Thank you Cheese and Bacon games for sending us this game to review!

Cheese and Bacon games is a husband and wife team that aim to make DRM free games that are both fun and family friendly.  Their first major release is Hubert’s Island adventure: Mouse o’ War.  This platformer game reminds me of Super Mario World and if you like that classic, chances are that you’ll enjoy this game. 

Like many Mario games, there’s a map mode that you can walk around in and choose which area/level to enter in and play.  The main character is Hubert, but you can play as two other creatures (I honestly don’t know what they are!) as well.  Hubert’s girlfriend, Sally, has been kidnapped and it’s your job to rescue her.   

Saving her is no simple task, since there are many enemies and bosses that stand in your way.  There’s a wide variety of foes including cows, penguins, sharks, zombie cows, scare crows, pumpkins, bees, and banana tossing monkeys.  Getting touched by thrown objects or the enemies is instant death for Hubert.  Fortunately there are flag checkpoints so you don’t have to start all over from the beginning of the level. However, when Hubert dies, the enemies that have been defeated respawn as well.     

Hubert isn’t defenseless, as he can shoot purple goop at enemies to knock them out.  The ammunition is limited so if you run out, you’ll have to master defensive maneuvers.  There are some temporary power-up like the ability to fly.  Just make sure you avoid the spikes that often surround them.  

Every level has leaves and cheese wedges to collect.  Typically you'll find that most levels have keys needed to unlock new areas.  There’s also a built in achievement system with many achievements to unlock such as dying a certain number of times, killing X number of enemies, playing for a length of time and so forth.  There are some funny ones too, but I don’t want to spoil them.

Cheese and Bacon games (I love that name!) has put a lot of effort into making this game fun and has launched a kickstarter to raise funds to make a multiplayer co-op version.  They’re also hoping to port it to Mac and Linux as well.  While the graphics are a bit on the lacking side, they do get the job done.  There are a ton of other extras like hidden areas, and the menu screen tells you what the phase of the moon is.

The sound track is completely original and works well to set the mood of the various levels.  If you really enjoy the music, you can buy it for $2.99.  The sound effects add to the retro feel of the game.

I started playing Hubert’s Island Adventure with the keyboard and mouse but I found the default keyboard scheme to be a little clunky.  You can customize the keyboard or use a controller with the game; I did the latter. I use a program called MotioninJoy which lets me plug in a PS3 controller to emulate an Xbox 360 controller.  While I have used this flawlessly for a couple other games, occasionally my game controller would stop working as I was playing.  Other than that, it ran great.

There’s a demo available and they have since upgraded the game to version 1.2.  The price is normally $9.99 but I have seen it as low as $2.99 on their website.  As a Christian parent, I have no complaints with this game morally.  I like how it knocks the enemies out instead of killing them.  My kids enjoyed watching me play it, and I have loaded it onto their computer.  I also appreciate how the developers are totally cool with sharing the game within the same household.  I look forward to seeing what other games they come out with.