App review: Bouncy Mouse on the Dell Streak 7
Bouncy Mouse is a fantastic Android game. In fact, it's so fantastic, I've played it on numerous Android devices, including my Dell Streak 7. And the reason I'm writing about it on StreakSmart instead of Pocketables is because it's so much better on the Streak 7 than any Android smartphone.
You're probably wondering why, right? I mean, a resolution of 800 x 480 (which is the same as most Android phones) with a much larger screen has to make the visuals pretty ugly, right? Thankfully, you're wrong, and the 7-inch panel also makes actually playing the game much easier. Want to learn more? Read on, then.
Starting the app will give you the start screen for Bouncy Mouse. It's pretty simple, and very straightforward. Pressing "Play" will obviously bring to you the game, while tapping the Facebook icon will take you to the Facebook fan page for Bouncy Mouse, while the Twitter icon will take you to your Twitter stream, and will give you the option to tweet the following tweet:
I'm playing #BouncyMouse on my phone or tablet! Check it out at www.bouncymousegame.com @RealBouncyMouse
After pressing play, you are taken to the level select screen. There are currently three worlds, each with 10 levels to play. Every level upgrades the difficulty factor, which makes for great gameplay throughout the entire game. More world (and subsequently, more levels) will be coming this fall in a special Christmas update.
As you can see, the game doesn't look very pixelated, if at all. And because you have a lot more screen real estate, but with the same resolution as smaller screens, you can see a lot more of what you're doing because your finger isn't covering as much of the screen up.
Also, the game's graphics are incredibly smooth because of the Tegra 2 processor. In fact, there are no stutters at all, and it seems to be consistently running at 50+ frames per second. That's impressive, especially considering the fact that Bouncy Mouse is quite physics-intensive. The premise of the game is to collect all the cheese in the level by slinging the bouncy mouse with your finger. You keep bouncing off of walls until you latch onto one of the many green dots with your tail. To end the level, you punch the naughty kitten in the face at the end, achieved by slinging the mouse into the face of the kitten.
At the end of every level, you get a percentage based on how much of the cheese you collected. It's actually harder than you would think, because some cheese is way out of the way of the naughty kitten, so you have to search around a bit.
All in all, it's a solid app for any Android device, but the combination of the Streak 7's screen size and resolution make it one of the greatest games I've come across for my pocket tablet. Oh yeah, and it's free.
Links: Market (Streak) | Market (Web)
