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[Nillo]

It's now on Steam.

Let the cheese-related shenanigans commence.

[Praying Mantis]

Awesome. Transformice is great. Too bad not as many people play vanilla stages anymore.

[Cranktrain]

I must admit, I've had a go with Transformice every now and then since it was released, but I've never quite got it. If I die, I have to wait a couple minutes till the next round? It's an immediately interesting concept, but... after ten minutes of mostly waiting I'll go do something else.

[oahda]

Oh, I was thinking about this game just the other day but I couldn't remember the name of it. Played it a few years ago. I don't remember waiting...

[Praying Mantis]

The wait is relatively short because the shaman and the mice tend to kill themselves pretty quite, so you rarely actually wait a minute and a half. Also you usually only die if you're dumb. If you just wait for the shaman to help you, or pace yourself, you'll survive easily. You really only die if you're in too much of a hurry or the shaman is actively trying to kill you. Also playing on Vanilla maps help, because the usermade ones are bork. Learning how to walljump also helps and is pretty much essential.

Been playing it again and man is it a good podcast game. Mindless fun and it only requires one hand to play.

[Cranktrain]

Also you usually only die if you're dumb.

Suddenly it's all so clear!

[SirNiko]

You don't only die if you're dumb; the game gives special rewards if you consistently are the first mouse to return to the hole with cheese which is a major reason why players will leap ahead suicidally and force the shaman to rush to save them. It's actually brilliant design, because otherwise too many maps would be effortless while the mice wait for the shaman to shore up an obvious gap or bridge. On many maps, that means lunging ahead the moment the map starts and hoping the shaman can keep up, or trying to predict the very moment a platform will become available and try to catch it in midair. Consequently, many players will perish if the shaman is too slow or makes a mistake, but predicting the shaman's ability or behavior is part of the fun.

That's why I loved the game so much. It manages to recreate the suicidal stupidity of the Lemmings games through positive reinforcement rather than trusting players to play the game the "right way".

Sometimes you get a mouse on a map who just idles or intentionally obstructs the game (in levels where mice cannot overlap), but that's relatively rare and often the shaman can force them into the goal or a pit to advance the level anyway.

The only downside is that there's a huge learning curve for the shaman abilities and it can get frustrating as both a player and as a newbie shaman when you're stuck with the shaman fumbling trying to identify the best solution to a map they haven't played very much.

[Praying Mantis]

I agree that the rush makes it a lot of fun, but if you're new you shouldn't be rushing, because there's almost no chance you'll get first-place until you have a well developed understanding of the game and can compete against the good players. That's what I mean by "you only die if you're dumb", you're not going to come first when you've just started, so there's no point in trying to rush.