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ARCADE
RATMOUSE Review: A Rat, Some Bugs, and My Rapidly Declining Patience
Zoopgar made an arcade game about a rat named Barbra exterminating bugs for crumbs, and somehow I didn't immediately close the tab. Let me tell you why that's actually impressive.
Paul
February 9, 2026
6.5
Overall Score
"RATMOUSE surprised me by being genuinely good instead of another retro-inspired disappointment."
First Impressions (Or: When Low Expectations Met Actual Effort)
I opened RATMOUSE expecting another lazy retro-wannabe slapped together in a weekend, and instead I got hand-crafted frame-by-frame animations. Do you understand how rare that is anymore? Everyone's out here buying asset packs and calling it art direction, but Zoopgar actually sat down and drew Barbra the rat moving through her buggy hellscape one frame at a time. I'm not crying, you're crying. The game immediately throws you into its core loop â navigate harsh environments, exterminate bugs, collect crumbs â and it doesn't waste your time with tutorials or story justification. Barbra is a rat. There are bugs. You know what to do. This is the kind of respect for the player's intelligence that died sometime around 2010 when every game decided it needed to be a cinematic experience. RATMOUSE knows it's an arcade game and acts like one.
Gameplay: When Pac-Man Went Pest Control
The core loop is simple but demanding â you're clearing stages of bugs while grabbing crumbs, all while the game actively tries to murder you with what I can only describe as aggressive insect AI. It's phase-based arcade action that channels games like Dig Dug or Pac-Man, except instead of eating dots you're exterminating vermin as vermin, which is either brilliant commentary or just weird. I'm going with weird. The fast pace keeps you on edge, and the hand-crafted stages mean you're not just playing procedurally generated nonsense that feels the same every time. Each stage has actual design thought behind it, which makes deaths feel fair instead of cheap. When I died â and I died plenty â it was because I screwed up, not because the RNG decided to spawn three bugs on my head. The challenge curve is real here. This isn't a casual phone game you play while pretending to listen to your coworker's weekend story. RATMOUSE demands your full attention and punishes lapses with immediate failure.
Visuals: Finally, Someone Who Can Actually Draw
Let me be clear about something â the frame-by-frame animation work in RATMOUSE is legitimately impressive. Barbra moves with weight and personality, bugs scuttle with genuine menace, and the whole thing has a hand-crafted charm that most pixel art games fake with filters and call it a day. This is actual animation work, the kind where someone understood timing and squash-and-stretch principles instead of just making sprites slide around. The environments are harsh and oppressive without being visually cluttered, which is a balance most indie devs never figure out. I can actually see what's happening on screen, parse threats instantly, and react accordingly. Revolutionary concept, I know. The art style won't win awards for groundbreaking originality â it's clearly inspired by early arcade cabinets â but it's executed with enough skill and personality that I never once thought 'this looks cheap.' That alone puts it above about seventy percent of itch.io.
What Actually Works Here
RATMOUSE succeeds because it understands what made classic arcade games work and doesn't try to fix what wasn't broken. The controls are tight and responsive, which is mandatory for fast-paced action but somehow still eludes half the developers making arcade throwbacks. When I pressed a direction, Barbra moved that direction immediately. When I tried to dodge a bug, the game responded. Basic stuff that shouldn't be noteworthy except so many games screw it up. The stage-based progression gives you clear goals and a sense of advancement without diluting the core gameplay with RPG mechanics or upgrade trees or any of the bloat modern games think they need. You play stages, you get better, you progress. It's pure and focused in a way that feels refreshing. The difficulty balance hits that sweet spot where you die a lot but keep hitting retry because you know you can do better. That's the arcade magic right there â one more try syndrome that actually works.
