Preview: Maze Mice Combines Vampire Survivors and Pac-Man

We’ve seen so many Vampire Survivors style games since it launched. Lots of people want to create that same roguelike, bullet-hell magic. Likewise, Pac-Man inspired quite a few copycats, with other developers sending players dashing through mazes in search of points and objectives as enemies close in behind them. Maze Mice, from Luck Be a Landlord developer TrampolineTales, borrows concepts from both Pac-Man and Vampire Survivors into a roguelike that feels unique in its own way. You’re a mouse. Sometimes, you’re a brightly colored one that also starts with an ability. But regardless, you’re a rodent running through a location. To start off, it’s an attic. Cat-like enemies abound, but there are ways to survive. They all only move when you do, and you gain abilities like fire, knitting needles, light, bombs, and hairballs to deal damage to any pursuing you. Your goal is to collect colored dots, which start out as blue but can eventually be green, red, or yellow, to earn experience, level up, gain more upgrades, and continue to evade and damage your pursuers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaFqfZt0O0s&ab_channel=TrampolineTales Playing Maze Mice is incredibly simple, and I highly recommend behaving as though you’re in the middle of a Pac-Man level. Now, you won’t have the fancy drift effects such as holding a directional button ahead of a corner to take the turn more swiftly, but the approach still helps. You want to snarf up any dots, prioritizing the large ones that make lines of new smaller ones and an additional larger one spawn, all while avoiding enemies. It’s best to not attempt to chase down or attack enemies, as larger chains of cats and groups of cat ghosts will eventually start to block paths as they trail behind you. When you get enough orbs to level up, you choose one weapon or utility upgrade that either actively deals damage over time or after a cooldown or type of passive that offers a buff or perhaps lets you revive. Picking the same upgrade repeatedly levels it up. From there, keep running and survive as long as you can. It’s incredibly satisfying! As someone very adept at Pac-Man, I found myself being able to maintain at least 15 minute runs in Maze Mice, which proved fantastic for unlocking. I will say that, in early access at least, it’s almost a little too easy on earlier levels sometimes. I found it wasn’t until I hit about level 20 that things started to feel genuinely challenging. There are really only three issues I experienced with Maze Mice so far, and I feel like both involve balancing. In one case, it involves the actual flow of the game itself. It is very easy to catch on to a strategy that works, then cling to it, especially since one of the absolute best weapons is unlocked at the outset. Since one of the most prevalent enemies in Maze Mice happens to be the cats that act like Pac-Man ghosts and automatically follow you after you run past and wake them up, the Flame Trail ability’s damage blows every other type out of the water. This lays a path of fire behind you that increases in strength and capabilities with upgrades. Since the ghost cats will also follow in a similar way, it means they’re equally susceptible. Prism is a close second, as it’s the more effective means of dealing with ghost cats, but there were runs during which I’d only prioritize those and still get to level 30 without any issue. This means Luna and Roscoe are the preferred mice to pick, since each one starts with one of those two upgrades immediately in their inventory in Maze Mice the way some characters do in Vampire Survivors. Image via Siliconera Speaking of enemies and abilities, that’s another issue with Maze Mice that is also tied to balancing, since unlocks for those and stages are tied to experience earned each run instead of accomplishments like in Vampire Survivors. The problem here is that it takes so long for new enemies and stages to unlock. I’d unlocked four types of mice and multiple utility and weapon options, but still haven’t seen a new type of enemy or area. It’s always the Attic, which is a very Pac-Man like Maze Mice location, the sleeping cats in various colors signifying strength, and the ghost cats that keep spawning until an eventual larger, faster version spawns and increases in speed. I’d love to see more variety open up more swiftly. Of course, given Maze Mice just entered early access on May 2, 2025, I’m more than confident Trampoline Tales will bolster up the roster and add the additional promised characters, enemies, stages, and upgrades. After all, the page already confirmed that there will be double the number of mice and upgrades at launch. The developer is active in the Steam Discussions for the game, after all. All that said, what is here can be quite compelling! Maze Mice taps into what makes both Pac-Man and Vampire Survivors so appealing, and I absolutely think it will be a game I will pop into for 15-30 minute runs every once in a while

May 15, 2025 - 16:08

Preview: Maze Mice Combines Vampire Survivors and Pac-Man

We’ve seen so many Vampire Survivors style games since it launched. Lots of people want to create that same roguelike, bullet-hell magic. Likewise, Pac-Man inspired quite a few copycats, with other developers sending players dashing through mazes in search of points and objectives as enemies close in behind them. Maze Mice, from Luck Be a Landlord developer TrampolineTales, borrows concepts from both Pac-Man and Vampire Survivors into a roguelike that feels unique in its own way.

