Mouse P.I. For Hire REVIEW

It feels like a lifetime ago that Mouse: P.I. For Hire was first announced, and in the nearly three years since its first teaser, hype for its eventual release from fans of noir fiction and animated, anthropomorphic mice men has only continued to grow. And, speaking as a fan of both of those things, I am happy to announce that the game more than lives up to its hype, delivering a unique and exciting boomer shooter experience throughout a punchy, 12-hour runtime.

In the wake of Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie lapsing into the public domain in 2023, it’s been open season on remakes, reinterpretations and parodies of the beloved short, which also marked the debut of one Mickey Mouse. These have ranged from the wildly imaginative (such as Simon Lukasik’s psychological horror, Bad Cheese) to the lazy and uninspired (see the glut of slasher films cynically pumped out over the last three years).

Happily, Mouse: P.I. For Hire falls into the former category, and may in fact be the most inspired and noteworthy of the lot, thanks in large part to getting away from “what if Disney was horror?” territory and instead serving up a slice of hard-boiled film-noir goodness. Gouda-ness? Gouda-ness. Film-noir gouda-ness.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire places us in the shoes of Jack Pepper, a private investigator taking on cases in the city of Mouseburg, a town rife with corruption, sleaze and a bitter class divide (represented here by the differing social standing of shrews, mice and rats). Its story is classic noir through and through, with seemingly innocuous and unconnected mysteries giving way to a vast and insidious conspiracy lurking beneath. Mouse: P.I. proudly wears its cinematic influences on its sleeve, and any fan of the Old Hollywood era will be feasting on its rich, detailed setting.

What’s more obvious, of course, is the game’s art style: all hand-drawn rubber hose visuals reminiscent of the works of Max Fleischer and Ub Iwerks. Every character is fully animated by hand, and they all jiggle pleasingly in place, much like the old Popeye cartoons of yore. This art style will be familiar to fans of Cuphead, which cited similar influences, but whereas Cuphead was instead presented in vibrant Technicolor, Mouse: P.I. is strictly black and white, in keeping with both its film-noir aesthetic and its adherence to animation of the 1920s and 30s.

The stylised graphics even contain an element of modularity, where diffusion and film grain can be raised or lowered for a scratchier, more vintage feel, and the audio can have various degradation filters applied, from clean, through vinyl to brown wax cylinder. I chose a custom setup, which allowed for a perfect balance between sharp visuals with just a touch of vintage flair.

Despite the lack of colour, Mouse: P.I. has no trouble in making its environments lively and, more importantly, readable. Objects that can be interacted with are all starkly cel-shaded, while the environment and background elements at large have more thorough shading - not unlike how a 2D animated work will utilise gouache or watercolour for its backgrounds while presenting its animated elements in a flatter style.

A standout feature of Mouse’s visual style is the many death animations of the enemy NPCs Pepper encounters throughout his journey. Sometimes brutal, sometimes hilarious, a headshot may cause an enemy’s head to explode into a bloody stump, or they may perform an elongated “machine gun dance”, twirling around and firing before comically collapsing arse-upwards. Killing an enemy with an exploding barrel will cause them to blacken and disintegrate into a soot pile topped with a pair of sad-looking eyeballs.

These visual gags aren’t afraid to break the fourth wall either. For example, an early NPC Pepper encounters - who is “in bits” about the disappearance of her employer and colleague - is quite literally in two pieces, with her legs and waist standing next to her while her upper body perches on a chair. Gags extend to breakable walls, obviously dilapidated and weak but with the words “TOTALLY NORMAL WALL” hastily painted on them, begging the player to let loose a stick of dynamite.

Another entertaining detail is the locking minigame found throughout. Known as “tail picking”, Pepper can use his extremely flexible rubber hose tail to move the pins in the locks, rather than a standard lockpicking device.

Accompanying the excellent visuals and character design is an excellent voice cast headed by Troy Baker. As Jack Pepper, Baker gets to have a great deal of fun in a less serious role than what he is known for, though his hard-boiled schtick thankfully never lands on the wrong side of parody. Every NPC is voiced wonderfully, striking the perfect balance of knowingly cartoonish and engagingly sincere.

All of this is underscored by what may be the game’s standout feature: Patryk Scelina’s incredible big band jazz soundtrack. During slower, investigative sequences, the music simmers; all languid wandering basslines and muted trumpet strains. However, when that combat bell rings and hostile mice burst out of every door in the vicinity to make swiss cheese out of the player, the music reaches a fever pitch.

Percussive, uptempo and energetic, it’s every bit as blood-pumping as the djent that propels Doom and Doom Eternal, or the synthwave heard in titles such as Hotline Miami or Turbo Overkill, and you’ll be bobbing along with it until you’re knee deep in shell casings and the walls are splattered with thick black ink.

The gameplay of Mouse: P.I. For Hire fits very much into the mould of the modern day boomer shooter. Combat arenas are spacious and layered, with a much greater focus on high mobility than taking cover from your myriad enemies. From the start, the player has a four-directional dash ability, allowing you to deftly evade incoming gunfire or close the gap between you and your enemy for a high-powered shotgun blast. As the game progresses, Pepper will also gain other traversal abilities to aid in both combat mobility and environmental exploration.

Weapons are all masterfully designed, and range from the more standard FPS staples (a pistol, a shotgun, an SMG), to more imaginative fare like the De-Varnisher: an acetone-spewing nightmare that melts enemies down to their skeletons, its name being a clear nod to the fact that we exist in a knowingly hand-painted world. Like the characters, weapon animations are all fully hand-drawn as well, with barrels entertainingly wobbling around and unique reload animations aplenty.

The many barrels that can be found around the levels can not only be shot at to damage enemies, but can also be picked up and thrown or kicked towards them, just to add a little extra spice to the gameplay.

Overall, the moment-to-moment combat isn’t especially difficult when compared to similar shooters within the genre. Evidently, Mouse P.I. is more concerned with a cathartic and engaging romp through its world than it is with the bragging rights of having overcome a particularly difficult challenge.

The game’s hub-based mission structure is welcome in breaking up the pace of proceedings. Between each level packed with high-octane violence and peril, we return to Pepper’s office, where we cross-reference uncovered clues to progress our active cases and unlock new locations to investigate and inevitably shoot up. Also in the neighbourhood are a workshop to upgrade weapons, a store to stock up on ammunition and collectibles, and a tavern where Jack can unwind and chat with patrons or even indulge in a baseball card-based minigame. The downtime between shooting galleries allows for a much-needed breather before jumping back into the action, and succeeds in fleshing out Mouse: P.I’s world further.

I’m hardly going to blow any minds explaining how the mechanics of boomer shooters work, considering they’ve been around for over a decade now and are an increasingly popular genre.

It may feel like a point against Mouse: P.I. that, beyond its pulse-pounding, exhilarating gunfights, the game does not have a great deal else to offer. However, I would say the game gives us just as much as it needs to. It’s a 12-15 hour narrative experience that immerses you in a joyfully constructed world, bursting with visual flair. It doesn’t overstuff itself with superfluous mechanics or draw itself out any longer than necessary.

Like the best cheese, it’s strong, pungent, and thoroughly moreish. An extremely solid and encouraging debut effort from Fumi Games, and as a fledgling indie developer, it’s impressive to see how instantly they’ve fermented.

Review Score: ★★★★

Game code supplied by publisher for review, played on PlayStation 5.