What’s On The Shelf | Games, Music & Culture

Man, where do I start with this one? I went into Mouse PI for Hire with more optimism than I’ve had for a new game in quite a while. Everything about it screamed “future favorite,” and I was fully prepared to crown it as one of the standout releases of 2026. But, like my Paw always said, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. So let’s crack the spine on this black-and-white detective story and see what’s hiding between the pages.

Released in April 2026 by Fumi Games, Mouse PI for Hire first exploded onto the scene back in 2024 when its reveal trailer caught just about everyone’s attention. It’s easy to understand why. The game is a painstaking recreation of 1930s cartoons and detective serials, complete with rubber hose animation, hand-drawn character designs, and an almost entirely black-and-white presentation. Every frame looks like it could have been pulled from an old theater reel. The art direction isn’t just good—it’s among the most distinctive visual styles I’ve seen in years.

You play as Jack Pepper—yes, really—a private investigator caught up in a web of mysterious tips, betrayals, mobsters, and enough awooga car horns to make the era proud. The story keeps several cases in the air at once, slowly weaving them together while introducing a colorful cast of characters. I won’t spoil where everything ends up, but there’s enough intrigue to keep you invested until the credits roll. The voice cast deserves plenty of credit as well, fully committing to the world and selling every over-the-top gangster, crook, and civilian you come across.

Despite its detective setting, Mouse PI for Hire is, at its heart, a first-person shooter with clear inspirations from classic Doom-style games and a dash of BioShock. Your arsenal grows steadily throughout the campaign, giving you access to tommy guns, pistols, shotguns, ray guns, your own fists, and several other creative weapons that all carry the same cartoon personality as the world around them. Even the ammunition bounces and animates with enough charm to make reloading entertaining.

The enemy variety follows a familiar progression. You’ll start by punching through basic melee goons before dealing with machine gunners, snipers, charging bruisers, explosive enemies, shield carriers, and a handful of bosses that force you to adjust your approach. Their 2D, hand-drawn appearance inside fully three-dimensional environments never stops looking impressive. Combat arenas are littered with health pickups, armor, and elemental barrels that can freeze, burn, or melt anything caught in the blast. Whether you’re kicking them across the room or detonating them from a distance, they’re a satisfying way to thin out a crowd.

And that’s what makes writing this review so frustrating.

It’s surprisingly difficult to pinpoint exactly why Mouse PI for Hire falls flat, because almost every individual piece sounds good on paper. The visuals are exceptional. The voice acting is excellent. The music fits perfectly. The premise is unique.

The gameplay just never keeps pace.

Once the novelty of the presentation begins to wear off, you’re left with a shooter that simply doesn’t evolve enough. Enemy encounters quickly start blending together, with many opponents functioning almost identically aside from different character models depending on which part of the world you’re exploring. New weapons arrive, but they rarely change how you actually approach combat. Before long, every firefight begins to feel like another variation of the one you fought twenty minutes earlier.

There are side quests scattered throughout the campaign, along with upgrade materials that unlock alternate firing modes and weapon improvements. Unfortunately, many of these optional activities feel like they were added because someone decided the game needed side content rather than because they had meaningful ideas to support it.

One quest literally had me “cook” food by walking up to a campfire and pressing the interact button.

That’s it.

No puzzle. No mechanic. No payoff. It honestly made me wonder why it existed at all when it could have just been delivered through dialogue or environmental storytelling. It’s small moments like these that slowly chip away at the experience. They aren’t offensive—they’re just…there.

The one exception for me was the baseball minigame. I spent far more time with it than I expected, happily collecting stronger cards until my team completely steamrolled the competition. It’s a surprisingly fun diversion and one of the few optional activities that actually felt worth returning to.

I have genuinely mixed feelings about this game because I wanted to love it.

The best comparison I can make is that Mouse PI for Hire feels like drinking diet soda. You can tell what it’s trying to be. The flavor is recognizable, and occasionally it even gets close, but something always feels like it’s missing. The presentation carries enormous momentum while the gameplay struggles to keep up, and eventually the imbalance becomes impossible to ignore.

I don’t regret playing through the campaign. There are absolutely moments worth experiencing, and the visual presentation alone deserves recognition for how much work clearly went into it. The artists and voice actors deserve every bit of praise they receive.

But games live and die by how they feel to play.

When the shooting, exploration, and progression begin to feel repetitive halfway through, all of that incredible artwork can only carry things so far. Mouse PI for Hire isn’t a bad game by any stretch. It’s simply a game with one of the strongest artistic identities of the year attached to gameplay that never rises above average.

If you’re curious, I’d absolutely recommend watching footage or checking out the incredible animation work. As a technical and artistic achievement, it’s remarkable.

As a game?

I just don’t think it moves the needle enough to recommend.