I did not expect a game about a cartoon mouse detective to be one of the best shooters I played all year. That is not how my brain works. I see black-and-white rubber hose animation and I think “cute indie experiment.” I do not think “this is going to rip as hard as Doom.”
But here I am. Two playthroughs deep. Over 20 hours logged. And I cannot stop thinking about Mouse P.I. For Hire.
Not because it is perfect. It is not. The pacing stumbles. The investigation mechanics are shallow. There is a massive missable content problem that genuinely frustrated me. But when this game fires on all cylinders, and it fires on all cylinders more often than not, it is pure joy distilled into a first-person shooter. Jazz music blaring. Heads popping off in slapstick fashion. Troy Baker delivering noir monologues as a hardboiled rodent.
This Mouse P.I. For Hire review comes from someone who played it obsessively, loved it loudly, and still has complaints worth talking about.
What Is Mouse P.I. For Hire?
4 Mouse P.I. For Hire is a 2026 first-person shooter developed by Polish studio **Fumi Games** and published by **PlaySide Studios**. It released on April 16, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam. Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic mice in the 1930s, you play as **Jack Pepper**, a former war hero turned private investigator voiced by Troy Baker.
The game blends boomer shooter combat inspired by classic Doom with hand-drawn rubber hose animation that looks like a lost Disney cartoon from 1934. 6The investigation quickly spirals from a simple missing persons case into a complex web of intrigue, with corruption, kidnapping, and murder all on the docket.
It costs $29.99 on all platforms. No microtransactions. No battle pass. No live service nonsense. Just a complete single-player game. Remember those?
The Art Direction Is Genuinely Stunning
Let me get this out of the way first because it is the reason most people are interested in this game. The visuals are incredible. Every frame looks hand-drawn. Enemies squash and stretch when they move. Death animations turn characters into cartoonish piles of ash with blinking eyes. Explosions bloom into exaggerated smoke clouds with stars and spirals.6 Only one game meshes the genre’s arcade sensibilities with the black-and-white rubber-hose visuals of cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s and the unmistakable trappings of film noir. Cuphead is the obvious comparison and it is a fair one. But Mouse is doing something different. Cuphead is a side-scrolling platformer. Mouse is a full 3D first-person shooter maintaining that aesthetic at 60fps with dozens of enemies on screen. The technical achievement is remarkable.
The environments are stunning too. Dark city streets. Film studios. Opera houses. Poisonous swamps. Underground sewers. Every level has its own visual identity. I caught myself stopping mid-combat just to look at the backgrounds. That is not something I do in shooters.
Troy Baker Carries the Story
11 Jack Pepper is an anthropomorphic, hardboiled mouse detective, a former war hero and police officer. Troy Baker voices him with the perfect blend of gravel and wit. Every line delivery sounds like it belongs in a 1940s detective film. The noir monologues between missions are genuinely well-written. Some of the cheese puns made me groan. A few made me laugh out loud. 11 Jack’s office sits next to a bar called “Little & Big” owned by John Brown, a hard-working shrew. Nearby is Tammy Tumbler, a young mechanic who helps Jack upgrade his weapons. Jack has looked after Tammy since arresting her stepfather during his police years. Due to Jack’s gambling habit, he works small cheap cases, usually depending on journalist Wanda Fuller for intel and leads.
The supporting cast is solid. Tammy is endearing. Wanda is sharp. The villains are cartoonishly evil in a way that fits the tone perfectly. But the story itself has issues I will get to later.
Combat Feels Like a Lost Doom Game
This is where Mouse P.I. For Hire earns its keep. The shooting is excellent. Not “good for an indie game” excellent. Just excellent.6 Movement speed is high and perpetual motion is key to surviving any scuffle while laying waste to the mobsters, crooked cops, and cultists trying to snuff you out. Whether you are strafing to avoid enemy gunfire, dashing away from thugs wielding steel pipes and baseball bats, or sprinting around the environment to grab health and ammo pickups, there is an energetic sense of momentum punctuating each shootout.
You start with a basic revolver. By the end of the game you have over a dozen weapons including the James Gun (a Tommy Gun with personality), a Boomstick shotgun, the Devarnisher (a corrosive damage weapon), a Carcano sniper rifle, and several experimental firearms that get increasingly absurd.
Every weapon has a distinct feel. The James Gun rattles in your hands with a satisfying kick. The Boomstick sends enemies flying across rooms. The Loose Cannon fires explosive rounds that create slapstick chain reactions. None of them feel like reskins of each other.
