Cat and Mouse
Cat: catch the mouse. Mouse: stay free for 20 seconds. First to 5.
Cat and Mouse is a two-player chase game where one player is the cat and tries to pounce on the mouse, while the mouse runs and drops walls to stay free for 20 seconds. Roles swap every point, and the first to 5 wins.
Two thumbs, two doormats and a cat tearing round a kitchen table after a mouse. Pounce to catch, drop plank walls to escape, and swap jobs every point so you both get to be the cat.
- How you hold it
- Face-off
- Match
- First to 5
- Length
- About 2 minutes
- Play
- Friend or bot
How to play Cat and Mouse: quick rules
About 2 minutes at first to 5. Full rules, options and bot levels are further down.
- 1Drag on your mat to run.
- 2Cat: catch the mouse. Tap the paw to pounce.
- 3Mouse: stay free for 20 seconds. Tap to drop a wall.
- 4Roles swap every point. First to 5 wins.
Cat and Mouse rules
Setup and roles
- Every point has one cat and one mouse. Each animal starts at its owner's end of the arena, facing the other end.
- A coin toss picks the first cat. On a rematch, the player who lost the last match starts as the cat.
- Roles swap after every point, so each player is the cat equally often.
- When both players are one point from winning, the cat for the deciding point is picked by a fresh coin toss, so nobody gets an extra turn as the cat.
- The arena is the same from both ends, so neither side is easier.
Moving
- Each player steers with a thumb pad on their own doormat. The further you drag, the faster your animal runs, up to its top speed.
- The cat is a little faster in a straight line. The mouse gets up to speed sooner and turns sharper.
- Furniture and the arena edge block both animals.
The cat's pounce
- Tap the paw button to pounce: a short burst at about twice the cat's normal speed.
- The pounce then needs a couple of seconds to recharge. A ring round the button shows when it's ready.
The mouse's walls
- Tap the planks button to drop a short wall behind the mouse, across its path.
- The mouse has 3 walls per point (up to 4 with the Cheese bonus), and drops must be a moment apart.
- A wall stands for 3 seconds, cracks and then crumbles away.
- Walls block only the cat. The mouse runs straight through its own walls.
- A wall that would land on the cat isn't dropped, and no wall is used up.
Scoring
- Caught: if the cat touches the mouse, the cat scores at once.
- Escaped: if the chase time runs out with no catch, the mouse scores. The chase is 20 seconds by default.
- If a catch and the end of the clock happen at the same instant, the catch counts.
- Every point has a scorer; there are no drawn points.
- Pausing or leaving mid-chase cancels that point. It is replayed from the start with the same roles and the score unchanged.
Winning
- First to the target wins: 3, 5 or 7 points. The match ends the moment someone reaches it.
Floors
- Kitchen
- A round table on a rug, cupboards and flour sacks, with wooden plank walls. The default.
- Garden
- A flower bed, hedges and flower pots, with stone block walls.
Tips to win at Cat and Mouse
- 1As the mouse, use furniture. The mouse turns sharper than the cat, so tight loops round the table win back the cat's straight-line speed.
- 2Drop walls when the cat is close behind you, not early. A wall only stands for 3 seconds, and you only get 3.
- 3As the cat, cut corners and head for where the mouse is going, not where it is.
- 4Save the pounce for when you're close. It needs a couple of seconds to recharge, and a missed pounce gives the mouse time to get away.
- 5With Cheese bonus on, grab the cheese early as the mouse for an extra wall.
Controls
Phone flat between you. Each player owns a half, and the far half faces the far player.
- Touch anywhere on your own doormat and the thumb pad appears there. Drag to steer; lift and your animal slows to a stop.
- The action button sits on your mat: a paw when you're the cat, planks when you're the mouse, with your walls left shown above it.
- You can steer with one thumb and tap the button with another finger. A second finger on the pad does nothing.
- The arena itself isn't touch-sensitive, and a finger already down at GO must lift and touch again.
Options
Every option is free. Defaults are marked.
| Option | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Points to win | 35 (default)7 | The score that wins the match. |
| Chase time | 15 s20 s (default)25 s | How long the mouse must stay free to score. |
| Floor | Kitchen (default)Garden | The arena layout. |
| Cheese bonus (extra) | On (default)Off | A cheese appears during the point; the mouse that eats it gets one more wall, up to 4. |
| Streak flame (extra) | On (default)Off | Three points in a row ring that player's animal in a flame. Looks only. |
| Mousetraps (extra) | OnOff (default) | Two traps beside the table stun a cat that steps on one. The mouse is too light to set them off. |
| Final rush (extra) | OnOff (default) | In the last 5 seconds the cat runs faster. |
Play Cat and Mouse against the bot
The bot plays Blue as both the cat and the mouse. It sees where your animal was a moment ago, never your thumb on the pad, and never runs faster than a person can. As the mouse it keeps its distance and walls you off; as the cat it chases and pounces when close.
Easy
Reacts slowly, wobbles in its aim, runs slower than you and rarely pounces or drops walls at the right moment.
Normal
Reacts quicker, leads your run a little as the cat and drops walls more often when you close in.
Hard
Reacts fast, runs at full speed, cuts off your path as the cat and walls you off readily as the mouse. Sharp turns can still shake it.
Online, tournaments and hints
- Online
- One phone onlyBoth players steer at the same time and every catch depends on live reactions, so Cat and Mouse stays on one phone.
- Tournament
- Can be drawn in a tournamentIn a tournament it is always first to 5 with a 20 second chase on the Kitchen floor, with Cheese bonus and Streak flame on.
- Hints
- No hints here: it's all about your own reactions.
How it feels
- Soft paw patter, a whoosh on the pounce, a pop as a wall springs up and a boing when the cat bonks into it.
- A burst star over a squashed mouse for Caught!, confetti and a hop for Escaped!
- The chase clock at each end turns sun-yellow and counts down the last 5 seconds.
- Haptics follow your phone's settings and the in-app vibration switch.
Accessibility
- Colour is never the only cue: Red's animal has a solid dot on its back and Blue's a ring, and the role shows in the animal's shape and the paw or planks button.
- Walls, cheese and traps are never red or blue.
- With reduced motion on, run cycles and dust are dropped and pops become fades; timings don't change.
- Scores are announced to a screen reader, but steering in real time isn't practical with one.
Cat and Mouse questions
One player is the cat and tries to touch the mouse; the other is the mouse and tries to stay free until the chase clock runs out, dropping walls to block the cat. Roles swap every point and the first to 5 points wins.
Yes. Lay the phone flat between you; each player steers from the doormat at their own end, at the same time.
Yes. The bot plays both roles on Easy, Normal or Hard, and it never runs faster than a person can.
Yes. Roles swap every point, and if both players are on match point, a coin toss picks the cat for the deciding point.
As the mouse, circle furniture where your sharper turns help and save walls for when the cat is right behind you. As the cat, cut off the mouse's path and only pounce from close range.
No. Both players steer at the same time and every catch depends on live reactions, so Cat and Mouse stays on one phone.
Play Cat and Mouse on one phone
Free on Android. Sit face to face, or take on the bot on Easy, Normal or Hard.
