In the over 100 that cartoons have been around they have gone from being hand animated to using computers to do the heavy lifting. The earliest of animation styles, at least here in the US, was the rubber hose style which was popular for cartoons in the 1920s and 1930s. Fast forward about 100 years later, the developers at Fumi Games have taken to the art style to create their own black and white hand drawn and animated game that takes you back to the era with MOUSE: P.I. For Hire.  The results end up being something visually unique in the video game space.

MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is a first person shooter that stands out compared to the rest of the field in gaming’s most popular genre thanks in most part to its art style. The game is a noir detective story, another popular genre from the emulated era, and follows mouse detective Jack Pepper as he solves three separate cases around the city of Mouseburg. Thus, he visits multiple locations around the city searching for clues and taking on a slew of enemies trying to stop him from uncovering the truth and solving each mystery.

As aforementioned, MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is a first person shooter, but think more like DOOM than Call of Duty. Thus, it is much more point and shoot with no aiming down sights or the like or needing specific guns to progress. Each level you explore has loads of hostile enemies trying to take Jack out. From cultists to robots to mobsters and corrupt cops, Jack must shoot his way through every encounter, and he has a plethora of cartoony and timely weapons to do the job with. You get the typical weapons like a pistol, shotgun, and a machine gun. However, tthe game quickly gives you more comical weapons like the Devarnisher which literally melts the ink off of the enemies or later on getting a freeze ray or a gun that causes enemies’ heads to explode in comical fashion. Each weapon can also be upgraded upwards of three times which provide benefits such as more ammo and damage as well as unlocking an alternative fire option for each one. Jack also has a dash ability to help avoid the onslaught on bullets or charging enemies he constantly faces.

As for the levels themselves, they are all pretty straightforward and linear. None of the levels are overly open, but there are still nooks and crannies to discover secrets and collectibles. Each level culminates in a boss fight which are by far the most fun aspect of the game. The level design is also where the game starts to falter a bit. Throughout the game, you are able to accept side quests which usually involve finding a specific item while exploring the upcoming location. However, with the levels being mostly linear that were numerous times where, without warning, I passed a cutoff point in the level that wouldn’t allow me to backtrack to find the item needed to complete the side quest. This also caused a possible bug where a main objective told me to explore a certain area, but I had already passed a cutoff point and couldn’t go back to said area and had to just keep progressing as even the autosave had put me past the cutoff point. This wouldn’t be so bad, but you only visit each location one time throughout the game with no way of being able to revisit a location. Thus, if you miss something on your first pass, you can’t return later down the line.

Much like the levels, the story is pretty straightforward as well. Jack sets off to solve three interconnected cases around the city. You mostly tackle a piece of each case at a time, but the game eventually opens up to where you can go to different locations to progress each of the cases in whatever order you want. This is also where the game shows some cracks. Since the game mostly has you following pieces of a case at a time, it takes a good while before you return to the first case that I even forgot where that investigation left off when the game finally returned to it. Then, while being a detective story, there isn’t much detective work actually being done in the game. There are a few instances where you are investigating levels to find clues. Unfortunately, the majority of the time the clues are just items you pick up as you progress through a level or after you beat a level’s boss. This results in the most detective work being done being you putting the clues on the board in Jack’s office which give you the next location you must go to. Then, some results of the cases a a tad bit baffling upon their conclusion.

Overall, MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is a visually stunning game that is unlike anything else out there. The gameplay doesn’t stray from the genre’s typical fare, but the game is far more shooter than detective outing. The story doesn’t take many twists or turns and plays out how you would expect, but the writing, much like the visuals, carries a lot of the weight. The game has so much visual delight and old timey charm that despite flaws stands out in a genre that doesn’t see much veer from the norm.

Score: 8 out of 10

Reviewed on PC