A 1930s Cartoon Noir Shooter Just Dropped on Every Platform

A black-and-white, rubber-hose cartoon FPS about a mouse detective sounds like the kind of pitch that gets laughed out of a boardroom. Mouse P.I. For Hire launched yesterday on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC, and it arrived on all of them simultaneously, priced at £24.99. That kind of day-one multi-platform coverage from an indie studio is still rare enough to be.

Developed by Fumi Games and published by PlaySide, the game puts you in the shoes of Jack Pepper, a private investigator in the fictional city of Mouseburg. The hand-drawn monochrome art style pulls directly from 1930s cartoons, but underneath the vintage look is a fast-paced boomer shooter with wall-running, grappling hooks, and double jumps. There are over 20 levels, boss fights, Metroidvania-style traversal unlocks, and an original big band jazz soundtrack tying it all together. The campaign is single-player only.

I love seeing an indie studio commit this hard to a visual identity. Too many games with a strong art hook end up feeling thin once you're past the first hour, but the weapon variety here suggests there's real mechanical depth backing up the style. Each gun has three tiers of upgrades and an alt-fire mode; the Portable Freezer shoots an ice beam that can completely lock enemies in place, while the Boomstick's piercing rounds scale up to punch through three targets at max tier. That's the kind of arsenal design that keeps an FPS interesting across a full campaign.

Early PC performance seems solid based on initial reports, with the game running smoothly on mid-range hardware like an RTX 3060 at 1080p. Xbox players also got cloud gaming support at launch, letting them stream it without a download. The game is not on Game Pass, though, so you're paying full price regardless of platform. At £24.99 for a complete single-player package with no battle pass or seasonal nonsense attached, I'm not going to complain about that.

Mouse P.I. For Hire is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Steam.