Mousecraft is a tile-matching puzzle game by Polish developers Crunching Koalas that has players helping mice reach the greatest goal of their lives; that big block of cheese. With its cute style and its unique gameplay, Mousecraft will certainly appeal to gamers of all ages.
The first thing that caught my eye when I booted up Mousecraft was its clean and cutesy artwork. The flying television helped me learn the ropes as I tried to help my mice to the cheese, but the game is relatively simple. The mice are happily running in their mouse wheel until you decide to set them free. Once outside the wheel, they only want one thing; cheese. That sounds easy enough, but nothing is ever as easy as it seems. Gaps in the road make it impossible for the mice to get to their cheese. That’s where you come in.
The mad scientist in the background lurked as I placed the tetris-like blocks into the gaps in the road for the mice to traverse. As they scurried to their cheese, I felt accomplished as if I had done something genuinely good. They love cheese, and I helped them get cheese. Feels good man. As the levels progressed however, things started to get a little more complex. More complicated stages with pits and valleys made it essential to use each tetris block to its fullest, while my personal desire to nab every blue crystal on the screen was purely selfish, as mice don’t even like blue crystals. Getting that high score is always an incentive for competitive gamers like myself, so it was no surprise that I was aiming for 100% completion on every level I played. I felt bad because the mice only cared about the cheese, but they could never understand what it means to completely conquer a stage. Oh and the game has a level editor, which is a really cool addition for you creative peeps out there.
Mousecraft is a game that is both unique and fun. My time spent with the preview build was enjoyable and I definitely see how people of all ages could appreciate a cutesy strategy game that brings a few genres together in an interesting way. Its still in development and can be picked up right now for pay-what-you-feel directly from the developer’s site.