Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
Funky. Jazzy. Fun. These are the first three words that sprung to mind in my three-hour preview of Maze Mice, which has now entered Early Access. If Maze Mice sounds or looks familiar, that must mean that you’ve played Luck be a Landlord…or you’re a Pac Man fan.
If you’re in the former camp, I have good news for you: This little indie gem is the product of TrampolineTales, the developer behind the roguelike hit Luck be a Landlord. While I haven’t spent much time playing Luck be a Landlord, I’m convinced that TrampolineTales has the roguelike elements and gameplay loop down pat.
Maze Mice is a simple roguelike. Anyone with an iota of familiarity with Pac Man or any of its clones can survive for quite a bit of time. Unfamiliar with the punishing arcade experience known as Pac Man? No worries – you’ll still have quite a bit of a fun time playing Maze Mice.
I was put in control of a cute mouse and set loose in a maze with a single purpose: Collect as many randomly placed blue orbs as possible. The orbs happen to be placed next to sleeping cats. If I get to close when picking up an orb, the cats wake up and start chasing my little mouse. Once I collect enough orbs, I get access to silly weapons and powerups to deal with the mice as I continue my simple quest of collecting orbs.
This process continues as I keep on collecting orbs and upgrades until the inevitable moment where my little mouse’s health has been entirely depleted. Then, I can start a new run with an entirely different set of upgrades, new character, and potentially more. Classic roguelike stuff.
Maze Mice shares a key similarity with the likes of Enter the Chronosphere in that there is a slowed down roguelike gameplay experience. If I was to stop moving, the rest of my feline enemies would stop, too. This gameplay experience makes Maze Mice feel casual and slightly relaxed.
Ddid I stop and think often? No. But when I did, the reprieve of stopping for a second or two to consider which direction to turn or which upgrade to take felt like the game was giving me breathing room, an element often missing from the frenetic and often highly variant roguelike genre.
At the end of each run, I was presented with a score screen that showed me which weapons were dealing the most damage and my progress in unlocking additional weapons, characters, and more. Maze Mice successfully got me into the “one more run” loop, which is a good sign for a roguelike, just so I could try out the new thing I just unlocked.
There was one issue, though: I wasn’t able to keep track of what was to come. In other words, I had no way of seeing what my next unlockable was until the end game screen and I was shown the progress bar. Having a visible progress bar outside of the end-of-round screen would help me, as a player, to visualize how close I am to unlocking future content and inspire me to continue multiple runs or an ultra-high score.
If Maze Mice’s progression is to remain intentionally hidden or obfuscated, though, then TrampolineTales should consider taking a page from Balatro by showing a massive collection of unlockables on its main menu just to entice players into playing another run just to see what they could unlock (as opposed to will unlock).
Maze Mice is in Early Access at this time, and TrampolineTales has committed to adding more levels, more characters, and more content. I unlocked several cutesy playable mice during my playthrough, but I’m curious to see how they layer in more variety on the upgrade and level design side of things. Heck, if there was a way to overclock my little mouse into getting more than the current limit of upgrades (sort of like how Vampire Survivors has an endless mode for those who want to break the game with a nirvana of pixelated chaos), that might be a cool addition, too.
As it stands, I can’t give Maze Mice a rating until its eventual full release. But I can say this much: If Maze Mice is this fun and jazzy now, I’m excited to see the full version of the game when it is released.
