Cats and Snakes and Mice, oh My!OVERALL RATING: 5/ 10
This is the first game where I didn't really have to debate over any ratings in any of the categories, and as you can see, I felt pretty uniformly about each area. I wouldn't say that this game was an awful one and considering its day and age, it's one of the better arcade games out there simply for the sheer amount of levels it has.
Amazingly, doing research on this game yields few results, and I think it's the first game where I found absolutely nothing on its back story. I did discover that the actual machine this game was played on is pretty rare and near impossible to find, making it a collector's dream. However, I could find little else and I wasn't even able to find a back story to it! Therefore, this is the first game I also did not rate for its story.
The game is pretty straightforward: at first resembling pacman, it clearly becomes obvious that this game has a different goal altogether. You play the roll of a mouse running along pathways which contain flags at every intersection. Connect the flags around empty spaces and avoid the enemies. Once you've connected all the flags, the level is won and you move on to the next.
GRAPHICS 5/ 10The graphics are certainly comparable, at least, to the original pacman images. Simple and block- ish in nature, they bare minimal resemblance to the characters and objects they are supposed to represent. The cat is unmistakably a cat, the snake is recognizable as such, and even the mouse with his big pointy ears is easy enough to point out. However, I'm sure it's a matter of generic gaming sprites that allows players to recognize the characters. If one were to truly and carefully observe the graphics, they'd notice the lack of detail and form which make the characters look almost more like mass- less blobs. At least its easy to tell what each creature is supposed to be though, which is an accomplishment many arcade games do not achieve.
The colors on the screen are strikingly colorful, but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. All three animals maintain the same shape and color throughout play, but the paths and background colors change with every level. I'm all for more color, but the schemes were kind of obnoxious in my opinion. Nonetheless, as I mentioned earlier, it's expected with older arcade games like this one.
Interestingly enough, searching for game videos or images yields varying versions of the graphics, so I'm not sure what colors were original. In some of the images and videos, the main character (mouse) is green, while in other cases he's orange, brown, or even purple. The same is true for the other graphic colors strewn throughout the game. I personally think a green mouse is somewhat garish, so I hope that the colors were a little more appealing in the original version.
Also, it's kind of hard to notice, but apparently the snake in the game is a cobra. When you end each level and get to play slots for bonus points, all the characters are there, and it's here that you can easily see the cobra's hood. Speaking of slots, those were probably the most disappointing aspects of the graphics. I expect the lack of detail and bright annoying colors, but the slots didn't even spin. The images just blink into and out of existence, following a pattern until each roll stops rolling.
SOUNDS: 5/ 10Again, the sounds are what I would expect from a game like this. In Macho Mouse, the same music is played throughout every level which is always a downer. However, it's not annoying music and it's easy enough to forget about. It's upbeat enough, but still made me think of pacman. Much cuter was the little ditty that occurs when you beat a level or win the jackpot at slots. It was kind of fun to beat the levels just to hear that little tune.
Other than the music, there isn't much sound to this game..... but you can't expect there to be when there isn't much that happens. There's the little ding noise of running over a flag, and a cute zippy little note when you connect all the flags around the empty space. There's a dull thudding noise when enemies spawn and of course, there's a sound for the mouse dying and another dying sound for enemies.
The only thing I found annoying about any of these sounds was related to the mouse dying. If you don't press the button to start the game again, the dying noise sometimes loops, and it's -highly- annoying. It's an awkwardly short sound anyways, and certainly not something I want to hear repeat over and over again.
Ah, I did forget about the slot sounds. As the various columns 'spin' a very obnoxious sound plays. Luckily you don't have to listen to it for long, but it make the slots seem even longer than they actually are, and I'd personally almost rather not play for extra points if I have to listen to the annoying rolls every time!
All things considered though, there wasn't much annoying in terms of the audible senses. If the music had at least changed in each level, I would have rated this category a little higher.
ADDICTIVENESS: 5/ 10Like any arcade style, this game seems to focus on achieving a high score. If you're into that sort of thing though, this game probably won't satisfy your craving. You can play it as long as you wish (from what I could tell) to build up your score, but there's nothing special you can do to increase it. For example, if the mouse connect all the flags around an empty space, he does not get extra points for completing the task in fewer steps. Killing more than one enemy at a time does not result in a score multiplier either. (Again, as a disclaimer, I could be wrong on this since I'm not a huge fan of high scores. This is simply how things played out from my perspective and from what I can recollect.)
That being said, it's fun to play for a little while. The maps are always different, but the game can become monotonous since nothing really changes other than the map and the rate at which opponents spawn. I'd say that the most patient gamer could keep interested in this game for a good hour or so. I'd play it if I had nothing better to play and it would do a decent enough job of curbing my boredom.
STORY: N/ AThere was none that I could find. I suppose you could say it's the typical 'prey escaping predators' type of plot if you wanted to assign it one.
DEPTH: 5/ 10Since I couldn't find much on this game, I'm not really sure how many levels it has. Personally, I played through about ten of them and that took me about 40 minutes because dying means that you have to start back with level 1. I was expecting the same levels to loop and I was pleasantly surprised when they didn't. Considering the fact that many arcade games have less than a dozen levels, or repeat the same stages for high score..... well I had to give this one credit. I would have kept playing to discover how many levels it had, but since I have no information on this game, I'd rather not play it indefinitely. Perhaps someone will like the game enough that they will play it until there are no more levels, and then they can report the number of levels here.
DIFFICULTY: 5/10Considering the fact that the goal of the game is to connect dots, there really is very little strategy to the game. I mean, for the most part, you run around and avoid enemies. I found it very annoying to get caught between enemies because there was no way to avoid death, but from the ONE small description of the game I was able to find, you should be able to jump on them and stun them. I tried all the buttons on my keyboard and could not discover how to do this, so perhaps my frustration was do to my inability. Nonetheless, being able to jump on the enemies would only cause the game to have even less strategy, so I'm not sure it changes much.
Killing the enemy sprites was a little difficult and aggravating. It appeared to me that if you connected two flags while enemies were between the flags, they would die. However, this didn't seem to always work, so I'm guessing that there is something else which needs to be in place for the enemies to die. Also, if you watch the videos on youtube, there are points in which contacting the mice or snakes does not kill you. This I do not understand at all, and my best guess is that connected paths protect you from the predators.
I guess the only bit of strategy one can muster happens to be with the stairs and 'shortcuts' that are in place for every level. Enemies could not travel on these special paths, but moving on the stairs slows the mouse down. Therefore, it's a quick place to hide if you're lucky enough to be near one while in danger.... and being slowed down doesn't lower your score any.
The enemies continually spawn, which I liked. It caused the game to be more challenging because the longer you take to connect all the dots, the more enemies you will have to dodge. On top of that, as the levels progress, the spaces you must connect become larger and larger. Whereas the first few levels have many spaces the size of one block, those start to appear less frequently as you beat the levels.
I'd say that this game was frustrating to play, but not difficult. That frustration may very well be my own fault though, which is why I could not penalize it much in this category.
In conclusion, Macho Mouse is a game worth playing, but only if you've got nothing better to do with your time. Playing too many levels is a bit mind- numbing and I'm not even sure how many levels there are. Besides that, I can imagine the bright colors giving someone a headache. It's not a game worth screaming at, but it's not one to get excited about either. It's a "meh" type game.
Graphics
5 Sound
5 Addictive
5 Depth
5 Difficulty
5
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