Adventure Corner ~ Mousebusters

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at Mousebusters, a sometimes-shooty narrative adventure game for the PC.

Mousebusters

I was in between games and looking for a palate cleanse, so what game turned out perfect for the task? Mousebusters! This was hardly a surprise, since I played the demo last winter for a site feature. Whenever I start up an Odencat production, I know what I’m getting into: something short, cozy, cute, and which will inevitably tug at my heartstrings before tying them into knots. And at a generous five hours to completion, it manages to bring it home with good pacing and fun delivery.

It’s a simple scenario: the player has just moved into a new apartment building, which just so happens to be haunted. It’s even noted in the details of the leasing agreement. When he wakes up the next morning, he is a mouse, and suddenly things aren’t so simple for him. Under the tutelage of a fellow mousified tenant, known only as Chief, the player must combat the negative forces infiltrating the other five apartments in the building, exorcising the ghosts and bringing solace to neighbors he still hasn’t had the chance to formally meet. So in he goes, learning a bit more about their lives, their hang-ups, and the best approach to making things one step easier.

At least it wasn’t a cockroach?

The main gameplay loop begins with Chief talking about which apartments are targeted that day, followed by the player scouting the place out, locating the phantasmal focus, and then figuring out how to get at it properly. The lives of the tenants will get in the way, and overall the game feels like a point-and-click adventure as various items are examined and used to further the cause. Once the ghost is confronted, things switch to a point-and-shoot mode of combat, with shifting weakpoints on the target and smaller ghoulies getting launched at the player. The Mousebuster ghost-zapper has a three-shot limit before taking a second to recharge, so timing can be important, especially in the more hectic exorcisms later on. The game does have a Story Mode that doubles the player’s hit points and greatly weakens the ghosts, but Normal Mode is a well-balanced challenge that never felt unfair to me as I played.

All throughout, Chief gives a running commentary that is pitch-perfect and always in character. The English translation as a whole is handled well, which is important for a game with a text ratio as high as this, and kudos go to Evan Ward for the translation and localization. Along with the humorous nature of the text, the music also fits the scene quite well, and Odencat is nice enough to provide a Guitar Hero parody mini-game featuring tunes from across the studio’s game library for the player to enjoy outside of missions. It’s not even the only mini-game; there’s a retro arcade target practice game as well, with prizes for racking up enough points.

You’ll shoot your eye out!

As I figured from the Steam Next Fest demo, Mousebusters is a solid little narrative adventure with a few shooty bits and a lot of heart. It’s not striving to be like the bigger games out there, and in the process it manages to be its own thing on its own terms. For anyone needing a break from heavier fare, this fun little romp is a welcome change of pace.

Disclosure: This article is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.