If you pay attention to astronomical news, you may have heard the story of Comet C/2007 N3, also known as Comet Lulin. It was discovered back in July 2007, by Chinese meteorology student, Quanzhi Ye. There are many interesting details about Comet Lulin, but there's one notable feature that attracted me - the comet is bright green.

You see, I was recently given the chance to try out Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars from Red Fly - a new Wii title that is full of walking, talking mushrooms, sentient cacti, warring rabbits and mutated spiders. All gets a bit spooky when you realise that the single event that prompted these tweaks and twists of nature was - wait for it - a bright green comet, colliding with the Earth and showering the planet in glowing dust (harmless to humans, not-so to the flora and fauna we surround ourselves with).

While there's no signs yet that Comet Lulin is actually on a collision course with Earth, it's all a little bit coincidental, and I'd advise keeping a close eye on nearby fungi over the next month or so following the comet coming closest to Earth, this time around. If it does happen to run into things and cover us all with glowing dust, according to the game developers, we won't actually notice, until things start acting a bit weird - so I've taken it upon myself to share with you what you might expect, using a copy of Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars as a guide.

Mushrooms will form into four groups, each one with its own unique body shape, clothing style and choice of weaponry. These groups then split into two alliances - the non-toxic "goodies", made up of the Bolete Tribe and the Morels - and the toxic "baddies", comprised of the Amanitas Empire and the Lepiota Order. Soon, relations between the four groups will break down, resulting in a battle known as the Spore War, with each Nation trying to discover the details of the origins of the humble mushroom, as it is believed that the Mushroom who uncovers the mystery will be given the power to change the entire course of evolution, putting the Mushroom species at the top of the evolutionary ladder and completely disrupting life as we know it.

Both the Amanitas Empire and Lepiota Order see this as a chance to defeat all other nations and place themselves at the head, while the more sophisticated Morels and the hunter/gather/warrior Bolete Tribe just want peace. To that end, the Bolete will find a misfit young mushroom - let's call him Pax (as he is in the game) - who does not understand his role in the world, and send him on a quest that will transform him from naive young boy to species-saving hero!

As Pax travels through his Mushroom world, we humans will continue our lives oblivious to the battles being waged underfoot. He will encounter unique characters, each one illustrated in their own way - from the short and stocky dark brown/green Boletes that send him on his way, to the brightly saturated, sophisticated Morels, the thick-set Lepiota (pale green and obsessed with old human technology), and the tall, almost-white, "creepy-looking" Amanitas... and that's just the Mushrooms. Various other creatures - plant, animal and insect - lurk at every turn, some friendly, some scary, but all with their own distinct characteristics. The household pet rabbit may look cuddly, but is just a heartbeat away from sprouting horns and developing quite the nasty personality, all teeth and claws. Keep an eye out.

Even the most eagle-eyed of us, however, will likely remain ignorant to the fact that tiny weapons are being cobbled together out of everyday objects: that a thimble, stuck to a discarded DS stylus with a bit of pre-chewed gum creates quite the effective hammer-like "Iron Thumb". As our hero meanders through his world, he will pick up more bits and pieces to add to his inventory, creating a more varied and effective arsenal, even going as far as to create a powered "Saw Staff" from a toy car motor, rubber band and the blade from a can opener.

Now - I'll have to digress from the real-world applications of this knowledge for just a moment, to relay some details specifically about the Wii version, if you were looking to use it as a game rather than as a research tool.

First thing I noticed - the world of the Mushroom Men is a very pretty one, full of vibrant colours, 60s sci-fi imagery, and a pleasant sparkle of tongue-in-cheek humour. These little 'shrooms live among our rubbish, so that obstacle may be an old shoe, an abandoned toy or an empty chip packet. Their lives are reminiscent of the film Mars Attacks as well as ads for a certain brand of energy drink currently screening in Australia - with human objects towering over their little heads. Those of you concerned about the Wii's graphics capabilities can rest easy, the developers have managed to find a happy medium, not pushing the console too much, making it work smarter rather than harder, resulting in a gorgeous (huge!) landscape that doesn't slow down your gaming.

(Actually, the size of the landscape can be a bit of a problem, thanks to the lack of any sort of map or HUD. While under my control, Pax got lost several times - and while I'm a fan of exploration and discovery, there were times when having a little hint about "the right way" would have been appreciated.)

The control system - while not terribly innovative - wasn't anything to complain about. Using the now-traditional Wiimote / Nunchuck combo, the Nunchuck analog stick moves Pax around, and shaking the Wiimote will make him attack - and attack he will, as almost everything in this 3d platformer is of the opinion that little mushrooms are delicious. Seemingly regardless of which weapon Pax is using, you'll swing once to attack, swing multiple times for a combo, and - if you're like me - shake the thing frantically any time anything looks at you funny. Then there are the bosses, which aren't just a case of "the same thing only bigger" - these monsters (like the giant horned rabbit) require strategy, creative attacks and possibly even a second player to pass easily.

I say the visuals were the first thing I noticed, but it was a close call between how it looked and how it sounded. Our 3-inch-high hero comes complete with an amazing soundtrack to accompany his adventures. Apparently, while waging a war on their neighbours, mushrooms choose to listen to Les Claypool, with the Primus bassist commissioned to create a score specifically for the game. Apparently he enjoyed the experience so much that several revamped game tracks appear on his March 2009 album, Of Fungi and Foe. It's also worth noticing that there's a bit of trickery afoot in the sound effect stakes - it took a few moments of watching a leaking pipe before I realised that every drip was timed perfectly to the music. Clocks were also ticking in time, and even fluctuated with variations in the accompaniment. This - plus the fact that little Pax's movements roughly mirrored my own - all added up to a very immersive experience that I didn't really want to leave.

Comet Lulin is considered a "non-periodic comet", so - unlike the periodic Halley's Comet - its orbit is so large that it is not expected to return to this part of the cosmos any time in the next 200 years or so. If it does not impact with Earth on this go-round, perhaps it's not the mysterious green comet Red Fly have prophesied... but, as the main storyline of the game is apparently completely ignored by the humans at the time, how will we know until it is, perhaps, too late?