Weapon upgrades through Tammy Tumbler’s workshop add alt-fire modes that fundamentally change how each gun works. Missing schematics hidden in levels means missing these upgrades permanently, which is why our Mouse P.I. For Hire tips guide stresses exploring every corner before moving on.
Environmental Kills Are the Real Stars
The arenas are stuffed with environmental weapons. Explosive barrels. Fire barrels that turn enemies to ash. Snow barrels that freeze enemies solid for one-shot kills. Falling pianos. Swinging anvils. Classic cartoon violence translated into gameplay mechanics.
I spent entire encounters without firing a bullet. Just kicking barrels into enemy groups, shooting ropes to drop pianos, and watching the chaos unfold. When the game gives you a room full of environmental hazards and a dozen enemies, it becomes a slapstick physics playground. Pure fun.
Where the Game Stumbles
Alright. Time to be honest about the stuff that does not work.
The Investigation Mechanics Are Shallow
You are playing a detective game. The “detective” part should be interesting. It mostly is not.10 Despite casting you as a detective, Mouse shies away from letting you use your intuition to crack these cases yourself. Investigation amounts to finding highlighted objects, pinning them to a murder board, and waiting for Jack to connect the dots for you. There are no deduction puzzles. No branching conclusions. No “aha” moments where *you* figure something out.
The clue-finding is fine as a pacing break between combat sections. But calling it investigation is generous. It is closer to a scavenger hunt with cutscenes attached.
The Pacing Falls Apart in the Middle
The first four hours of Mouse are incredible. New weapons every mission. New environments. Fresh enemy types. Story hooks that keep you guessing.9 While the plot has plenty of fun references and classic tropes, its uneven pacing stops Mouse from being an instant classic. The middle chapters slow down noticeably. Combat encounters start repeating enemy compositions. The story delivers exposition instead of action. I hit a stretch around hour six where I had to push myself to keep playing.
It recovers. The final few hours ramp back up dramatically. But that middle sag is real and it will test your patience.
The Missable Content Problem Is Serious
This is my biggest complaint. Mouse P.I. For Hire has no mission replay and no New Game Plus. Once you complete a level, you cannot go back. Ever. Every collectible, every weapon schematic, every side job you missed is gone permanently.7 Community feedback on Steam reflects this frustration. Players note that “the idea that there are too many missables but no replay was a bad idea” and that missing content “felt exhausting.”
I missed two weapon schematics and three baseball cards during my first playthrough. Had to start a completely new save to get them. That is not respectful of the player’s time. A simple mission select after credits would fix this entirely. Fumi Games is apparently working on patches, but as of May 2026, the problem persists.
Enemy Variety Could Be Better
10 The action combat lacks depth. The gunplay and movement feel fantastic, but too many enemies fall into one of two categories: guys with blunt weapons who charge at you, or guys with guns who stand still and shoot.
Boss fights are more creative. But the rank-and-file enemies start blending together by the halfway point. More enemy types with distinct behaviors would have elevated the combat from great to outstanding.
Performance and Technical State
On PC, the game runs well overall. I held 120fps at 1440p on an RTX 4070 for most of the game. 7Some players report major FPS drops in specific areas, particularly the hub zone where frame rates can drop from 240 to 30. I experienced this too. Walking through certain spots in the hub crashed my frame rate for a few seconds before recovering. It is annoying but not game-breaking.
On Switch 2, the game runs at a mostly stable 60fps with occasional dips during heavy combat. The portable form factor works surprisingly well for quick sessions between other games. The smaller screen does not hurt the black-and-white art style at all. If anything, it makes the hand-drawn animation pop even more.
Fumi Games released hotfix v1.0.6 addressing quest-handling bugs and background process issues. A larger patch is coming soon based on community feedback.
If you are considering a PC upgrade for games like this, our best prebuilt gaming PCs guide has current recommendations.
The Baseball Card Mini-Game Is Surprisingly Addictive
I need to talk about this because it consumed way more of my time than I expected. The Little & Big Bar in the hub area has a baseball card battler mini-game. You collect cards throughout levels and use them in turn-based matches against NPCs.10 Game Informer’s reviewer noted that finding baseball cards to use in the fun turn-based card game at the bar downtown led to losing “a few hours and some in-game money on these strategic clashes.” Same. I spent an embarrassing amount of time playing this mini-game instead of progressing the main story.
Use high Strength cards when batting. High Fielding cards when pitching. Winning matches earns rewards and contributes to the S’all in the Cards achievement. Do not sell your baseball cards at the store. You need them for this mini-game.
