Cheese Dreams

Cheese Dreams is a physics-based platform game from Nitrome where the Moon has been captured by cheese-loving space mice and must bounce through their enormous spaceship to escape. Instead of giving you a normal jump button, the Moon bounces automatically while you control its horizontal movement. That small change makes slopes, springs and platform placement much more important than they first appear. I find short steering corrections more reliable than holding one direction for too long because every landing changes the next bounce.

About Cheese Dreams

The story starts when a giant mouse-shaped spaceship captures the Moon.

Because the Moon resembles a large piece of cheese, the space mice take it aboard their ship. Your job is to bounce through the vessel, overcome its platforming sections and eventually find a way out. Nitrome’s own description summarizes the idea simply: the Moon has been kidnapped by space mice and needs to escape their ship.

Cheese Dreams Release

Cheese Dreams originally appeared as a Flash game on April 10, 2008.

It later received an HTML5 conversion as part of Nitrome’s effort to make older browser games playable without Flash. Available historical records place the HTML5 release between November 2021 and January 2022.

Cheese Dreams Gameplay

The Moon constantly bounces instead of walking or jumping normally.

You influence where it lands by moving left or right while it is airborne. This means successful movement depends on reading slopes, platforms and the direction of the next bounce.

Controls

• Left Arrow: Move left
• Right Arrow: Move right
• Space: Fire from a cannon
• Up Arrow: Alternative cannon control

The original game records confirm these controls.

The MDN KeyboardEvent documentation provides useful technical background on how keyboard input can be handled in browser games.

Automatic Bouncing

The Moon’s bouncing is the main mechanic that separates Cheese Dreams from a standard platformer.

You do not decide exactly when a jump happens. Instead, you adjust direction during each bounce and try to land in a position that sets up the next movement.

I find it easier to think one landing ahead. Reaching a platform is useful, but landing on the correct side of it often matters even more.

Cheese Dreams Levels

Cheese Dreams contains 20 levels.

Each stage builds around the same bouncing mechanic while introducing different platform arrangements, slopes, springs, moving sections and space-mouse obstacles.

The result is a game where the control scheme stays familiar while the level layouts create most of the difficulty.

Springs And Slopes

Springs can launch the Moon farther or higher than an ordinary bounce.

Slopes also influence momentum, making the angle of your approach important. The first level already uses both ideas to teach how the bouncing system interacts with the environment.

The mistake I would avoid is pressing a direction continuously without considering where the Moon will land afterward.

Cannons

Certain sections place the Moon inside cannons.

When this happens, Space or Up Arrow fires the Moon from the cannon.

Cannons add another movement style without changing the basic objective of navigating toward the level exit.

Stars And Collectibles

Stars appear along optional routes in Cheese Dreams.

Some are positioned away from the simplest path to the goal, encouraging players to take more difficult routes when they want additional collectibles. The opening level, for example, includes a branch leading toward stars rather than directly toward the exit.

I would complete an unfamiliar section first before trying to collect every optional item in the same attempt.

Space Mice

The space mice are the main antagonists behind the Moon’s capture.

They provide the game’s strange science-fiction setting and appear throughout the spaceship. Their cheese obsession is also the joke behind kidnapping a Moon that looks like cheese.

Cheese Dreams Strategy

Focus on landing position rather than only your current direction.

Because the Moon automatically bounces again after touching a surface, where you land determines what options you have next.

A useful approach is to:

• Make small left or right adjustments.
• Watch the angle of slopes.
• Use springs only when the landing area is clear.
• Learn difficult sequences one bounce at a time.
• Collect optional stars after understanding the safest route.

For another platform game where controlling movement carefully matters, Get On Top replaces automatic bouncing with physics-based balance.

Cheese Dreams Progression

Progress mainly comes from:

• Completing each level
• Learning the bouncing physics
• Using springs and slopes correctly
• Navigating around obstacles
• Collecting optional stars
• Reaching later parts of the spaceship
• Completing all 20 stages

There is no large upgrade system, so improvement comes mainly from understanding the movement.

Who Created Cheese Dreams?

Cheese Dreams was created by Nitrome.

Historical credits list:

• Artwork: Jon Annal and Mat Annal
• Programming: Chris Burt-Brown
• Music: Lee Nicklen

These credits are recorded alongside the original 2008 release.

Nitrome continues to list Cheese Dreams in its game catalogue, and an official HTML5 version remains part of its browser collection.

Cheese Dreams: New Moon

Cheese Dreams later received a much larger remake called Cheese Dreams: New Moon.

Nitrome released New Moon on December 5, 2013, more than five years after the original game. The remake kept the basic bouncing concept but rebuilt the physics and introduced new levels, collectibles and planet-rescue mechanics.

Nitrome described New Moon as its first remake and explained that the new physics engine allowed the environment to behave much more dynamically than in the original.

Cheese Dreams Series

The wider series includes:

• Cheese Dreams
• Cheese Dreams Demo
• Cheese Dreams: New Moon
• Cosmic Cannon

Cheese Dreams was the first release, while New Moon became the main follow-up and remake.

Games Like Cheese Dreams

Players who enjoy Cheese Dreams may also appreciate other Nitrome platform and puzzle games such as:

• Bad Ice-Cream 3
• Cave Chaos 2
• Ditto
• Coil
• changeType()
• Gunbrick
• Submolok

These titles appear in Nitrome’s current game catalogue.

For a different physics-focused browser challenge, Get On Top uses short competitive rounds instead of level-based bouncing.

About This Game

Cheese Dreams stands out because it removes the normal jump button from platform gameplay.

The Moon bounces automatically, so every platform becomes a question of direction, momentum and landing position. Springs, slopes, cannons, collectibles and the unusual space-mouse setting give the 20-level journey enough variety without complicating the basic controls.

Its simple idea also explains why Nitrome later returned to it with the much more ambitious New Moon remake.

Related Categories

Cheese Dreams fits naturally into:

• Platform Games
• Physics Games
• Skill Games
• Retro Browser Games
• Space Games
• Collecting Games
• Nitrome Games

Its original classification is primarily Platform, with bouncing physics forming the central mechanic.

More Games From This Developer

Nitrome has created a large catalogue of browser games, including:

• Bad Ice-Cream 3
• Cave Chaos 2
• Gunbrick
• Ditto
• Submolok
• Turn-Undead
• Coil
• Cheese Dreams: New Moon

Nitrome’s official catalogue continues to list these titles alongside its HTML5 collection.

Get The Game

Cheese Dreams has an official HTML5 version in Nitrome’s browser catalogue.

Start by learning how much horizontal control you have during each automatic bounce. Once that feels predictable, slopes, springs and cannons become much easier to use, and optional stars can be collected without losing track of the main route.