There have been a lot of big games this year that have felt all-consuming, like Monster Hunter Wilds or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Maze Mice offers something different: a small, pick-up-and-play experience that takes a bunch of ideas from some classics and adds a clever twist.
The game, from Luck Be a Landlord developer TrampolineTales, mixes elements of Pac-Man, Vampire Survivors, and even the classic Snake. As an adorable, pixelated mouse, you zip around a maze to get blue experience gems that are guarded by cats. When you pass by the cats, they’ll wake up and start chasing you, sometimes creating a hilariously long line of felines. (Cute ghost cats will also appear and inconveniently float right into your path.) All the action takes place on one screen, so it’s easy to see where everything is at any given time.
When you get enough gems, you can pick from a selection of three power-ups. The upgrades are often a little silly, like knitting needles that fly through the air to attack the cats pursuing you, but as with Vampire Survivors, it’s fun to experiment with different abilities to create interesting builds.
Maze Mice’s most interesting feature is that time only moves when you move, like in Superhot. When you inch forward, the enemy cats inch forward right behind you, but when you’re not moving, they’re frozen, too. Your abilities are all on cooldowns, and the time on those cooldowns also only advances when you move forward. It all means that instead of the growing sense of being overwhelmed that you might get while dodging ghosts in Pac-Man or fighting hordes of monsters in Vampire Survivors, Maze Mice gives you time to sit and think about where you want to go next — even if you have 10 cats on your tail.
I really like how it all works. You’re still dealing with lots of enemies, but instead of the anxiety of having to fend them off in real time like in other games, it’s all much much more laid-back. The charming atmosphere and catchy music help make the experience feel more welcoming than stressful, too.
After runs, you’ll unlock new upgrades and characters for future runs based on your score. I’m a big fan of a mine weapon that blows up when I get the cats following me to walk over it. And my favorite character so far is a mouse named Jazz with sunglasses and a saxophone — who starts with a saxophone weapon. Such a cool little guy!
Maze Mice is in early access, so it should get more content down the line. It seems like there’s a generous amount to play with already; TrampolineTales launched the game this month with 30 characters and 63 upgrades, meaning there’s a lot to dig into. But the thing I love most about it is that I can play for a few minutes after an hourlong Doom: The Dark Ages level and feel like I actually accomplished something – even when those pesky cats eventually catch up to me.
