Danger Mouse
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| Danger Mouse

The prospect of helping two rodents to scurry around in real life wouldn't be too appealing for most folk.

Point out that said rodents are actually Danger Mouse and Penfold, however, and their interest is likely to grow.

Considering the original TV series consisted of fewer than 90 episodes in all, the continued popularity of Cosgrove Hall's finest on both sides of the Atlantic is nothing to be sniffed at.

The problem is, Danger Mouse doesn't necessarily provide the best material for a video game.

Mouse, loose, about this house

Rather than attempt to turn the franchise into an overly elaborate and frankly unrealistic Sonic-style platformer – seemingly the template for most such cash-ins – Spacehopper Studios has opted to keep things comparatively direct.

The idea is to co-ordinate collaboration between the two characters to enable them to slip through a series of levels partitioned by a collection of doors.

Simply speaking, this means either using Penfold to crawl through tight spaces to flip switches and open up the path ahead, or using Danger Mouse – who, with his added height, is able to leap to platforms up above – to do much the same in the upper reaches of each stage.

Switching back and forth between both characters soon becomes second nature, if only through repetition rather than the elegance of the game's design.

Doubting danger

That's not to say Danger Mouse's levels are in any way shoddy.

Indeed, the need to use both Danger Mouse and Penfold together as the stages become populated by enemies – crocodiles being the first to take a snap – adds a nice balance, with Danger Mouse able to pick up his feeble friend and throw him over numerous potential pitfalls up ahead.

But Danger Mouse's very simplicity in the end serves only to cement how forgettable it is.

Choosing which character to employ, for instance, is heavily signposted from the off, meaning carrying out tasks as ordered rather than working out what needs to be accomplished in the first place soon becomes the game's language.

The game features plenty of nods to the TV series, bringing some character to proceedings. But in terms of gameplay, Danger Mouse is ultimately a routine affair, with a succession of simple puzzles proving to be far less potent than the mouse himself.

Danger Mouse

Plain and ultimately repetitive, Danger Mouse remains faithful to the franchise, but its to-and-fro nature proves to be forgettable
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.