As the credits begin in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, developer Fumi Games describes the title and its development as a "handcrafted tale born of ink, sweat, and stubborn dreams." And throughout the playtime of MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, that clear human intention is obvious in every single rubberhose-style animated frame.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire sees players step into the shoes of war-hero-turned-detective Jack Pepper (Troy Baker) whose missing persons case cascades into something else entirely. This gets Pepper wrapped up in the seedy underbelly of Mouseburg from every angle: organized crime, crooked cops, and dirty politicians galore. Oh, and the world is populated by anthropomorphic mice and shrews as opposed to humans. As players navigate a narrative that has many, many twists and turns, they'll string together a wall of clues and fight everyone from the mafia to crooked cops with a few oddballs thrown in for good measure. The trailers for MOUSE: P.I. For Hire leave little doubt about what kind of game it wants to be, and its ambitions largely keep up with the story and gameplay on offer.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire's Story Never Stops Surprising
For the most part, Fumi Games' first-person shooter pulls from all the hallmarks of the noir genre: world-weary tones (and protagonist), centered on crime, a femme fatale, a strong urban setting, an emphasis on visual and atmospheric style, and a certain degree of fatalism in the world. That's not to say that MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is a simple, noir-fueled detective story; instead, it's aware of what it should be and has fun with it while largely living up to classical genre expectations. For one, Pepper makes far too many cheese puns to be the clearcut, hardboiled protagonist expected in the genre, nor is he as morally ambiguous as some protagonists.
To be perfectly clear, MOUSE lays it on thick with the puns. Anyone who seriously does not like that kind of wordplay is not going to be entertained by MOUSE.
At the same time, the twists and turns of the narrative include everything fans would expect of the genre, as well as a touch of cartoonish direction and happenstance, but ultimately it does go places outside the genre. There's a touch of lovecraftian horror, for example, that would be more reminiscent of Noir fusions of the 1990s, yet there's no mistaking what it sets out to achieve and its ability to achieve it. That said, the narrative doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny; as the case spirals, there are many turns and outcomes that simply do not matter by the time credits roll on MOUSE. On top of that, the actual "detective" elements take a back seat in the gameplay, meaning it's a detective story but not a detective game.
One more aspect of MOUSE's story feels important: it is absolutely a love letter to video games and popular media of today, as well as the biggest hits of the 1930s. Fans can expect references and Easter eggs for Resident Evil, Scooby-Doo, Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Stan Lee, Ghost Busters, A Christmas Carol, Beauty and the Beast, Popeye the Sailor Man, Super Mario, Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and South Park, and this list is by no means exhaustive. What's more, they vary between quick little nods to full-blown narrative moments, and each property is treated with respect. It's by no means a constant barrage; instead, it offers more interwoven interpretations of these references that are an undeniable aspect of the experience.
Other 2026 Games Are Going to Struggle Topping MOUSE: P.I. For Hire's Charm
Where MOUSE excels more than anywhere for the noir genre is the atmosphere. The moment MOUSE is launched, the atmosphere is established with some scat singing in the background, and it never lets go of that. MOUSE simply oozes charm from the original big band jazz soundtrack, the environments players can explore, and the fantastic, bouncing UI. There's a constant head bop to everything, as one would expect from this rubberhose style of animation, and that does so much to support the atmosphere. Each gun has a specific type of ammo indicator, which has a face bopping on the bottom righthand side, while your heart (representative of your health) bops on the bottom left. These are never distracting and only serve as examples, but every single animation immerses players into an undeniably charming atmosphere.
If one detail deserves to be highlighted, it's the death animations in MOUSE. They never cease to be entertaining, often forcing me to stop and appreciate them even as combat is going on around me. There's roughly a dozen guns and more than a handful of enemies, and how they die depends on what gun, what enemy, and a couple of other factors. The result is a fun death animation nearly every time. Some are repeated, perhaps to the point of repetition, but they remain genuinely impressive.
MOUSE's Combat is a Vehicle for Everything Else
MOUSE is a first-person shooter, and it carries with it the weight of any first-person shooter that has a bunch of content. It took me roughly 14 hours to roll credits on MOUSE, and if anywhere felt every single one of those hours, it was the combat. To be clear, MOUSE's first-person shooter combat is a fine vehicle to everything else, but it is mostly a very present vehicle. At worst, it sometimes feels like a very well-designed on-rails shooter with the way enemies quickly and directly approach the player; at its best, it feels like a hectic, non-stop high round of Call of Duty zombies.
The core gameplay loop revolves around navigating to the hub (Pepper's office) and out into the city and its surrounding parts. Once in a level, players fight through enemies to reach the end, snag a clue or two, and return to the hub. Between the start and end of a level, players are in combat 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time is solving simple puzzles, navigating simple platforming, or finding secret/hidden areas to solve simple puzzles. MOUSE has the best lockpicking mini-game of the past 5 years, that's for sure, and that 10% can often feel rewarding. But its hours are dominated by shooting.
Progressing through a level means killing every enemy in the area before progressing to the next. Jack Pepper leaves no one alive to tell the tale, it seems, and the game does throw a few things players' way to vary up this combat as much as it can. There's a dozen or so guns, each with its own tactical component in moment-to-moment gameplay, and a solid ammo economy that ensures players have to swap between them. There's no sticking with your favorite gun for every single hour in Mouse. This is combined with rare pop-ups that range from essentially a Mario Fire Flower to a melee rampage, environmental factors like explosive barrels and anvils (and dropping an anvil on an enemy never grows old), and some genuinely cool level designs.
There's also some nice variety to the level length, at least at the start. For the first few hours, some levels are 15 minutes and others are 45 minutes, creating this sense of variety that helps with pacing. For the second half of the game, every level grows in size and it does more harm than good for its pacing. Another aspect that harms the pacing of MOUSE is the constant save points. Players can save at typewriters, which they will find every five minutes more often than not. Habitual savers will have way too many chances to save, and combined with its auto-save option, there's no losing data in MOUSE, that's for sure.
The problem is that, eventually, Mouse's gameplay runs out of tricks, and the last couple of hours is everything experienced thus far on repeat. What makes this worse is that the constant saves are the only area where things feel redundant. For example, players will unlock traversal abilities throughout the game, but they're rarely distinct. The first and second unlock abilities are almost always enough for areas clearly designed for the last three abilities. On top of that, Side Jobs (or side quests) are so far and few between that they add little value to the game for completing them.
Mouse Passes Its Own Vibe Check
While MOUSE may fall into some trappings of the first-person shooter genre, it escapes largely unscathed and with the cheese. It is easily one of the most unique first-person shooters to hit the market in years, and it's definitely the most charming of the lot. Fumi Games poured every ounce of ink, sweat, and stubborn dreams it had into MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, and it's clear the end result was worth the effort.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire
- Released
- April 16, 2026
- Developer(s)
- Fumi Games
- Publisher(s)
- PlaySide
- Engine
- Unity
- Number of Players
- Single-player
WHERE TO PLAY
- MOUSE oozes charm in every detail
- MOUSE has a strong, fun, if imperfect narrative
- MOUSE's guns and combat are fun
- Some aspects of MOUSE feel redundant
- The FPS Trappings hurt its later hours
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire releases April 16 for PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S, with PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions coming later. Game Rant was provided a Steam code for the purposes of this review.