Mouse: P.I. For Hire Has Cheesy Puns, Slick Rubber-Hose Animation, and Way Too Long of a Campaign (Review)

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The double-barreled shotgun is a classic weapon in fast-paced shooters, known for its powerful kick and ability to quickly defeat enemies – as famously demonstrated in Doom 2. Mouse: P.I. For Hire also features a powerful shotgun, but it feels strangely floppy and unrealistic, like it’s made of rubber instead of metal. This isn’t a glitch, though; the game uses a bouncy, cartoonish animation style inspired by 1920s rubber-hose cartoons for nearly everything except the backgrounds, creating a visually interesting and unique aesthetic. Unfortunately, the excessively long credits sequence significantly detracts from the overall experience and impacts how you view the rest of the game.

The combat in Mouse is unfortunately held back by its odd design. It begins with limited moves and a weak pistol, and while new weapons like shotguns and freeze rays, along with abilities like gliding and double jumping, are added, they don’t significantly improve the experience. Because any weapon can handle any situation, there’s little incentive to experiment. The arenas don’t take advantage of the movement abilities, making them easy to ignore. Enemies are weak, and health pickups are plentiful, so you rarely need to carefully aim or strategize—a quick burst of gunfire and a swig of readily available health restore most problems. The upgrades are mostly uninspired stat boosts that simply make an already easy game even simpler.

Rating: 3/5

Pros Cons
Its rubber-hose animation, brilliant big band soundtrack, and snappy noir dialogue give the game plenty of style …But it suffers greatly because of how slowly each beat is revealed
The story is about serious topics and told through some appropriately bodacious personalities… The campaign is far too long, meaning its story and passable gunplay more than wear out their welcome
The desaturated color palette makes it difficult to find collectibles, side mission objectives, and the golden path a lot of the time

Mouse: P.I. For Hire‘s Gunplay Gets Old Quickly

Mouse doesn’t offer much challenge or require strategic thinking from players. It feels comfortable and simple, but doesn’t really add anything new to the well-established ‘boomer shooter’ genre. While this approach might work for a shorter game, it’s a problem for a title that’s nearly three times the length of most others. What’s enjoyable for the first seven hours becomes incredibly repetitive in the final seven, as the game runs out of ideas. Despite having a hub world and attempts at downtime, along with an uninspired clue system, the core shooting mechanics quickly become stale, highlighting why most games of this type are much shorter.

Seeing Mickey Mouse-inspired characters explode to energetic big band music is definitely a fresh idea. While the game does focus a lot on style over substance, it’s visually striking. Things like a cultist’s skin melting or the main character, Jack Pepper, clumsily reloading his shotgun are intentionally over-the-top and silly – reminiscent of the cartoon animations from the 1920s, which are charming in their exaggerated movements. Even though characters aren’t always lip-synced, the lively animation still makes the cutscenes enjoyable.

The game’s environments feel bland, like basic video game levels simply washed with gray. This makes the 2D characters stand out in a jarring way. The limited color palette also makes it surprisingly hard to find your way around, highlighting how much other games rely on color to guide players. Mouse doesn’t have that luxury, and it’s often unclear where to go or how to find hidden items – a gray baseball card blends right into the background. While the game offers some hints, like a small guiding creature or bouncing signs, these feel like unnecessary and frustrating shortcuts. This issue was somewhat expected, and thankfully, the game compensates with its uniquely charming characters and artistic style.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire‘s Story Explores Some Mature Topics

The conversations in Mouse are well-done not just because of the animation, but also because the writing is strong. The dialogue is quick-witted and playfully references classic film noir, even while making fun of it. It’s true that the show relies a bit too much on cheese-related puns – it can get annoying, like a waiter constantly offering parmesan – but many of the jokes are funny on their own or are delivered in a wonderfully over-the-top way. The characters are also memorable, with amusing names like Cornelius Stilton and Tammy Tumbler, and many feature funny accents. Troy Baker, for example, gives a fantastic and unexpected performance as Jack. Baker often doesn’t get roles that let him show off his full talent, but his portrayal of Jack, much like his Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins, proves how effective it is to cast actors against type.

Despite its playful humor, the story of Mouse tackles surprisingly serious themes. What starts as a simple missing person investigation grows into an exploration of complex issues like wealth inequality, the dangers of fascism, the devastating impact of war on vulnerable communities, and society’s tendency to ignore violence against marginalized groups. These weighty subjects lead to genuinely moving moments, with characters openly discussing trauma and the harsh realities of the world without relying on jokes or silliness. For example, Jack’s reflections on his wartime experiences and the story’s depiction of riots forcing shrews into segregated neighborhoods powerfully reflect real historical and current struggles. While some of these issues could be explored more fully, these serious moments add depth and nuance to Mouse, making it a more compelling story.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire Takes Too Long to Tell its Story

Like the gameplay, the story in Mouse feels unnecessarily long. Important plot points are revealed very slowly, which slows down the narrative’s pace and makes it less engaging. The game often presents just one small piece of the mystery per level, and this drawn-out process continues until the story finally reaches its ending. The story would have been much more impactful if it were told through fewer, shorter levels, each with multiple reveals.

While visually appealing, the game Mouse doesn’t quite succeed overall. It cleverly captures the style of classic American animation, and its comedic timing is excellent, but unfortunately, the shooting feels bland and the game moves too slowly. Mouse embraces the stretchy, exaggerated movements common in older cartoons, but applies this concept excessively to the game’s levels, story, and gameplay, ultimately stretching them too thin.

A PS5 copy of Mouse: P.I. For Hire was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

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2026-04-14 18:13