How It Compares to Other 2026 Shooters
2026 has been absurdly good for shooters and action games across the board. Mouse P.I. For Hire occupies a unique niche though. Nothing else looks like it. Nothing else feels like it. The combination of noir storytelling, cartoon aesthetics, and boomer shooter combat creates a personality that larger budget games cannot replicate.
It is shorter than most AAA releases. About 10 to 12 hours for the main story. Around 18 to 20 hours if you hunt everything. But it is $29.99, not $69.99. Dollar for hour, the value is excellent.
If you want something with deeper combat systems and more replay value after finishing Mouse, Saros from Housemarque offers a roguelite loop that keeps giving. And Pragmata from Capcom is a larger-scale sci-fi action game with a companion system and hacking mechanics that add genuine tactical depth. Both are very different experiences but complement Mouse well if you are building a 2026 playlist.
Should You Buy Mouse P.I. For Hire?
Yes. With one caveat.
If you enjoy fast-paced shooters with personality, this is one of the best you will play all year. The art direction alone is worth the price of admission. The combat is tight. The humor lands more often than it misses. Troy Baker’s performance elevates every scene he is in.
The caveat is the missable content. If you care about collectibles and weapon upgrades, you need to explore thoroughly on your first playthrough because you cannot go back. Our Mouse P.I. For Hire tips guide has specific advice on avoiding the mistakes I made.
If shallow investigation mechanics and pacing issues in the middle chapters sound like dealbreakers, maybe wait for a sale. But at $29.99, I think the game delivers more than enough quality to justify the price even with its flaws.
I do not regret a single hour I spent in Mouseburg. And I am genuinely hoping Fumi Games adds a mission replay feature in a future patch so I can go back and find the schematics I missed without restarting from scratch.
Score: 8/10
| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Art Direction and Visuals | 10/10 |
| Combat and Gunplay | 8.5/10 |
| Story and Writing | 7.5/10 |
| Investigation Mechanics | 5/10 |
| Pacing | 7/10 |
| Music and Sound Design | 9/10 |
| Replay Value | 6/10 |
| Value for Money | 9/10 |
| Overall | 8/10 |
Who This Game Is For (And Who Should Skip It)
Buy it if you:
- Love boomer shooters like Doom, Ultrakill, or Ion Fury
- Appreciate unique art styles and want something visually fresh
- Enjoy noir detective stories with dark humor
- Want a complete single-player game with no live-service baggage
- Are looking for a palate cleanser between longer 2026 titles
Skip it if you:
- Need deep investigation or puzzle-solving mechanics
- Cannot stand missable collectibles with no replay option
- Expect 30+ hours of content from every purchase
- Want multiplayer or co-op features (there are none)
- Are bothered by cheese puns (there are hundreds)
If you enjoy the detective and exploration elements and want more games with hidden secrets to uncover, our House of Davinci walkthrough covers another game where careful environmental observation pays off. And for the complete opposite energy, the Saros Eclipse system offers a fascinating look at how modifier systems can make every playthrough feel brand new.
FAQ
How long is Mouse P.I. For Hire?
The main story takes about 10 to 12 hours. Completionist runs with all collectibles and side jobs take 18 to 20 hours. Two full playthroughs if you want everything.
Is there New Game Plus?
No. There is no New Game Plus and no mission replay as of May 2026. Fumi Games is aware of community requests for this feature.
What platforms is Mouse P.I. For Hire on?
PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam. Last-gen versions for PS4, Xbox One, and original Switch are planned for a later date.
How much does Mouse P.I. For Hire cost?
$29.99 for the standard edition on all platforms. A physical Mouseburg Edition with vinyl, poster, comic, and trading cards is available for $49.99 (console) or $59.99 (Switch 2).
Is the combat difficult?
On Supersleuth difficulty, yes. It provides genuine challenge. Detective difficulty is easier and suitable for players new to FPS games. Rookie difficulty makes combat very forgiving.
Who voices Jack Pepper?
Troy Baker voices the main character. The cast also includes Camryn Grimes as Tammy Tumbler, Florian Clare as Wanda Fuller, and Fred Tatasciore as John Brown.
Can I go back to previous levels?
No. Levels lock permanently after completion. All collectibles and weapon schematics must be found during your first visit.
Is there DLC planned?
The Steam deluxe edition includes a Story DLC alongside the comic book and original soundtrack. No release date for the DLC has been confirmed yet.
Need help finding every collectible and avoiding missable items? Read our Mouse P.I. For Hire tips guide for everything we learned across two playthroughs. And if you are looking for your next 2026 game after Mouseburg, our Pragmata vs Resident Evil Requiem comparison will help you pick between Capcom’s two biggest releases this year.
