Simple but charming and genuinely pretty fun. Mushi Mansion is a playful fusion of survival horror and side scrolling beat-em-ups. The focus here is slanted towards the beat-em-up side of things rather than the survival horror, but the general level design and direction is a classic Resident Evil style set up - large mansion with many locked doors and backtracking requiring you to learn the layout, limited resources, and safe rooms where you can have a smoke about all the bugs you've killed in peace in order to save your game - assuming you've got smokes of course.
The game runs very smoothly - despite fighting bugs (or Mushi, I guess) the entire time, I didn't run into any that weren't supposed to be there (you know, the game crashing kind). The character controller is nice and responsive, hit boxes are where you'd expect them to be, it all just feels good.
It's not a particularly long game, but there's quite a bit of replay value here - unlockable modes, difficulties and costumes and a fairly well defined a ranking system. Once you've beaten the game you'll unlock a sort of remixed mode that shuffles all the key items around and changes the enemy spawns to keep you on your toes - a nice touch.
The atmosphere is actually pretty solid, which is helped by the surprisingly nice music (my only gripe there is that I wish it played a little more frequently - I think it would have helped to keep the game feeling a little more cohesive as there are some stretches that are just a bit too quiet). The 2D format can sometimes be a little confusing as far as level design goes, and I, as always in any survival horror game, would have loved a map. Not a deal breaker, but it would have helped the game feel whole.
Now, the meat of the game is the combat system. You'll be fighting your way through all sorts of giant bugs with mostly just your feet and your fists. The movement feels a little strange at first - walking backwards doesn't turn you around, you'll have to do that manually with a different button command. There's a way to turn this off which I did on my first playthrough, but after starting the game again with the original control scheme after I had adjusted to how the game works, I found that it was a lot better this way. A few of your better attacks are dependant on you walking backwards/facing away from enemies, and although it plays well enough with the alternate control scheme, you'll sort of be playing without easy access to these moves, which not only doesn't feel quite as good, but also makes the combat harder.
Luckily, many fights can be avoided simply by running and dodging passed enemies which I love - it really helps the game stay a bit more true to the survival horror genre rather than forcing the player to engage constantly. Which was a godsend to be honest as I never got the hang of taking down the wasps and praying mantises. This coupled with the fact that undefeated enemies often will follow you into the next room made for some pretty satisfyingly tense escapes.
The UI is simple and effective, controller support worked great, and it can't be overstated just how appreciative I am of the option to display your choice of button prompt symbols (Keyboard/X Box/Playstation) regardless of what controller you are playing with - I wish this was standard practice.
Overall - I had a lot of fun with this one and absolutely intend to go back and explore the unlockable content. If you are open to less conventional styles of survival horror, this game is absolutely worth your time. I have paid way more for way worse games.
For more 3rd person survival horror games, check out my curator page:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45050657-3rd-Person-Survival-Horror/
