Transformice Chews Its Way Onto Steam

Transformice [official site], arguably the world's first MMO mouse simulator platformer, arrive on Steam this week. It's not a new game - believe it or not, there's been a dozen or more of them living in your wall cavities for, ooh, I'd say about five years ago looking at the damage they've done.

*sucks air through teeth*

Yep, it's going to cost a few bob to fix all of that up. I'd say at least- wait, free? It's free? And supported through the sale of cosmetic items? Which are also all unlockable through play?

Here's a bloke called Kieron telling you why you should play it, all the way back in 2010.

Transformice works like this: you and a load of other players all control an individual mouse. In each level you're tasked with retrieving a piece of cheese and bringing it back to your start point. To reach the cheese, you simply need to navigate the level. Simple, eh?

In practice, not so much. There's the minor detail that ideally you want your mouse to be the first to return with the cheese, so you'll need to be balancing co-operation (to make victory possible) versus competition (to score the most points). Then there's the fact that levels are set up to make reaching the cheese initially impossible.

This is where the Shaman comes in: one mouse uses special powers to place and construct items, from simple ledges or platforms through to wheeled carts, ostensibly to aid your fellow players retrieve the cheese. Alternatively you could set something up so as to drop your fellow players down a hole, then laugh uproariously. It's up to you.

Transformice basically throws multiple players, a physics engine and basic construction tools into a huge bag labelled "collaboration", then shakes it vigorously and dumps the contents into level after level. If you're not sure about the label "MMO mouse simulator platformer", you could always go with "emergent hilarity" instead.