MiceGard Review

Welcome to the tiny world of Rodentholm, home to a race of Viking-themed mice. We see the villagers in the middle of a celebration in the village of MiceGard, known as Beltene, which marks the arrival of summer. In MiceGard, we take on the role of Micel, a mouse who works as a warrior to protect the village from outside threats. Apparently, he is quite popular among the residents, especially a young girl named Helga. She runs over to Micel with a bouquet of Stellaria flowers, which are traditionally given to a loved one. Helga gives this special gift to him; in exchange, she wants him to promise that he will take her as his wife once she gets old enough, as she is still a child. He takes only one of the flowers and resists her urge to make a marriage promise. Micel is chatting with the other mice in the village when we suddenly hear yelling. Mother Mouse says that her five babies have been kidnapped, and one of them is the love-stricken Helga.

MiceGard throws the player into the action quickly as Micel, Ratkin, and Squeaking head out to search for the children. The three are not alone on their journey; they are accompanied by other mouse warriors from the village. Micel is sure that the frogs are behind the kidnapping; these amphibians have been responsible for other events in the past, like robbing the mice and capturing some of the residents. While contemplating this, Micel wonders why the runestone, which is supposed to protect the village from evil, did nothing. The rune was placed there by the goddess Freyja, so MiceGuard should have been safe and protected.

We learn how to control the squad of mice, which is a bit different than only moving one mouse around. If you are playing with a controller, moving around is done with the left thumbstick, and to attack, use X. There are a variety of formations that the mice can battle in, which will also change the type of weapon that they use. The different patterns are set by using the D-pad. Up is the offensive stance, where the mice move into a triangle shape, with Micel taking the point and leading the group. They attack using bows and arrows, which is great for ranged attacks against the enemy, but the group moves quite slowly. It is also tricky to spin the whole group around to attack foes that have popped up behind you. 

D-pad down is a defensive position. The mice form a circle, all facing outward to attack with swords. You have to get close to the enemy to hit them, but it’s a lot harder for them to sneak up behind the group. The last position is a free stance, which is selected with the D-pad left. The mice all move separately, picking up resources and attacking any enemies that are near them. You are only controlling Micel, so if any of the mice run off to attack something, you aren’t able to dodge the incoming attacks coming at the other mice, so they may take some damage. The advantage of this formation is that the mice move a lot faster than if they were together as a group.

Your team of mice has one health bar of 100 hit points to start; this can be upgraded as you progress, but keep in mind that everyone in the group shares this health. There are hearts you can find in the level that can help replenish some of the missing hit points, but trying to be strategic with your bow to do ranged attacks to help avoid damage is advantageous. If you run out of health, you will start at the beginning of your current mission or back in the village. Once you get back home after completing your first mission, you find that it has been attacked by Toadon, the giant frog boss, and his froggie army. Why has Freyja abandoned them in their time of need? This is one of the questions Micel will need to answer on his journey.

Whenever you visit home, your health will be completely replenished before you head out on your next mission. If you use the materials that you have picked up while you were out exploring, you can rebuild the destroyed buildings in town to learn new abilities like a dash, get perks like 1.5 times more hit points for your warriors, or have safe zones in each level where you can recover some health. Each building has a unique bonus that you will get once it’s fixed up, so you get to decide which you think is most beneficial to get at that time. The first building costs only five stones to fix, but all the others will cost 150, so you will have to do some collecting to get enough material to finish the repairs.

In the village, there is a headquarters located near the tactical map, where you will select which level you want to challenge next. Each has its own mission and can be completed in any order you choose. There are 13 different levels and a final boss stage where you will face the frog boss, Toadon. The missions are quite short, so they probably won’t take too long to complete.

Most of the levels have you walking around collecting resources, battling the evil frog army, and rescuing captured mice trapped in cages that are carried back to the village by a ladybug; they will help you in the final battle. A couple of the levels are totally different and have the mice on boats fighting the enemies or have you in control of a Ballista — a large crossbow on a track — the weapon can be moved up and down to fire at the horde of incoming frogs. It was fun to play the levels that weren’t just walking around; it added a nice variety. At times, Micel has to prove that he is a leader, so you have to make hard decisions, like if you sacrifice a villager to appease Frejya and gain her favour. But remember, you will have to stand behind the decisions you make in the end.

The visuals in MiceGard are pretty good, though when each of the mice is talking, a larger portrait pops up, and you will notice quickly that each character is the same drawing, with the only real differences being their fur colour and if they have earrings. The frog enemies all look the same unless they are holding a leaf shield; once that is blasted away, it is back to the basic frog. This was the same with the music; it always sounded like the same fiddle or guitar music with a twang to it. It wasn’t bad by any means, but if you are playing for a long stretch of time, you may get tired of it. There were good sound effects to accompany the music; when the mice would get hit, they would squeak, and the frog would croak when taking damage.

MiceGard is a fun game, but there was a bit of confusion with the text in the game. At times, it referred to the home village as Musgard instead of MiceGard, or instead of the main character, Micel, they referred to him as Michelle. This isn’t a game-ending thing, but it got a lot more confusing when they kept changing the directions for the controls. One time, it says the offensive stance is D-pad and up, with the defensive being D-pad right instead of down like it had said before. The game is still enjoyable with these issues and is entertaining to check out, especially if you want a game that doesn’t require a huge time commitment.