played the previous iterations to get into this one. Beyond getting additional Chaos cultists (which I always need) you also get some great tiles that can easily work along with tiles for Blackstone Fortress. This is another great way to introduce your friends and family to the world that is Warhammer 40,000!

Slitherine Ltd brings us the latest in Warhammer 40k console gaming with Battlesector, a fight between Blood Angels and Tyranids.

Our friends at Slitherine Ltd shared their latest game from the Warhammer 40k universe (Battlesector) with us and from launch it is already available for Xbox Gamepass members! We were able to receive this at launch but only recently got to try the game out due to some technical difficulties that required a hardware replacement. With the issue resolved we jumped right in. The tutorial is relatively extensive, showing many features of gameplay, plus there are several hard to earn achievements you can get here with very little difficulty at all as they are stacked in your favor!

The game features multiple difficulties but none of them seem to affect the achievements you can unlock, at least this early in the game and only affect gameplay difficulty. Visually the graphics are really good, especially considering the number of troops you may have at one time on the screen and that some move randomly like real soldiers would while waiting to receive their orders. The terrain on the maps match classic pieces we’ve seen on the tabletop as well with common Imperium iconography throughout but even better show a solid amount of detail, especially if you are zooming in.

Overall I found the game quite enjoyable, this easily fills the need for an electronic version of the table top game of Warhammer 40k. It fills this need so well that it actually feels like one of the most accurate adaptations of the game I have ever played. Of course some of the rules and mechanics are not a perfect comparison but it is similar enough that it feels like something I’ve been missing from my current gaming library. My only complaint so far, I am still rather early into the story, is that the only army options are Tyranids and Blood Angles. I hope we see some expansions that allow you to play multiplayer with other factions as well. If you are a fan of RTS games or the Warhammer 40k table top game and looking for a video game counterpart this game will scratch those itches.