MOUSE: P.I. for Hire preview — The great mouse detective

I’ve been patiently waiting for Mouse: P.I. for Hire (referred to from this point on as Mouse) ever since the very first trailer. This unique, cartoon shooter with Bioshock vibes had a grip on me, one that hasn’t lessened with each new tidbit of information. While this preview was a hands off experience, after watching the Fumi Games team show off what they’ve got, we might be in for a mouse-terpiece.

My demo began as rodent gumshoe Jack Pepper is on his way to the opera to find a lead. An actress has been recently murdered, and a former friend – a magician – is the culprit. Steve (the magician) disappeared mid-act from his show, and nobody knows where he is. From there, running to the opera made sense, as Steve worked there with a stage designer named Roland. Might be the perfect person to chat with to figure out Steve’s whereabouts, no?

If you want to play a game that’s incredibly stylish, you may not find one with more pizzazz than Mouse. The black and white aesthetic meshes perfectly with the 1930s setting, alongside the wonderfully exaggerated cartoon characters. There’s a bit of Cuphead mixed with a legally-distinct mouse who owns half of Florida going on here, which is a good pairing. Beyond that, Troy Baker says all kinds of things in the kind of accent that makes you think he’s going to call you “doll” at some point (and he just might) – perfect for the era.

Entering the hotel through the kitchen entrance out back, Jack needed to get upstairs without being noticed. This brought us to a choice of either bribing a slick waiter with coins you’ve collected, or finding a way up yourself. I assume these coins might come in handy later, so keeping those and snooping around the room was where things ended up. After falling through a vent – which could have been avoided if a flashlight had been used – Jack trudged back inside after a unique voiceline came from the waiter out back, remarking on the fall. These kinds of reactive moments are woven into Mouse, and while they aren’t a regular occurrence, Fumi wants to give some extra oomph to this more linear formula where they can.

Reaching the upstairs area we find Roland, along with an assassination plot involving a mayoral candidate, which is where I got my first look at combat. This is a pretty standard affair, with tommy guns, shotguns, and more gracing your palms. There is also a Spartan kick for fun.  Where the game really shines, is the presentation. Walking around with the tommy gun, the barrel will flop around with each movement in a cartoonish manner. As you fire the shotgun, you’ll see the barrel billow up before pushing the shell out with explosive force. It might as well say “Chuck Jones” on the side.  

When foes die, it’s pretty brutal, with a lot of blood (or ink if you’re going with the cartoon angle) and occasional decapitation if you aim correctly. There are plenty of different death animations as well, with fire burning a henchman down to a pile of ash with a sad set of eyeballs sitting on top, or the turpentine gun melting their skin off and leaving a chattering skeleton – something sure to give the “I grew up on Roger Rabbit” generation flashbacks.

Moving through the opera house, one of the most interesting gameplay choices is your enemies using set backdrops to keep you at bay. They continually swap them out as soon as you get close, in a comical manner where Jack belligerently responds “Again?!”. I might be paraphrasing there, but you certainly hear it in his voice. It’s fun level design, taking a small space and constantly changing your perception of it.

After stopping the assassination attempt, it was on to fighting loads of enemies as Jack hurried through the now on fire opera house. There are a lot of killboxes, and sometimes you’ll even need to drink a spot of coffee to put some pep in your step. This power up gives you a finger gun ability to zap a lot of baddies for a little while. These comedic touches work as well as the dialogue, which has plenty of puns and a lot of grouchy detective to it. Soon, I was at the back entrance and ready to get back on the trail of Steve, but not before Roland gave a bit of intel on where to head next.

All of these things are great on their own, fantastic linear level design, but that’s not it for what you can do in each area. It’s best to keep your eyes peeled, as collectibles and more can be found off the beaten path. Sometimes you’ll need a tool you’ll receive later to get to them, so it’s worth logging the item in your noggin to retrieve at a later playthrough. A super dope extra is the baseball cards, which have fun parody players like Brie Ruth. The big bonus is that you can build a deck with them and use them to play a card game, adding function to form.

It’s almost agony to have to sit and watch Mouse be played, but with the date still set for some time in 2025, hopefully my thirst for hands-on time will be quenched soon. This squeak peek was outstanding, with the proof of concept I’ve been monitoring arriving in full force as a stylish shooter in its own right. There’s still a lot to learn about Mouse, but if the team keeps up this pace, they’ll have a hit on their hands. I certainly thought so: we gave the game one of our Best of Summer Game Fest awards! Mouse: P.I. for Hire is currently scheduled for a 2025 release on both PC (and you should wishlist it on Steam) and consoles.