Mouse: P.I. For Hire Review: Rise Of The Gumshoe

1 week ago 7

Published Apr 14, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

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It feels like it's been forever since it was announced, but every so often, I'll fondly think about Mouse: P.I. For Hire, and how long we'd have to wait for it. There aren't a ton of games that feature rubber-hose/Fleischer Studios art styles, and Mouse managed to stand out above the pack post-Cuphead.

Ultraviolence In Black And White

A True Boomer Shooter Staple

While boomer shooters have seen a resurgence in the last 10 years or so, thanks to the resurrection of old publishers, IP, and studios like New Blood Interactive, not all of them are fully representative of that labyrinthine bygone era. With Mouse: P.I. For Hire, I felt like I was playing a follow-up to something like Rise of the Triad, gore and all.

While the cartoony veneer may seem light at first glance, Fumi Games goes all out with violence. Enemies explode, bleed out, and even melt on occasion. It never reaches the point of being gratuitously repetitive, but it does make clear that this is a specific brand of recreated rubber-hose animation.

You play Jack Pepper, a wise-cracking mouse voiced by Troy Baker, as you unravel a vast criminal conspiracy and meet plenty of friends and foes who may or may not be mixed up in all of this. While Baker is a seasoned veteran that many people will enjoy hearing, I was most impressed by the rest of the cast, who slotted into their roles perfectly.

The music also deserves a shoutout, as composer Patryk Scelina managed to capture the spirit of classic noir while ensuring that it's not just tunes you've heard before. Everything from the animation style to the vocal performances nails it and sells the idea of a grimy mouse-inhabited cartoon universe.

This is a fun universe to inhabit. It's a great mix of tropes and originality, and even though I had an idea of where the narrative was going, I couldn't really predict where the journey was taking me from a level-based perspective. There are some fantastic locales in Mouse: P.I. For Hire, and seeing what the next one could be was a highlight.

A Noir Homage With Care

A Lot Of Detail Went Into This World

Speedrunning Mouse: P.I. For Hire will be a blast. While there are a ton of protracted arena battles, there's also a strong sense of locomotion present from the start. Jack can double-jump fairly early on, and when combined with just the dash and grappling hook abilities, you can really move through stages at a brisk clip.

That sort of freedom of movement isn't always represented in modern shooters like this, so it was nice to see it on display alongside the impactful gunplay and interesting art style.

With that in mind, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is mostly a shooter by nature. While it technically has some puzzle elements, small RPG bits, and light exploration, the combat is the focus. You can upgrade guns with blueprints you pick up inside levels and invest in cards for a card-battling minigame featuring baseball players. But in the end, the game is squarely centered on pure action.

I would have liked to see trickier safe-cracking puzzles (where you move your tail around a lock to pick it), but the movement system and action are so clean that it didn't bother me often. Some of the game's levels could have benefited from a more elevated design, but they work as-is.

During my time with it, I had a few minor technical issues, but nothing game-breaking. Armor or power-ups sometimes wouldn't pick up/latch onto my character, things like that. A few design choices also threw me off. At one point, a door labeled "no entry" high up led me to believe I needed to trigger another switch to continue through the level. In the end, I just had to jump up there and have another door close behind me before that one opened.

This issue is also minor, as there's a breadcrumb/hint system that appears when you press down on the d-pad, which can lead you to where you need to go. I prefer to do it all on my own (especially in some of the later levels), but it never got annoying, and these snafus are few and far between.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire Surprised Me

There's A Lot Under The Hood

As a fan of noir novels and boomer shooters, Fumi Games hooked me. You don't necessarily need to go in with prior knowledge of those genres, but it was fun to take note of little references and even vocal performance nuances that felt like loving homages. The flow of going to a new, unique level, then heading back to the hub to pare down clues and upgrade your weaponry, really works.

While the art style is a big selling point, Mouse: P.I. for Hire manages to elevate itself beyond a simple artistic homage, and forge an identity of its own.