You’re a mouse. Sometimes, you’re a brightly colored one that also starts with an ability. But regardless, you’re a rodent running through a location. To start off, it’s an attic. Cat-like enemies abound, but there are ways to survive. They all only move when you do, and you gain abilities like fire, knitting needles, light, bombs, and hairballs to deal damage to any pursuing you. Your goal is to collect colored dots, which start out as blue but can eventually be green, red, or yellow, to earn experience, level up, gain more upgrades, and continue to evade and damage your pursuers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaFqfZt0O0s&ab_channel=TrampolineTales

Playing Maze Mice is incredibly simple, and I highly recommend behaving as though you’re in the middle of a Pac-Man level. Now, you won’t have the fancy drift effects such as holding a directional button ahead of a corner to take the turn more swiftly, but the approach still helps. You want to snarf up any dots, prioritizing the large ones that make lines of new smaller ones and an additional larger one spawn, all while avoiding enemies. It’s best to not attempt to chase down or attack enemies, as larger chains of cats and groups of cat ghosts will eventually start to block paths as they trail behind you. When you get enough orbs to level up, you choose one weapon or utility upgrade that either actively deals damage over time or after a cooldown or type of passive that offers a buff or perhaps lets you revive. Picking the same upgrade repeatedly levels it up. From there, keep running and survive as long as you can.

It’s incredibly satisfying! As someone very adept at Pac-Man, I found myself being able to maintain at least 15 minute runs in Maze Mice, which proved fantastic for unlocking. I will say that, in early access at least, it’s almost a little too easy on earlier levels sometimes. I found it wasn’t until I hit about level 20 that things started to feel genuinely challenging.

There are really only three issues I experienced with Maze Mice so far, and I feel like both involve balancing. In one case, it involves the actual flow of the game itself. It is very easy to catch on to a strategy that works, then cling to it, especially since one of the absolute best weapons is unlocked at the outset. Since one of the most prevalent enemies in Maze Mice happens to be the cats that act like Pac-Man ghosts and automatically follow you after you run past and wake them up, the Flame Trail ability’s damage blows every other type out of the water. This lays a path of fire behind you that increases in strength and capabilities with upgrades. Since the ghost cats will also follow in a similar way, it means they’re equally susceptible. Prism is a close second, as it’s the more effective means of dealing with ghost cats, but there were runs during which I’d only prioritize those and still get to level 30 without any issue. This means Luna and Roscoe are the preferred mice to pick, since each one starts with one of those two upgrades immediately in their inventory in Maze Mice the way some characters do in Vampire Survivors.

Speaking of enemies and abilities, that’s another issue with Maze Mice that is also tied to balancing, since unlocks for those and stages are tied to experience earned each run instead of accomplishments like in Vampire Survivors. The problem here is that it takes so long for new enemies and stages to unlock. I’d unlocked four types of mice and multiple utility and weapon options, but still haven’t seen a new type of enemy or area. It’s always the Attic, which is a very Pac-Man like Maze Mice location, the sleeping cats in various colors signifying strength, and the ghost cats that keep spawning until an eventual larger, faster version spawns and increases in speed. I’d love to see more variety open up more swiftly.

Of course, given Maze Mice just entered early access on May 2, 2025, I’m more than confident Trampoline Tales will bolster up the roster and add the additional promised characters, enemies, stages, and upgrades. After all, the page already confirmed that there will be double the number of mice and upgrades at launch. The developer is active in the Steam Discussions for the game, after all. All that said, what is here can be quite compelling! Maze Mice taps into what makes both Pac-Man and Vampire Survivors so appealing, and I absolutely think it will be a game I will pop into for 15-30 minute runs every once in a while as a palette cleanser both in early access and after the 1.0 launch.

Maze Mice is available in early access on Steam for PCs.

The post Preview: Maze Mice Combines Vampire Survivors and Pac-Man appeared first on Siliconera.