Mouse Trap

As well as a high number of "clones" of better known video games such as Tetris, Bejeweled and Bust-a-Move and of classic games such as Connect 4, Tic-Tac-Toe and Checkers the Android market has found another set of "clones". The market has a high number of "move the blocks to clear a path and let the sprite reach the end" type of games. Although Mouse Trap isn't the best of them it is one of the highly rated ones on the market and is the first of them to be reviewed by this site. I guess you could infer it as being the standard bearer for similar games.

The title screen (to the right) looks pretty and cute but gives you nothing really to write home about. It's nice but nothing special and that's sort of the feeling you do get a lot of with the the game which in principle is a puzzle game that gets the mind working. As indicated by the title screen the character you need to help out is a mouse which gets trapped in a variety of situations. In fact with around 1200 levels to the game you could almost assume this is a mouse that actually wants to be trapped.

In this screen shot from an early level (one of the Laboratory levels) you can see the mechanics of the came. You need to move the blocks from the mouse to allow him to reach the small space at the end. Things are made trickier by the fact the mouse can only move backwards and forwards (no left and rights).

As you can see the game doesn't look amazing graphically but is a solid display and everything is clear and chunky, you won't be getting confused between the mouse and the blocks. Though again it's the feeling of it being "nice" as opposed to good. Things aren't helped the combination of some very simple levels and the limited (and dull) sound effects when you move a block.

What you may find about the game is that the concept is simple and the levels are
decent enough to want to play a few of, though that's also the biggest problem. With over 1200 levels you often only find yourself sitting down and doing 2 or 3 before feeling a bit bored and turning the game off. Which is a shame as it's almost certainly going to take weeks to reach some of the later worlds like "Heaven", "Bermudes" and "Sawmill" which all have potential to be a lot more interesting than the dull Laboratory. Whilst you may see that as having fantastic longevity the fact than you're only playing it for 5 or 6 minutes at a time would say that the game struggles to keep you occupied rather than having an extraordinary life span.

With so much to do, you will find it takes a lot of beating though you will also feel like you are grinding through it rather than enjoying it which isn't a feeling you want from a game.

Addictiveness-5/10 It will keep you entertained for 5 minutes at a time
Controls-7/10 Simple and effective but they do work well.
Graphics-6/10 Simple but dull in places. Although the later levels do look different you may never get around to seeing them.
Sounds-2/10 A garish dragging sound isn't particularly appealing, especially not when it's the only sound the game makes
Originality-5/10 Although there is a lot of these on the market they aren't a clone of classic, just more a clone of each other.
Total score 25/50

Overall the game is fun but only in short bursts and this kind of takes away from the fact it should be able to keep you playing for longer. With 100 levels in the laboratory alone you can lose the will to live long before you complete the games first real world.

Game mark C+