Forget everything you know about first-person shooters. MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, launching April 16 on PC, is here to inject a healthy dose of rubber hose madness into the genre — and it looks absolutely unlike anything else releasing this year.
Developed by Fumi Games and published by PlaySide Studios, MOUSE puts players in the gumshoes of Jack Pepper, a fast-talking private investigator and former war hero navigating the shadowy underbelly of Mouseburg. What begins as a missing persons case spirals into a conspiracy of corruption, kidnapping, and murder — all rendered in gorgeous black-and-white hand-drawn animation that evokes the fever dreams of 1930s Fleischer cartoons.
The rubber hose aesthetic isn't just a coat of paint — it's baked into every frame. Characters stretch and squash with exaggerated cartoon physics. Weapons pop and fizz with slapstick energy. Enemies flop comedically when defeated. Yet beneath all the charm, MOUSE is a serious FPS with snappy gunplay, environmental traversal, and a genuinely gripping noir narrative. Troy Baker provides the voice of Jack Pepper, bringing weight and wit to a character who's as tough as he is quick with a quip.
Each level in MOUSE is packed with interactive elements drawn straight from the cartoon playbook: giant mallets, explosive cigars, pie cannons, and banana peels all factor into combat encounters. The game encourages creativity in how you approach each situation, rewarding players who think outside the box — or outside the frame, in this case.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is priced at $29.99 for the Standard Edition and $39.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition on Steam. With its striking visual identity and tight FPS fundamentals, it's shaping up to be one of the most memorable shooters of the year. Keep an eye on Mouseburg — the crime doesn't stop, and neither does Jack Pepper.