Mus
Mus is a card game, which is something you won’t glean from its name alone. That’s what it is though, courtesy of R Franco Games. When you try to load this game in the Chrome browser, you may find that it doesn’t load properly. When you attempt the same feat in Firefox, it loads correctly and displays a notice informing you that Mus has been optimised for the Chrome browser. Only clearly it hasn’t. Browser compatibility issues aside, Mus should be a fully mobile-compatible game, so in theory it will work fine on smartphone and tablet.
When the game loads, you’ll find yourself staring at a game board that’s clearly been designed for mobile, with large buttons down the left used to control the action. “Select a bet and click Play” read the instructions on screen. Above these words, four cards are displayed face down, while in the background the green felt of a poker table with a pile of silver coins scattered upon it can be made out. Click on the small coin icon in the bottom right of the screen to set your bet and start playing Mus.
No Mus, No Fuss
R Franco are a Spanish developer who are based in Madrid. Slots are their speciality, although they’ve also released games such as video poker. The company’s games vary in quality, but they’re nevertheless a capable developer. Because Spanish is their language, you may need to adjust the language settings before you start playing, as their games are often set to Spanish by default. When you go to set your bet in Mus, you’re taken to a second screen, which seems a little unnecessary. Here you can select from values ranging between 0.01 and 5. If you select 5, you’ll actually be setting a max bet of 20 coins because you’re betting on four cards.
Swords and Shields
When it comes to seeing these cards, you’ll find that they look like no playing card you’ve seen before. These ones contain swords and shields and figures of men on horseback. They’re more reminiscent of tarot cards than they are of playing cards. As you play Mus, you’ll note that its clean interface is let down by a few obvious design flaws. For one thing, parts of the game are in Spanish, such as the bets which are referred to as Grande, Chica, Pares and Juego, while others, such as the playing guide, are in English. Due to design errors, clicking on the settings button in the bottom left causes a new button to pop up which is concealed behind an existing button, making it hard to click.
Four Rounds of Fun
Thankfully, the playing guide is helpful, even going so far as to translate the names of the four different rounds of bets: grande (biggest), chica (smallest), pares (pairs) and juego which is a total of 31 or higher. When the game starts, you’re given four cards and the chance to discard one or more of them, replacing them with new cards that are drawn. You can even discard all four of your cards if you don’t like the look of them. Click on each card to change its status. When the card displays “Mus” it will be discarded.
In the first of the four rounds, you win if you manage to get four kings or three kings plus either a knight or a jack. Once this has been completed, the second round is to score the lowest possible cards. Twos are equivalent to aces apparently. In the next round, you’re aiming to get pairs, although it turns out that you’re actually looking to get three of a kind with the jack, horse or king. If this all sounds confusing, that’s because it is all confusing. Mus is a game that will utterly bamboozle you if you’ve no prior experience of playing it. Regardless, in the final round you’re looking for the total value of cards in your hand to exceed 31.
Mus in Summary
If you’re considering giving Mus a go, you would be advised to play for fun initially. There’s way too much going on in this game for punters to pick it all up on the first few plays. After you’ve gotten the hang of things – if you ever do get the hang of things – then it will be time to play for real money. Mus is probably an extremely enjoyable game if you know what you’re doing, but due to the confusing nature of it, it’s one that’s unlikely to attract many casual gamblers.
