Mouse: P.I. For Hire Review

I was done, I was out, I was finished. I was sitting, watching the rain fall over my broken city, nursing a Pepsi Max that was flatter than my mood. Then in he walked, silver-tongued and convincing as ever, offering me a job he and I both knew I couldn’t refuse. The look of the ink and the smell of the rubber were drawing me back in before I had time to think. The Pepsi Max can wait, but my curiosity can’t. I guess I’m not done after all.

And who could blame me? Even taking the briefest of glimpses at Mouse: P.I. For Hire is enough to soften even the hardest-boiled among us. Fumi Games takes the rubber hose style of a 1920s cartoon, the noir setting of a pulpy 1950s crime drama, and the gameplay from a 1990s boomer shooter, and combines them into one unique package.

Jack Pepper is a private eye who mainly deals in cases involving infidelity, corporate sabotage, and petty grievances. A former police officer, a survivor of war, and borderline cheese addict, Pepper operates out of a small office in Mouseburg, where he can keep an eye on the few people he cares about enough. Oh, and Jack Pepper is a mouse.

Life can feel like a rat race

As the title would suggest, the world of Mouse is populated by mice, rats, shrews, and other anthropomorphic critters who walk the streets, sit at bars and drink gouda, and generally go about their daily lives. For Jack, life is ticking along like always. But his uneventful existence is thrown into chaos when journalist Wanda Fuller comes to him with a potential story that ends up being that case.

If you’ve ever dipped into the crime noir genre, you’ll know that this simple mystery of a missing magician soon unravels into a branching web of lies, deceit, corruption, and conspiracy. From a corkboard in his office, Jack will gather clues and chase leads across several key cases, all of which intertwine with each other, coalescing in a singular plot involving criminals, corrupt cops, cults, and, of course, cheese. I found myself genuinely surprised by the real-world allegories Mouse’s otherwise whimsical narrative leaned on, from trafficking and political radicalisation to race-based violence and class divides. It’s all contextualised in a campy, cartoonish way, but it’s a welcome surprise nonetheless.

Despite the intermingling plot, these cases play out in a static and linear fashion, so those looking for a true detective experience may feel slightly let down here. Following a lead, Jack will drive to an area of interest, making his way there by way of a cute and novel overworld filled with tiny details and references. These locations act as standalone missions to be completed before taking the evidence you’ve collected and heading back to home base to digest what you now know.

I’ll give you one chance to turn tail and run

The meat and potatoes curds and whey of Mouse is its boomer shooter gunplay. Beginning with nothing more than a trusty pistol and any even trustier pair of gloved fists, Jack will tear through stages at a blistering speed with as much of a sniff of aiming down sights. Yes, this is a classic shooter where movement is king, and all firing is done from the hip. Jack’s arsenal is soon expanded, with a shotgun and James Gun (a pun-laden version of a Tommy Gun), soon joined by other, more creative blasters, like a freeze ray and an enemy-melting Devarnisher.

Each weapon handles differently and can be upgraded back in Mouseburg to unlock an alternate fire that mixes things up a tad. The shotgun can be charged, the Devarnisher can spew a DPS bomb, and the pistol can unload a three-round burst. Along with general stat boosts, these upgrades will keep you in the mix as the threats get deadlier. On that note, the enemies you’ll be turning into Swiss cheese are varied in looks, but not in approach. Bruiser rats, flying shrews, and robotic minions are all wonderfully animated and sport excellent voice lines like “gabagool” as they perish, but they don’t challenge you to do anything more than hold down the trigger and strafe.

Having a huge weapon wheel filled with guns is great, but none of the enemies required any kind of thought or deliberate strategy outside of feeding it lead. No weaknesses, no rock-paper-scissors system, just me sticking with the James Gun until it runs out of ammo. This makes the monster closet combat arenas all feel the same, with the only deviation from the status quo coming in the form of a few standout boss fights that introduce some fun and engaging mechanics that ask you to do more than pull a trigger. That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of other big bads that just absorb bullets, but there are a few highlights along the way.

When the ivorys tickle back

While the gunplay is uninspired, Jack’s movement abilities are anything but. Using gadgets and his rodent physiology, Jack will slowly unlock the ability to double jump, wall run, hover in the air (cheers tail), grapple (cheers again tail), and mantle. Each of these traversal tools are slick and are satisfying to use in tandem, making you truly feel like a nimble mouse scurrying around each environment. The level design complements these abilities, also offering plenty of opportunities to chain together moves and get vertical to get the drop on those cheese-pushing goons.

It’s a shame, then, that these excellent mechanics take so long to hit your sticks. Drip-feeding the player new abilities is key for progression, but Mouse’s bloated 15-hour runtime slows meaningful progression to a crawl. The fun movement could’ve compensated for the ho-hum combat if you could wrap up your playthrough in half the time, but missions keep on coming, and new and exciting moments are few and far between.

Even though it overstays its welcome when it comes to moment-to-moment gameplay, the outstanding aesthetic and charming style of Mouse largely keep the experience afloat. Looking like Mickey Mouse and friends if they chose a different career path, Mouse’s world is a black-and-white rubber hose delight. Hand-drawn characters and animations are constantly in motion, bobbing and bouncing with the brass-heavy soundtrack. The 2D sprites leap out of the 3D environments, and their endearing interactions never get old. Blow up a mouse with an explosive barrel, and they’ll turn to dust, but their blinking eyes will rest on the pile. Even the weapons shift and move in your hand, only to defy logic when Jack takes a handful of bullets and smooshes them in the gun’s vague direction to reload. Every square inch of Mouse is a visual marvel that’s a treat to witness from start to finish.

Sometimes it pays to blend in with the aristocRATs

These animated mice are full of life as it is, but their stellar voice work gives each character even more depth. Our main man, Jack, is voiced by the busiest man in the business, Troy Baker, who clearly had a blast putting on his best whiskey-drinking, too-old-for-this detective. Everyone in the voice cast seemingly enjoyed their assignment, whether they embodied a scheming starlet, a stuttering politician, or a crazed scientist. Just be prepared for a script absolutely bursting with references and puns, because you won’t be giving a moment to forget that you’re in a world of mice and mozzarella. Your mileage will vary, but I had a great time scoffing at the absurd dialogue and shoe-horned statements.

Final Thoughts

If I’m to look at Mouse’s individual parts, all pinned up on my corkboard, I’d see more than a fair share of grizzly crime scenes of padded length, one-note gunplay, and wonky progression. But sometimes you need to step back and take in the full picture for the truth to reveal itself. While you can’t outright ignore the valid criticisms, the outstandingly charming rubber hose style, awesome movement mechanics, and campy noir tale lift enough of the weight to make Mouse a case worth taking on.

Reviewed on Steam Deck // Review code supplied by publisher

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