MOUSE: P.I. For Hire Preview: Steamboat Willie Meets Doom
A noir boomer shooter in hand-drawn 1930s cartoon style. Play as detective Jack Pepper in this unique FPS launching April 16.
March 25, 2026 · 3 min read
Ex-competitive player turned writer. If a game has a ranked mode, I've probably grinded it. I write about what's worth your sweat.
Fumi Games asked a question nobody was expecting: what if Doom met Steamboat Willie? The answer is MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, a noir boomer shooter where you play as Jack Pepper, a private investigator mouse tracking down criminals in a rubber hose animation world.
The game launches April 16 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Physical and digital editions were just announced, with prices ranging from $29.99 for the base game to $59.99 for the deluxe Mouseburg Edition.
That Look
Every frame is hand drawn. Black and white visuals with that distinctive 1930s cartoon style. Enemies animate with exaggerated squash and stretch. Your weapons have a rubbery bounce. When you reload the shotgun, Jack just jams a fistful of shells down the barrel. The whole thing feels like a lost cartoon that got too violent for its era.
The noir filter adds weight to what could have been pure slapstick. Shadows pool in alleys. Rain streaks across windows. Characters speak in that clipped detective fiction cadence. It works because Fumi Games committed to both halves of the concept instead of treating one as a joke.
The Shooting
Classic boomer shooter foundation: pistol, shotgun, machine gun, dynamite, melee. All present and working. The standout is the Ink weapon, which drains enemies of color and strips them to skeletons. Watching a 2D/3D hybrid robot mouse dissolve into line art is the kind of visual gag that never stops being satisfying.
Enemy variety leans into the cartoon absurdity. Robot mice. Mechanical doppelgangers. Boss fights that feel ripped from an animator's fever dream. The difficulty sits in that comfortable zone where you're always pushing forward but never bored.
Not Just Shooting
Jack is a private investigator, and the game remembers that. Between firefights, you drive around the city, interview witnesses, and piece together cases. The build previewed at events showed multiple hub locations with distinct characters and storylines. This is not a corridor shooter with noir wallpaper. The investigation elements have actual substance.
Downtime matters. You get to know Jack and the world around him. The writing leans into puns and period slang, but it knows when to play things straight. A missing person case kicks off the demo, and by the end, you are genuinely curious what happened.
What to Expect
Fumi Games has been showing this at events for years, and the reception has been consistently strong. PlaySide Studios picked it up for publishing, which means solid distribution and physical editions. The April 16 release puts it in a relatively quiet window, which could help it stand out.
If you miss the days when shooters had personality, when aesthetic ambition matched mechanical polish, MOUSE: P.I. For Hire belongs on your radar. Jack Pepper is ready to take your case.