Every now and then, a browser game breaks through the mediocrity around it and stands out as something well worth your time. Transformice is one such title, merely looking at its home page will cause it to grab you by the hand and drag you into the mire of insanity in which it resides.
Transformice is a multiplayer game of up to 25 players at a time, a cap that nearly every game reaches. The concept can be summarized as succinctly as “you are a mouse, get the cheese and bring it back”. However, leaving the description at that would be like saying a car moves because somebody pushes down on a pedal.
Every level has different gimmicks. Think “Cat Mario” or “I Wanna Be The Guy”. Though Transformice is not nearly as sadistic as either, the same concept is in place, with random pitfalls and obstacles out of nowhere that make your quest for cheese end catastrophically at the drop of a hat.
25 people all competing on one of these small maps is an absolute clusterf….. mess. This mess is part of the charm though, as the game is a frenzied mess of players trampling one another to achieve their goal.
On top of this mess, one (sometimes two) players are randomly selected every map or two to play as the “shaman”. I will let YouTube’s EvilDaedalus provide you with a one sentence description of what the shaman does.
“Should you **** up, it’s okay. The shaman will pretend to help you.”
Shamans have a list of items they can summon to build contraptions such as elevators, bridges, and the like. They also have items like cannonballs and anvils that send players hurdling towards their goal when used.
As you can imagine, it being the internet, not every shaman uses these powers for good. Some use them to build ridiculously elaborate killing machines, or simply to pull the rug out from under you on the way to your destination. Shamans provide entertainment during downtime should you fall to your doom early in a map, as you can watch them boot helpless players thousands of feet into the air for their own amusement.
Transformice is difficult to explain (as I think I’ve demonstrated flawlessly), but easy to learn. Everybody should play this game at least for a few minutes to get a feel for it, the asinine hilarity is truly something you’re missing out on if you don’t give it a try.
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AHHH you beat me to it. With all the donations to the game, they have a forum now and a lot more servers. I hope it stays popular and doesn’t turn into just another quick internet fad.