A Labour Of Love
Mousebusters is a single-player adventure game in which players take on the role of a young man who moves into an apartment building, only to be turned into a mouse.
Plenty of rodent hijinks ensue as our newly transformed hero befriends Chief, a fellow mouse man, and together the two set about ridding the apartment building of the ghosts that haunt it.
A labour of love for indie developer Odencat, Mousebusters is a remake of the studio’s earlier mobile game, with this renewed version putting a heavier emphasis on gameplay, as opposed to what was primarily a story-driven adventure in its previous incarnation.
The bulk of the gameplay tasks our hero with investigating the apartments of the various residents in order to establish a way to confront the ghost that haunts each home. Once the route to the ghost has been discovered the battle to exorcise the spectral antagonist commences. These fights against the ghosts are the only battles in the game, there are no other enemies of any kind in Mousebusters, these boss battles being the only jeopardy of any kind to be found.
A Non-Existent Challenge
I hesitate to even use the term ‘boss’ to describe our ghostly nemesis as it may set false expectations, so allow me to dispel those now – there is virtually no challenge in Mousebusters. The fights with each ghost are frustratingly similar, with the gameplay transitioning to a shoot ‘em up with a point & click bent. Using an on-screen reticle, the player must target each ghost’s weak point whilst also shooting down projectiles to boot.
Sounds simple? That’s because, truly and simply, Mousebusters is an incredibly easy game. Ease in of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, though no doubt it will be a turn off for some, but the lack of a challenge is in the DNA of Mousebusters’ biggest flaw. Despite its short length, the repetitiveness of the fights, in addition to the simplicity of the puzzle solving sequences, means the game can quite quickly fall into the dreaded realm of monotony.
The puzzle solving portions immediately precede each battle and provide some much needed variety to proceedings, with one particularly memorable sequence transitioning into a rhythm game. However, it is not enough, Mousebusters needed more of this, instead, the variety provided by the rhythm game stands out as the exception when it needed to be the rule.
The other apartment segments are all variations on a theme: find ingredients for a meal, distract a cat, find the password to a tenant’s pc. Each requires our mouse protagonist to gather items scattered throughout the apartment in order to distract the occupant and allow the hero to confront the ghost. None of these levels provide that vital moment of change that the rhythm section does and each is followed by a ghost fight that is frustratingly similar to the last. You can really feel the mobile game origins in Mousebusters gameplay and perhaps that is the way it should have stayed. Simply put, whatever gameplay Odencat has added to this remake is insufficient.
Surprisingly Compelling Narrative
Thankfully, it is not all doom and gloom. The perfect antidote to Mousebusters flawed gameplay, is the game’s greatest strength – its surprisingly compelling narrative. A young fella becoming a mouse and fighting ghosts may not sound like the recipe for a deep and emotional story, but that is exactly what Mousebusters has in store for you.
Each ghost represents the flaws and insecurities that plague the five featured tenants.
There is the elderly widow who misses her husband and wiles the days away in the company of her cat. The foreigner who is struggling to adapt to a different culture. The aspiring rock star in need of inspiration, In addition to a shopaholic whose life lacks substance and a workaholic who lives for his job. Each resident’s struggle is exploited by the ghosts that haunt their apartments, which themselves are the by-product of the tragic death of the building’s former landlord.
The most tragic character of all is our resident mouse in the chair, Chief. A heroic but deeply flawed individual, it is Chief that sets the events of the game in motion and it is he that is ultimately the protagonist of Mousebusters. Our playable character is an avatar, both for us the player and for Chief, through whom he hopes to cleanse the building of its haunting apparitions and atone for a great wrong doing.
This is the emotional core of Mousebusters, Chief’s journey to redemption requires him to cure the damaged psyche’s of the building’s occupants, and he can only achieve this goal through the protagonist, and ultimately, the player.
Beautifully Simplistic Visuals
Mousebusters is a beautiful game to look at; it exemplifies pixel art simplicity at its absolute finest. The human character models are a particular standout; as large and as detailed as one could expect from pixels, they stand in beautiful contrast to our tiny rodent hero. The apartments are small but well designed and detailed, with each matching the personality and interests of the various tenants. For example, the workaholic’s apartment is sparse and bland, whereas the shopaholic’s apartment is bright and colourful. These are minor details, but they go a long way to crafting an individual identity for each character. In a game that lacks variety in its gameplay, this adds vital diversity to the experience.
In keeping with the theme of repetition, the soundtrack is made up of a small number of tracks which each loop on repeat after a few seconds. In all, the score does an adequate job of carrying us through the story. You are unlikely to remember a single track once you are done playing, but there is nothing that will drive a player to madness despite hearing the same tracks on loop throughout.
Compelling, Yet Repetitive
Mousebusters is a tricky game to define; from a gameplay perspective it is hamstrung by a level of repetitiveness that simply cannot be ignored, yet its compelling narrative is something that demands it be experienced.
Ultimately, the game may have been better off in its previous incarnation as a mobile exclusive, but if this updated version grants more people access to its whimsical and deeply resonant story, then the transition will be worth the bumps along the way.
Important Links
Mousebusters Sends A Newly Cursed Rodent On A Ghost-Hunting Mission – https://www.thexboxhub.com/mousebusters-sends-a-newly-cursed-rodent-on-a-ghost-hunting-mission/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/mousebusters/9nbdmq6k2d8m
