Mouse Trap

aka: Mousetrap
Moby ID: 9762
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Description official descriptions

Mouse Trap is an arcade action game similar to Pac-Man. You control a mouse in a maze; your goal is to eat all of the bits of cheese in order to score points and move on to the next maze. Wandering throughout the maze are several cats who are trying to catch you! Your mouse has the ability to temporarily turn into a dog and be able to chase the cats. To do so, however, he will need to eat the dog bones which are located throughout the maze. The maze also contains numerous doors. The mouse can move these doors to reconfigure the maze in an attempt to outsmart the cats.

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Screenshots

Credits (Arcade version)

4 People

Copyright June 1981
  • Exidy Inc. [all rights reserved]
Staff
Designed by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 12 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 20 ratings with 1 reviews)

3% Toms + 1% Jerry = 0% fairness

The Good
Exidy Inc.'s Mouse Trap is a simple one-screen action game that is similar in many ways to the Pac-Man family. You control a little mousey, whose objective is to eat all the cheese that is lying around in the maze. You do this in order to go to the next one. This sounds easy, except for one thing.

There are severals cats that will escape from their kennels at opposite sides of the maze, and will eat you for dinner if you come into contact with them. There are also four bones that can be collected. What makes this game unique is the fact that unlike Pac-Man, where collecting the power pellets will make the ghosts turn blue, collecting one of the bones will cause you to transform into a bulldog if you press a button. Becoming a bulldog will let you chase the cats to put them back into their kennels. Unfortunately, the bulldog transformation lasts for about five seconds, so you need to act fast. Also, one press of a button will reconfigure the maze. This is especially useful if a cat is just inches behind you, and you need a quick escape.

In the Coleco version, I noticed a couple of differences. You see, apart from the main plot, you can also collect other goodies including a big piece of cheese, key, glasses, candle, horn, and ring. Collecting these will add to your bonus score. There is also the "in" door somewhere in the middle of the maze, enter it and you'll warp to one of the four corners of the maze. A hawk is also added to the list of characters. If he swoops down on you, you'll die whether you are turned into a dog or not. All of these features are missing in the Atari 2600 version.

Also missing are the enhanced sound and graphics that the Coleco version has, which is understandable since the 2600 is quite a primitive system today. Most of the sounds consists of one tones, and the graphics are no where near as good as the Coleco's.

The Bad
Your actions are performed using only one button, so I accidentally reconfigured the maze when I actually wanted to turn into a bulldog, and vice-versa.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, good game. Similar to Pac-Man but with minor differences. This game could have been improved, though, by adding more cats when you progress more through the game, rather than speeding them up. I was sure that I played this game the other way around, where I controlled one of the cats instead of a mouse, and the mouses were out to get me.

Rating: ***

Atari 2600 · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2004

Trivia

References to the game

Mouse Trap was popular enough to have a song inspired by it on the full-length Pac-Man Fever album titled Mousetrap.

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  • MobyGames ID: 9762
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Servo.

Arcade added by Diamondfist.

Additional contributors: Guy Chapman, Alaka, formercontrib.

Game added July 19, 2003. Last modified October 9, 2023.