Mouse Game

Mouse Game is a top-down kitchen heist. You play a small gray mouse who has to sneak out of its hole, eat every cheese crumb on the floor and drag the big cheese wedges home, all without waking the house cat. You can play Mouse Game online free in your browser with no download, on a keyboard, a mouse or a phone’s touch screen.

How to play

You start in the mouse hole on the left wall. To clear a kitchen, eat all the crumbs, carry every wedge back to the hole, then return to the hole yourself.

• Move: use the arrow keys or WASD. You can also tap or click any floor spot and the mouse finds its own way there. Drag your finger or pointer to change the destination as you go.
• Sneak: hold Shift, or turn on the Sneak button on a phone. Sneaking is half speed but completely silent.
• Crumbs and wedges: walk over a crumb to eat it (10 points). Walking onto a wedge picks it up. Carry it into the hole to store it (50 points). A wedge slows you down to 60 percent of your normal speed, and you can only carry one at a time. Press Space, E or the Drop button to put it down, and press it again while standing on a dropped wedge to pick it back up.
• Clear bonus: finishing a kitchen adds a bonus that grows with the level, plus 50 more if no cat ever spotted you.

The cat

Every kitchen has at least one orange house cat, and later kitchens have two or three. A cat spends most of its time asleep on its blue cushion. The blue ring around a sleeping cat counts down its nap. When the ring runs out, the cat gets up and patrols for a while before walking back to its cushion to nap again.

• Wake meter: the bar under a sleeping cat fills when you run on the hard floor tiles nearby. The closer you are, the faster it fills. Sneaking makes no noise anywhere, and the patterned rugs muffle your steps even when you run. When you go quiet, the meter slowly drains. If it fills up, the cat wakes early and comes to look where it heard you.
• Sight cones: an awake cat shows a cone of light in front of it. Counters and walls block the cone, so you can slip past behind them. Tables and cups are low, so the cat can see past them. A yellow cone means it is patrolling, orange means it is investigating a noise, and red means it has seen you and is giving chase.
• Getting caught: if an awake cat reaches you in the open, you are caught and the level restarts. A running mouse is a little faster than a chasing cat, but a mouse carrying a wedge is not.

Hiding spots

Blue cups and cardboard boxes, the space under tables and your own mouse hole all hide you completely. A cat cannot see or catch a hidden mouse, even when it is right next to you, and a cat that was chasing you gives up and searches around. A cheese wedge is too big to fit in a cup or box, though. You can still hide under a table while carrying one, or drop the wedge and duck into a cup.

Levels, endless mode and hats

There are 15 kitchens, each unlocked by clearing the one before. They get harder with more cats, more wedges, longer and wider sight cones, shorter naps and longer patrols. Endless mode builds a fresh kitchen each time you clear one, and your score carries over until you get caught. Clearing levels 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 unlocks a party hat, chef hat, top hat, beanie and crown for your mouse, and an endless score of 1,500 unlocks a flower. Your progress, best endless score and chosen hat are saved in your browser.

Tips

• Watch the ring. Plan each trip so you are back in a hiding spot before the nap timer runs out. Every spot on the floor is only a few steps from a cup, box, table or the hole.
• Run where it is safe. Run freely on rugs and far from sleeping cats, and switch to sneaking on tiles close to one.
• Move wedges in stages. If home is too far, carry the wedge part of the way, drop it near a cup, hide, and finish the job on the next nap.

FAQ

Is Mouse Game free?

Yes. It is free, with no account and nothing to install.

Does it work on phones and Chromebooks?

Yes. On a phone or tablet, tap where you want the mouse to go and use the Sneak and Drop buttons. The game area won’t scroll the page while you play. On a Chromebook or laptop, use the arrow keys or WASD with Shift to sneak.

Can I pause?

Press P or Esc, or use the Pause button. The game also pauses if you switch tabs.

Like finding your way through tricky layouts? Try Maze for pure maze solving. Or switch sides with Cat Game, a relaxed idle game where you run a cat café.