Mousetrap
by Hasbro
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Category: Toy
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: HasbroBrand: Hasbro
Model: 4657
Product features:
- Contraption-building table game that pits players against each other as mice trying to navigate through a complex mousetrap
- Race to the finish and nab your opponent's mouse before your own gets caught
- Develops fine motor skills
- Instructions in English and Spanish
- The last "mouse" left uncaptured wins
Toys and Games Reviews of Mousetrap
Customer Review: Mousetrap's contraption is cute -- but Ratatouille Kitchen Quake is a better playing game
Summary: 3 Stars
Several other reviewers have commented that Mousetrap is all about the contraption: I agree. The contraption has a certain charm, if you can tolerate the frustration of occasions when it just won't work. But playing it as a game holds little interest; instead, I, with some help from the kids, put the contraption together, and then the kids try triggering it off (lots!) of times -- then we're done. Whether you really like Mousetrap, or despise it, will probably depend on whether the Rube Goldberg aspect of the Mousetrap charms you or leaves you cold, and whether you enjoy putting all the pieces together (and then the suspense of whether or not you can actually get it working that day).
For a similar-in-spirit contraption incorporated into a much better playing game, take a look at the Ratatouille Kitchen Quake game, DISNEY PIXAR RATATOUILLE KITCHEN QUAKE GAME.
Mousetrap (M) vs. Ratatouille (R)
Contraption theme
M: Nostalgic (for those of us who grew up with it); wild Rube Goldberg variety of parts.
R: Limited to kitchen utensils, to fit in well with Ratatouille movie.
Contraption number of individual parts:
M: about 25
R: about 15
Note that the contraptions have the same sort of underlying structure; the difference is that in Mousetrap things like "bases" are constructed from lots of separate parts, where the analogous piece in Ratatouille would have an integral base. So the overall contraption in Ratatouille doesn't really seem less complex or interesting -- but the construction has fewer pieces/is simpler.
Stage when construction of contraption occurs:
M: During the game (if you actually play the game, which we almost never do, but instead merely build and play with the contraption).
R: As part of game setup, before the game itself.
Reliable operation of contraption:
M: This can be frustrating...
R: Fewer pieces, which fit into plastic mounts in the game board, seems to give better reliability. To retain the "charm" of uncertainty of operation, Ratatouille actually has two initial trigger buttons: a reliable button used when triggering ingredient launches, and an unreliable button used when triggering the contraption to (possibly) whack opponent pawns off their current position on the playing board.
Playing pawn interaction with contraption:
M: Only at end-stage of game, when mice pawns get "caught" by the falling cage which is the last piece of the contraption.
R: Recurs throughout the game -- Remy pawns climb onto the contraption at two different points of the game path, putting them in danger of getting dislodged (and having to move backwards to penalty spaces) if the contraption gets triggered, and at various other game board positions Remy pawns are in danger of getting whacked out of position by contraption moving parts if the contraption gets triggered by an opponent. And attempted triggering of the contraption (this is the unreliable button) happens a lot, both when any player passes Chef Skinner board squares, or when a player's attempt to collect an ingredient instead turns up Chef Skinner. Also, Remy pawns collect and actually carry (between the little pawn paws, on top of the pawn head) ingredient disks which eventually are placed in the spoon launcher part of the contraption (and one hopes launched into the soup pot when the contraption is triggered). (This increased interaction is one of my favorite improvements in Ratatouille over Mousetrap; as a kid, it was unsatisfactory to me that the Mousetrap mice pawns didn't have more of a role to play in contraption operation.)
Collection of cheese (M) vs. ingredients (R) aspect:
M: Not interesting.
R: Kind of fun: there's a "memory game" aspect to the collection of the ingredients.
End-game:
M: Once players get to the final loop, they're stuck there going around and around -- boring.
R: There's a "launching ring" to get a chance to launch your current ingredient, but then you set off around the whole board path again -- wheee! First player to collect two ingredients and get them both launched into the soup pot wins.
What's fun:
M: Building the contraption (if such building is to your taste); operating the contraption (if it's not too frustrating).
R: Setting up the contraption (though this is somewhat simplified from Mousetrap); operating the contraption; playing the game.
Description of Mousetrap
Build a better mousetrap and you can catch your opponents mouse before yours is caught! As you travel around the board, collect pieces to create your trap, then put it together and start up the whole crazy chain reaction this is no ordinary mousetrap! For 2 to 4 players.Build a better mousetrap? We dare you. Naturally, the object is to trap mice in the mousetrap, while avoiding getting trapped. By rolling the die, you proceed around the game board, collecting cheese pieces and building a mousetrap bit by bit. Once complete, you set the wheels in motion, as it were, to try to capture the opposition's mice. But this is no ordinary trap. With this contraption you start by turning the crank, that rotates the gears, that push the lever, that moves the shoe, that kicks the bucket, that sends the ball down the stairs and into the gutter, that leads to the rod that releases a second ball, that falls through the bathtub and onto the springboard, that catapults the diver into the washtub, that causes the cage to fall and--whew!--hopefully, capture a mouse. The last "mouse" left uncaptured wins --Alison Golder
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