Review – MOUSE: P.I. For Hire

If the 1930s cartoon style guaranteed Cuphead a resounding success, why not try to bring this aesthetic to the world of first-person shooters? That’s exactly what the devs at Polish studio Fumi Games thought in 2022. After years of hard work and a lot of stubbornness, MOUSE: PI For Hire is finally among us. A stylish indie game, all in black and white, with a 3D perspective and the unbridled madness that is expected from typical animations of that time.

As it is an FPS, Fumi Games faced the challenge of merging traditional 2D animation (handmade, frame by frame) with a world entirely built in 3D. For enemies and NPCs, they had to appeal to the old-school format of the genre, taking games like Duke Nukem and Doom as references. In these old games, opponents are represented by sprites animated in a single plane, which rotate on the axis depending on the player’s position (and scenery), simulating a false 3D. This technique will be strange to anyone who didn’t play FPS in the 90s, but it works perfectly in MOUSE: PI For Hire.

Between clues and cheeses

In this world where everyone is a rat, you play private investigator Jack Pepper. The protagonist quit his job as a police officer in Mouseburg due to corruption. With his own convictions and a penchant for gambling, he does odd jobs to pay for his daily cheese. Behold, a new case, offered by journalist Wanda Fuller, places him in the middle of intrigues, murders and widespread corruption. Your objective is to collect clues to connect the dots and solve cases, consequently unveiling the story’s big villain.

The first phase introduces a brief tutorial as you chase a target. You learn the basic movements, how to unlock locks and safes, and so on. Jack ends up failing and the story goes back a few weeks to tell how it all started. At this point, the player gets to know the detective’s hub, an office in the city center, where you interact with Wanda and several other important NPCs in the surrounding area.

The warm start of MOUSE: PI For Hire, with its slow pace and little action, made me worry. Fortunately, the frenetic combat comes into its own in the following areas, although it never leaves the story in the background. Jack’s voice acting, done by Troy Baker (who voiced Joel in The Last of Us, among several other games), gives the game a special charm, with occasional jokes. Even when you find newspapers and notes to read, Jack makes a brief side note on top. Always with a lot of humor, of course, but without forcing it.

As you progress through the released phases, accessed by car driving across a map in an isometric perspective, new NPCs (and options) appear in the hub. Among them is the Tammy Tumbler mechanic, where you make improvements to the weapons you obtain. The arsenal, although well-crafted, brings some ideas of its own, such as a weapon that shoots toxic acid that melts enemies. All weapons have secondary fire and are introduced with the handling animation established in (2016), even after making improvements. Seeing this played out in traditional animation is incredible and truly unique.

Tribute after tribute

MOUSE: PI For Hire was made with immense care. You will notice this at all times with the neat visuals, the unfolding of the great story, the conversations with NPCs and, above all, the tributes that the game pays. And I’m not just talking about games: Fumi Games pays homage to classic films and cartoons that also influenced its FPS. One moment you’re picking up a power-up that’s a can of spinach, transforming Jack into a strong man like Popeye. At another point, with another enhancer, you shoot with your fingertip like Cuphead and Mugman do in the Studio MDHR game.

If you’re part of Generation Z, you might not catch all the honors. But those born in previous generations will have a truly special experience. Citing another example, when starting a new phase I looked around the street where Jack parked his car. At the end of the scene there was a tunnel, but something wasn’t right there: it wasn’t a normal 3D tunnel, but a drawing on the wall. What to some players may seem like just a simplified texture is, in fact, a tribute to the Road Runner design. A classic Looney Tunes episode in which Coyote tries to trick the Road Runner with one on the wall.

With games, the game pays homage to Pitfall, Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong, Resident Evil and even the Konami Code, just to name a few more. Even the collectibles, Jack dolls very well hidden throughout the levels, are a clear homage to modern Doom. These games even extend to gameplay, for example when the game introduces new abilities for Jack, such as using his tail to glide and hanging from hooks as if he were using an Indiana Jones whip.

Don’t want to stop playing

The gameplay is fast and responsive, giving you options such as dash and double jump to escape shooting in arena combat, full of enemies. The bosses are all sensational, although some are too easy. If you are very used to FPS games, my tip is: play on Detective difficulty to have a better balanced experience. In the puzzles, when unlocking things using the tip of your tail, the game presents some extra challenges such as a movement and/or time counter, including spikes along the way. Nothing too complex, but always fun.

MOUSE: PI For Hire’s only flaw, for now, lies in its performance – even after the first patch before launch. Playing on PC and with a powerful setup, the game showed drops in frame rate even when using DLSS in quality mode – something ironic to see in a theoretically simple indie game like this. And some glitches and bugs appeared during my play, but nothing that showed a lack of polish. On the Steam Deck, the game received Steam verification and runs stable with a pre-established configuration.

The game is long and full of different things to see and explore, like an addictive Gwent-like minigame, in which we play baseball cards as a striker and pitcher. A little confusing at first for those who are not familiar with the sport, but you quickly understand how to play. Adding this to its many other qualities, MOUSE: PI For Hire is a game that will go down in history as one of the most unique FPS we have seen to date.