Transformice

Transformice is a cute little free-to-play massively multiplayer platformer from French developer Atelier 801 that puts you and a bunch of your closest friends – or maybe enemies – on a quest for cheese. Each level consists of a piece of cheese and a hole to serve as a start and end point. Players have two minutes to get to the cheese and get back to the hole, jockeying for position with other mice along the way. In addition to pits, ledges, and other difficult-to-reach places, some levels include elements with physics-based properties, such as bridges that wobble and snap if too many mice are on it.

One mouse on each level is the shaman, who has mystical powers that allow him to place elements in the world to (theoretically) help all mice reach the cheese. He can bridge gaps or build ramps to help, and the more mice who reach the cheese on his watch, the faster he progresses up the shaman skill tree to learn even more impressive talents. But a poor shaman can also just get in the way, “accidentally” blocking off areas and leading mice to their doom.

With seven game modes, hundreds of official maps, and millions of player-created maps, no two rounds of Transformice are ever exactly the same. The cash shop consists of only one type of item – hats – which have no gameplay benefits and can be earned in-game, though be warned: Some are incredibly difficult to obtain!

There’s even an adorable cartoon show based on the game that you can view on the website or via the Transformice YouTube channel. In the end, don’t be be fooled by Transformice’s cutesy graphics and theme – as one player puts it, it’s not a kids’ game, but a game you win with “the blood of the other mice you need to trample over to get the cheese and get to the goal to see your wife and family.”