Immerse Yourself in 'Mouse About'
posted October 8th, 2008 2:45 AM EDT by arn in $2.99, Puzzle, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch games
We've been using the word "polished" a lot lately because there's no better way to describe that extra attention to detail that some games have.
Cobra Mobile's Mouse About [App Store] is one of those games.
At its core Mouse About is a simple puzzle game in which you control Marv the mouse. Your goal is to eat all food on the screen and not fall off. You set Marv in motion by swiping your finger on the screen, but he won't stop unless he hits food, an obstacle or the edge of the screen. Each level is played against the timer. If you run out of time or fall off the screen, you lose a life.
The game features randomly generated levels of increasing difficulty, so should provide you with plenty of gameplay.
The graphics, animation and soundtrack to this $2.99 title make it worth a serious look. The screenshots really don't do the game justice, so it's best to watch the embedded video:
App Store Link: Mouse About
Wow that looks great.
Got a couple of games I need to finish before I buy any more, but Mouse About is on the list now!
'The screenshots really don’t do the game justice, so check out this pixelated Youtube video!' IRONY!
Arn, have you considered Vimeo HD?
It really doesn't surprise me that the music in this game is absolutely top notch – I recently bought Numba (produced by Cobra Mobile & I-Play) which also has very, very good music.
I think it's great to see devs realise just how important good music & fx is to the overall gameplay experience.
The game looks and sounds good, but also looks incredibly simple. Is there more to it then just trying to flick in the direction of food and stop before you get to the edge?
I also noticed all the times in the video that the game seems to have failed to pick up your swipe. That looks like it could be a bit annoying.
I agree with SteveJ – when we stop seeing simple puzzle games and getting more substantive games. I guess the market is still trying to shake itself out.
I'm there will always be simple games in this price bracket.
Noone is going to make something like Zelda, God of War etc and sell it for $2.99.
Uh meant I'm *sure* there will
Hopefully we'll see the emergence of price ranges e.g Free, <= $5, <= $10, <= $20 and developers will make games accordingly.
@ Matthew Robertson vimeo won't play on iPhones, so not really a good option.
Am I right: Is this like snake, without a snake?
The controls look like some of the snake variants on the App Store where you slide to change the direction. You have to eat stuff. Only difference is, that this looks much nicer and the mouse doesn't become longer 
Hmm, simple gameplay, polished graphics, INSANE LOAD TIMES. Pass…
For what should be a "I need to kill 2 minutes of time while waiting for the dentist to call me in for my filling" turns out to be "I end up waiting the entire 2 minutes for load screens, skip the novocaine, doc!"
In regards to the game play, you'd be surprised how challenging this game is. How quickly can you see the path. This one is for fast thinkers. It's one of my favorites. The load time is quite long though, but worth the wait.
good games
As a sidenote, wouldn't it make more sense to capture these vids on the iPhone simulator, where you could use a Mac screen capture app to record perfect video?
The music sounds really reminiscent by work of Skaven of past Euro demo group Future Crew.
There is more to the gameplay than meats the eye. You cannot stop yourself from running off the screen. You need to run into a food, or something you can't eat to stop running. So you aren't just flicking and stopping. You need to plan out your whole path before starting.
After playing the lite version a bit I finally bought this and I'm very very impressed. It is so cute and polished, that you wanna lick your display. I can hardly believe that other mobile platforms will have games in this quality soon! It fits perfectly to the iPhone. Maybe Apple should bunde this