Where RATMOUSE Shows Its Indie Roots
Here's where I have to be honest â RATMOUSE is good, but it's not reinventing anything. If you played arcade games in the eighties or nineties, you've essentially played variations of this before. The 'fresh twist' mentioned in the description is generous â this is a well-executed take on established formulas, not a revolutionary new genre. I also would've loved more enemy variety and environmental hazards to keep later stages from feeling repetitive. The bugs are menacing at first, but after clearing a dozen stages, I started recognizing patterns and the challenge plateaued. Audio-wise, I'm assuming there's sound effects and music, but if there is, neither stuck with me enough to remember them an hour after playing, which is never a good sign. The game could also benefit from more replayability hooks â leaderboards, alternate modes, or unlockable challenges. As it stands, once you've cleared the stages, there's not much pulling you back besides personal score chasing.
The Verdict: Surprisingly Not Terrible
RATMOUSE is a competent, well-crafted arcade game that respects both its influences and your time. Zoopgar clearly understands what made classic arcade games tick and has the animation skills to back up their vision with genuine craftsmanship. This isn't a lazy nostalgia cash-grab or an asset flip with a retro filter slapped on. It's actual work, and it shows. The gameplay is tight, the challenge is fair, and the presentation has more personality than most indie games manage. That said, it's also playing it safe within well-established genre boundaries. If you're looking for something that fundamentally reimagines arcade gaming, this isn't it. If you want a well-executed, challenging arcade experience with hand-drawn animation that looks great and plays better, RATMOUSE delivers exactly that. For once, 'captures the spirit of classic arcade games' isn't marketing speak â it's accurate. I played this expecting to write a scathing takedown, and instead I have to grudgingly admit it's actually good. Barbra the rat earned my respect, which is more than most protagonists manage.
Rating Breakdown
Quality
7
Hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation in 2024 when everyone's using Unity assets â someone actually put in effort here and it shows.
Innovation
5
It's Pac-Man meets exterminator simulator, which I last saw in approximately 1983, but sure, call it a fresh twist.
Value
6
Decent chunk of hand-crafted stages for what I assume is a reasonable price, though I've seen free games offer more.
Gameplay
7
Fast-paced arcade action that actually kept me playing instead of alt-tabbing to check if anything interesting happened in the world.
Audio/Visual
8
The frame-by-frame animation work is genuinely impressive and gives this more personality than most indie games manage in their entire runtime.
Replayability
6
Arcade-style scoring and stage-based progression means I'll probably boot it up again when I'm bored, which is more than I can say for most games.
What Didn't Annoy Me
Genuinely impressive frame-by-frame animation that shows actual artistic skill instead of asset store laziness
Tight, responsive controls that make fast-paced arcade action feel good instead of frustrating
Hand-crafted stages with real design thought instead of procedural generation slop
Respects your time and intelligence by skipping tutorials and story justification nobody asked for
Challenge feels fair and skill-based â when you die, it's your fault, which is how it should be
What Made Me Sigh
The 'fresh twist' is marketing speak for 'competent execution of familiar concepts'
Enemy variety could use expansion to prevent mid-game repetition from setting in
Audio elements are forgettable enough that I can't remember them while writing this review
Limited replayability once you've cleared stages â needs more hooks to bring players back
Final Verdict
RATMOUSE surprised me by being genuinely good instead of another retro-inspired disappointment. Zoopgar put real craftsmanship into the frame-by-frame animation and tight arcade gameplay, creating something that respects both classic arcade design and modern player expectations. It's not revolutionary â you've played variations of this concept if you've touched an arcade cabinet made before 1995 â but it's executed with enough skill and personality that I kept playing instead of closing the tab to watch YouTube. The fast-paced bug extermination gameplay hits that addictive one-more-try sweet spot, the hand-crafted stages show actual design thought, and Barbra the rat has more character in her animation than most fully voice-acted protagonists. If you want a challenging, well-made arcade experience that doesn't waste your time with bloat, this delivers. Just don't expect it to redefine the genre. Sometimes competent execution of a good idea is enough, and RATMOUSE proves that point better than most indie games manage.
RATMOUSE
Tags
arcade
action
pixel-art
retro
bug-exterminator
fast-paced
hand-drawn
score-attack
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