I gushed over Mouse: P.I. For Hire’s rubber-hose animation style in my February preview. In the months since, I’ve consumed a decent amount of American animation, and even today I find it timeless and impressively smart.
Cuphead’s attention to detail is unmatched, and now, Fumi Games steps up to deliver one hell of a boomer shooter that’s equal parts charming and challenging with more personality than you’ll find anywhere else. It’s a rip-roarin’ ritzy good time, and the brodie the studio took pays off aces. While Cuphead elevated bullet-hell games with its difficulty and colourful shell, Mouse: P.I. For Hire does the same for boomer shooters with its excellent rhythm and impressive gunplay.
Copacetic Throwback
You play as Jack Pepper, a former soldier turned private investigator. He’s a bit rough around the edges but has a heart of gold. Voiced by Troy Baker, Pepper is a caricature of 1930s detectives, and his gung-ho attitude and often sarcastic wit are highlights of his inner monologues. I said previously, he felt like equal parts Booker DeWitt from BioShock Infinite and Dick Tracy. Spending more time with him, questioning locals in Mouseberg, taking on a local mobster, searching for clues and all I know is that Jack Pepper is a fun character.
The story is split into cases you need to investigate, and it often has you heading out, fighting enemies, gathering clues, maybe a boss or two, then coming back to your office in Mouseberg to piece them together. You can head to the dive bar to talk to locals or take in the area’s detailed locale.
What stands out is just how detailed the world and characters are. Whether you’re in town, grabbing a drink and listening to jazz, or exploring the subway to find a suspect, you can focus on anything around you and admire the hand-drawn elements. Everything looks incredible, and it’s paired with excellent sound design that pops.
While the level design is fairly straightforward, it works in favour of the gameplay. You still have secrets off the beaten path, but you never stray far enough to get lost, and it’s easy enough to get back on track by pressing down on the D-Pad for a helpful objective tracker. And there’s attention to detail in every level. One wall might display a nonchalant message reading “Totally Normal Wall,” paving the way for a secret or alternative route to confront enemies, often linked to the use of explosives to get the job done.
Mouseberg’s a pretty interesting place, and you’ll be moving between locations on a cute overworld by driving Jack’s car between locations. It’s refreshing having an overworld despite rarely seeing it, but it’s immensely detailed when you’re moving between spots.
There’s also a card-based baseball minigame where you play as either the pitcher or batter. You basically need to have higher stat cards to score a run or strike out your opponent. What shakes up the minigame is that you also have supplemental cards, which boost your card’s stats to ensure you come out on top. Exploring levels might yield new cards or secrets hidden in corners of the world.
Here in Mouseberg
Jack’s detective board is a key component to solving the crimes you’re faced with tackling, but for as much as I like it, you don’t get to piece together clues yourself. Instead, as you gather clues, they automatically assemble themselves on the board. This effectively takes away *you* being the detective, which is a huge shame. I’m the one seeking out the clues and getting shot at; why not let me be the one to put them together in a way that puts the onus on the player?
The story isn’t too deep and is authentically noir, with plenty of cheesy jokes and puns that’ll make you grin. And frankly, this being a cartoon-based shooter means I’m more than fine with having Jack needing to deal with situations guns blazing. And Jack likes his guns firing hot and heavy as he shoots his way through one bad situation after another. He’ll go up against mob bosses, robots, police, and all sorts of bad eggs while quipping about it.
Jack’s a former soldier, so he has access to an impressive roster of weapons. He can kick and dodge attacks from comical enemies who scream obscenities when they die. Pepper uses his trusty Micer pistol often, but he’s got access to weapons like Boomstick (one of my favourites), which turns enemies to dust, and the Devarnisher, which fires acidic blasts at enemies to turn them into pools of mush.
Enemies will rush you, and barrels are perfectly made to be kicked at, giving you a bit of breathing room if it connects. Creating distance is sometimes the best solution, as it means you can get a few extra hits in before the enemies decide to rush you again. Cheese and health potions litter stages, and even hard helmets serve as temporary armour upgrades. Each item is useful, and there’s a liberal amount hidden in levels waiting to get you back into the fight.
Jack’s tail is also used for a bunch of things, too. Want to pick locks? Well, use your tail to find the way to the end and hit each pin on the way. Some locks have thorns, and hitting them locks you out of accessing the contents at that time, so you need to pay attention to your surroundings. You can also use it to navigate levels as a grappling hook or to traverse the air around enemies.
Blow Your Wig, Mouse P.I. Is Aces
Combat isn’t explicitly anything you haven’t seen before, but it plays really nicely, and the number of weapons you unlock is enough to keep you entertained. Swapping to a Tommy gun to clean out a nest of rats is entertaining, and watching them scramble or try to step up to Jack Pepper is humorous, but it’s really the deaths that stick with you. To stay alive, you always need to be moving around the arena by dodging, shooting, and kicking your way through enemies.
Every death appears to be comical, but it’s paired with a gruesome death gaggle that will leave you scratching your head. In a world where big band music and rubber band animation are front and centre, there are more connections to Who Framed Roger Rabbit than anything Disney has done in the past. Which is fine because I appreciate leaning towards a more adult experience. Watching a pair of eyes fall to the floor and stare at me after I’d just melted them is humorous, but also weird since the eyes track where you are.
Weapons can be upgraded at Tammy Tumbler’s workshop in Mouseberg. Every weapon has tiers you can upgrade by collecting coins, and each weapon has an alt-mode, too. The Micer is a tried-and-true pistol I call old reliable, and it does the job in any situation. It has three tiers you can upgrade, adding more damage, a bigger clip, and max ammo with an alt mode that has burst mode. Throw in elementals like a Cool-D, a freeze-ray gun, the James gun, and an assortment of firepower that would make anyone nervous, and you can handle any situation thrown at you.
Verdict
Mouse: P.I. For Hire features a gumshoe worth his salt. Every time I’d sit down to play it, I’d have a huge smile on my face, just like it was waking up to watch cartoons on Saturday morning (albeit a lot more violent). This game is an elite boomer shooter with witty writing, wonderful characters, and an affinity for the rubber-band style that’s, sadly, been left behind by today’s animation houses.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC
