MouseCraft review for PS Vita, PS4, PS3

Platform: PS Vita
Also On: PS3, PS4, PC
Publisher: Curve Digital
Developer: Crunching Koalas
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E

Itโ€™s not hard to figure out where MouseCraft draws its inspiration from: itโ€™s basically Lemmings, but with mice. Sure, thereโ€™s a hint of Tetris in there, and yes, the game makes some nods towards a plot with a few quick cutscenes about a mad scientist, but really, when you get down to it, MouseCraft is Lemmings with a different rodent.

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On the upside, of course, at least itโ€™s Lemmings done well. Having endured a pair of mediocre A-Men games that suffered from rapidly diminishing returns, I know firsthand how quickly the formula can grow stale, and thatโ€™s not the case here. Thereโ€™s plenty of variety among MouseCraftโ€™s puzzling levels, and the game throws enough curveballs at you that it doesnโ€™t seem totally derivative. The Tetris connection, for example, comes from the fact that you have to slot in blocks of various shapes to help your mice reach their destinations โ€” not exactly an earth-shattering innovation, but still a nice change of pace. Similarly, you get advance notice on some levelsโ€™ obstacles by watching little rat robots plummet to their deaths, blow up and drown; overall, they may not add a whole lot, but they still provide the game with some fun color.

And speaking of color: MouseCraft looks nice, especially on the Vitaโ€™s screen. Compared to its direct competitors on the handheld โ€” which is to say, those aforementioned A-Men games, plus Lemmings Touch โ€” this game is pretty visually appealing. That doesnโ€™t mean thereโ€™s more to it than a scientist looking ominous in the background and a bit of animation here and there, but on the whole, itโ€™s nice to look at.

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All in all, though, what you see is exactly what you get. Youโ€™re still trying to get all your mice from Point A to Point B, and you have to do that over and over again. Itโ€™s not exactly a formula that lends itself to tremendous amounts of innovation, so if youโ€™re looking to MouseCraft for that, youโ€™ll be sorely disappointed. If you just want some enjoyably pleasant puzzle-platforming, however, then youโ€™re in luck, because thatโ€™s exactly what this is โ€” no more, and no less.

Grade: B
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