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MouseHunt, a Facebook application/game by Hit Grab Inc, is a passively played game, with an excellent blend of style and function. Your hunter works for the King setting traps to catch devious mice that plot (something) against the kingdom. Relatively simple: buy your trap, buy your trap’s base, and add some cheese. Then, you wait.

We’ll take a look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, the Good & the Bad, and give you a Final Review, plus a bonus Second Glance! So, is this game for casual gamers, hardcore gamers, or no gamers? Read on!

Game Flavor

MouseHunt has a medieval setting reminiscent of children’s fables, with mice as the main protagonists. The game has a light feel, avoids dark concepts, and keeps things on the surface easy going and fun. In addition, game-play is bolstered by fun and well crafted artwork and flavor-text; each mouse has a composite profile, and each trap has a full composite picture. The application header also contains an image that is location dependent, which helps add to the flavor of the game.

MouseHunt also has some tongue-in-cheek humor, with clever/hokey wordplay (such as Dwarf Mice, who are Dwarven Mice). I’ve got to admit, I’m a glutton for such light-hearted humor and definitely enjoy being caught off-guard by unexpected puns.

Game Mechanics

MouseHunt has easy-going mechanics that get more complicated as you play. Your trap’s basic abilities are: Power, Attraction, andLuck. Power helps capture mice, Attraction brings mice to your trap, and Luck is, well, how lucky your trap is from time to time. By catching mice, you gain gold and points (and sometimes loot).

The game has a slow pace, but this is intentional. You are meant to be able to log on, see what is going on, then walk away for a bit and check back later. If you want more active game play, every 15 minutes you can sound the hunter’s horn and hunt for mice. You can also travel places to hunt, buy miscellaneous goods, craft, use potions, and claim a King’s rewards along the way.

Over all, the game mechanics are simple when you first start out and grow in complexity as you gain rank through catching mice. Rank determines where you can hunt, what you can craft, and where you are in the game.

The Good

MouseHunt is a fairly free-flowing game, escaping some linear entrapment. With a light atmosphere of game play it also manages to be easy on the mind. With something happening every 15 minutes, it is engaging enough to keep coming back to, but restricts you from becoming addicted to the game. MouseHunt has a clearly defined concept; being a passive game, the form fits function perfectly. After all, what’s more passive than catching mice with a mousetrap?

However, the game goes beyond a simple passive mechanism and gives players more flavor, and more things to do. This includes crafting, traveling, using potions, and additional loot to search out. The mice are incredibly diverse, each one with a unique flavor text, artwork, strengths, and weaknesses. As you gain ranks, the availability in traps, traveling, crafting, potions, and cheese all increase which continues to draw the player into continued game play.

The game continues to go through development, meaning that new mice, new traps, new cheese, and new areas continue to be introduced, keeping this game fresh and engaging. Furthermore, although the game might be passive, MouseHunt has a very active community of players on their forum, and that is a strong plus.

The Bad

However, since the game doesn’t progress very quickly, I have not “beaten” the game. I’m not even sure the game has an “endpoint,” but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you aren’t looking for a strong plot line. In that respect, the game can drag on at a slow pace. You can play upwards to a week before advancing rank at low level, and much longer at higher levels. Furthermore, at low levels you can only do so much crafting and traveling as both are fairly limited. While the passive play style is exactly what the game is going for, the game might benefit from additional elements that would add more activities while waiting for your trap to catch mice.

Although MouseHunt does escape linear-entrapment to an extent, it is possible that the game progresses so slowly that you just don’t realize you are railroaded into finding certain items in certain orders to go to certain locations, which are further restricted by your rank. So, at least at low ranks, the only real choices you have then are where you hunt, with what trap, and what cheese. However, with the continual development by the MouseHunt team, this entrapment is partly mitigated.

Final Review

MouseHunt is a solid game. While not very complicated, the game’s strength is in its well designed simplicity. By holding to a clearly defined goal, the game manages to concentrate on being easy, fun, and light-hearted. By not competing against highly active games, MouseHunt creates a niche of its own further complimented by its game flavor. It doesn’t take up much of your time, so you can accomplish a great deal with little effort along the way. Overall, a good “B” game.

MouseHunt – great for casual gaming, complex enough for the hardcore gamer – “B”

Second Glance

With recent updates, new hunting locations, traps, cheese, and most importantly the addition of Tournaments, in which you and four of your friends join the same Hunting Party, Hit Grab takes their game up a crucial notch. Not only does the Tournament system bring the sense of communal play to an exciting level, it adds an entirely new type of game play to MouseHunt. In essence, adding Tournaments allows the game to be open-ended, with friendly competition and mutual cooperation key components. The aforementioned strengths of MouseHunt, combined with the recent updates makes this a nice “A” game.

MouseHunt – now with more awesomeness – “A”