Think ‘Wreck it Ralph,’ but not good. Mouse Arcade is a multitude of retro style games within a game, with a couple control issues and a dash of frustration thrown in.
You start off as a mouse walking down a tunnel that leads to a dim, barely lit room full of, you guessed it, arcade cabinets. After a brief flyover of the arcade, you get the title screen, and then full control of the mouse. Full control meaning the ability to climb up the cabinets to play different games. You have the ability to climb just about anything actually, including the human walking around the arcade.
You play as a mouse, let’s call him Scraps, seeking to prove themselves as the arcade’s best gamer. You accomplish this by climbing up to the controls of every cabinet and hopping into a new game. Multiple games within a game seemed like the right move for maximizing my enjoyment. Unfortunately Mouse Arcade only sort of delivered.
The Games
Mouse Arcade includes 8 different retro arcade games to choose from. But we have to knock it down to seven games because one of the cabinets was literally unplayable. As in I couldn’t get the prompt for starting the game to show up after multiple tries. Another game froze after reaching what I think was the ending, but I’ll never know. Pinball was going to be my saving grace. Except the controls for the paddles were moving the joystick on my controller left or right for each paddle. Weird choice considering the triggers are right there.
I did find some enjoyment in a platformer that involved switching between two characters with different skillsets. Each character had to collect 10 apples or 10 coins, and could only pick up their assigned item. While there were some frustrations with enemy placement, the movement was actually quite fun with some wall jumps and climbing abilities. We got one!
The next game I tried also involved switching between two characters, a knight or a wizard. Each character had a certain enemy type only they could attack as you walked through the three levels. While this wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, it was a game I managed to beat, so we’ll count that one as a win.
I was on a streak! On to tower defense. Swing and a miss. You’re given a certain amount spending points to defend your base through 5 waves. After a couple tries I finally managed to survive. Only to find out there is a second, much larger map afterwards and another 5 waves. But don’t worry, you’re given the same about of spending points to defend the expanded entry points.
The next game I don’t have much to say about, because I still can’t quite figure out what the point was. You start in first person with a gun and you shoot anything orange to earn points. The game is called Wall of Brick and I’m unsure if bricks were supposed to play a part.
Lastly, was a knockoff of one of my favorite old school arcade games, 1942. Just a simple scrolling shooter, that isn’t super difficult, but also didn’t offer much variety. Not quite a win, but not awful by any means.
Takeaways
While not every game was for me, Mouse Arcade is by no means a complete loss. There is a good variety of game types, and a decent amount of replayability. Especially if you want to chase after those high scores. I was content to finish a few of the games and call it a day.
I do still wish there was a story that went along with Scraps. Why is he stuck in this arcade? If I beat all of the high scores, does he get to leave? How is there no cheese in this arcade? These are answers I need but will most likely never get. But it is only $1.99 and gave me 3 hours of entertainment. Win? If for some reason you decide to pick up where I left off to discover Scraps’ backstory, please fill me in ASAP.