Mouse: P.I. For Hire Review (Xbox): Some Gouda Cheese

Every time I see a video game use an art style that calls back to classic cartoons, I instantly get excited. Games like Cuphead bring so much charm to the experience that it acts as an additional layer of enjoyment on top of the already great gameplay. With passion and charm for its source material overflowing, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is very much the same case here. Between its Doom-inspired shooting and cartoon world that feels straight out of the 1930s, I was engrossed from beginning to end, despite some flaws in the ink.

A Shot at the Classics

Mouse: P.I. For Hire was very obviously made with a great respect for many different forms of media in the past. The mousey nature here obviously calls to Mickey Mouse, while the gameplay very distinctly feels like Doom. Both of those franchises advanced their genres so much that everything here feels very distinctly like an honorary reference to them rather than a cheap parody. Seeing exploded enemies crumple into piles of dust or finding how the everyday citizens are animated here feels like being thrown into an old-school Disney cartoon as you unlock yet another weapon or ability to blast your way through like the classic shooter from ID Software.

Shooting-wise, the game feels pretty dang great. Movement is fluid, and with new aspects being added to your arsenal consistently, it feels like you are becoming a bigger threat at all times. What I especially love is how Mouse adds unique moves that act like you expect a cartoon world would. For example, using your tail as a propeller to glide and send yourself up air drafts. Adding that kind of charm to the brilliant rubber hose animation you see in the gun shooting and reload animations just makes this game feel highly authentic to what it set out to be.

While I always felt great running around with my guns out, I did feel the enemy mannerisms kind of lacking. Most typical encounters boil down to melee guys with bats running straight toward you or shooters stopping to pop a few shots at a time. While boss fights change that encounter variance, they essentially boil down to bullet sponges that have more unique moves. Pretty typical for the kind of shooter Mouse is styled on, but a little disappointing regardless. 

The environment also helps bring Mouse to life. Sure, the 2D characters in a 3D world stand out, but it’s when you look at that 3D backdrop that things feel the most alive. In particular, I think of the walls that can be exploded for you to progress past them that have wording saying “Totally normal wall,” lockpicking safes with your tail, or even the painted-on tunnel down a street you just drove in from. All of this feels at home for what the game wants this world to be, and it did nothing but put a big, cheesy grin on my face every time I saw a new element like it.

Not Everything is Black and White

While Mouse: P.I. For Hire has an authentic world, it does have some shortcomings in its gameplay. First, for being a detective noir story, playing as the Troy Baker-voiced Jack Pepper doesn’t feel like someone actually trying to solve a case. Sure, he will say he’s going to a location to find more clues, but outside of exploring the environment for collectibles or secrets, you are never actually doing any super sleuthing. 

All clues are railroaded on the main progression road, and even stopping at your office to put the clues on your board is more to give you a chance to upgrade your arsenal or play a rather boring and basic baseball card game, rather than use any brains to find your next step. I can walk down an alley and shoot up any enemies that step in my way, but there are no choices given to the player in Mouse outside of becoming a loaded freak ready to blast away anyone who steps in front of you.

Another aspect that let me down quite a bit is that this game has no level select. Overall, the play time on Mouse is quite lengthier than what I expected, and as someone who really enjoyed finding secrets and collectibles throughout this world, having all of that content locked off once you leave the area is quite disappointing. It turned what started as a jaunty stroll through an enjoyable world into a more stressful search for everything during my first go through. That stress is turned down quite a bit when you find out you can just buy missed newspapers, comic strips, and baseball cards at the office, but that feels like it takes away from the exploration aspect of the game even more, and there is no way to get missed side jobs or schematics used for upgrading your weapons. Plus, money always felt like a limited resource, so if you want everything, you definitely want to make sure you’re saving your funds.

Final Verdict

Mouse: P.I. For Hire melds the cartoon world of a century ago with intense shooter action in a way that is endearing as hell. The gameplay’s combat feels great the entire time, and the cartoon world at play here stands toe-to-toe with classics of the past. It’s a love letter to its inspirations and is an easy recommendation for someone looking for non-stop action and charm. The lack of the ability to return to older missions to get missed side jobs and certain collectibles is highly aggravating, and you never really feel like a detective here, but if what you really enjoy is cartoons and shooter action, that is fully on display here.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire was reviewed on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Fumi Games. It is also available on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, and PlayStation 5.

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