MOUSE: P.I. for Hire from PlaySide and Fumi Games is a film noir-style rubber hose animation-inspired fast-paced first-person shooter on Nintendo Switch 2. Learn more in our MOUSE: P.I. for Hire review!
MOUSE: P.I. for Hire from PlaySide and Fumi Games is a film noir-style rubber hose animation-inspired fast-paced first-person shooter on Nintendo Switch 2. You’ll be placed in the role of Jack Pepper, a former war hero who has now become a hardened private investigator who calls Mouseburg home. Danger lurks around every corner and might even be hiding in the smallest mouse hole. Your new journey begins when a missing person case calls you into action, leading you to discover that there’s a lot more hiding in the dark, seedy parts of the city.
As you can tell from the trailer and screens in this MOUSE: P.I. for Hire review, the game pays homage to classic cartoons from the 1930s and their animation style, with some nods to the classic Felix the Cat, as well as the one we all think of when we see a black and white mouse: Steamboat Willy.
The game offers three different difficulty settings for you to choose from: Rookie, Detective, and Supersleuth. The Rookie difficulty setting is a great option for those of you who are new to the first-person shooter genre, so that you can focus on the game’s story. The Detective difficulty setting offers the standard experience. As for the Supersleuth difficulty setting, it’s best reserved for those of you who are looking for a challenge that is dialed up to 11!
The game will kindly send you into a tutorial so that you can quickly get the hang of things. Since this is a first-person shooter, you’ll be taking control of your character with the left analog stick, as you aim and look around you by using the right analog stick. Dash by pressing in on the left analog stick, and crouch by pressing in on the right analog stick. Jump by pressing the B button, and kick by pressing the A button. Think of this as a last-resort short-range ability to hopefully stun your opponent, as well as something that can be used to break open crates and other stuff.
You can shoot at enemies by pressing the ZR button, and you can reload your weapon by pressing the Y button. There’s also the option of making the most of the mouse controls when using a pair of Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2. Use a weapon’s alternate shot by pressing the ZL button. Ran out of ammo? You will still be able to use your powerful fists to do the talking. Press and hold down the X button to open up the weapon wheel so that you can choose your weapon.
These weapons will unlock as you progress through the game, and you’ll be able to update them by spending the schematics that you collect. There’s the Micer, your starting weapon that can be used to deal with small groups of enemies. The Devarnisher is a weapon that pays homage to Who Framed Roger Rabbit since it will shoot out acid that deals damage over time, which can make an enemy melt away. Another one is the Boomstick, a great weapon for dealing a ton of damage from a short range.
If you’re hurt and need to recover some of your health, you can do so by eating some cheese by pressing up on the D-Pad. You can also find healing concoctions as you explore each level, which you should drink right away as you try to avoid incoming attacks. Launch some mighty D-namite by pressing left on the D-Pad.
The Y button is also used for interacting. This is how you’ll be able to open doors, check out objects and points of interest, climb ladders, and use typewriters to save your progress. You can also use this button for talking to other characters. Toggle your flashlight by pressing right on the D-Pad so that you can actually see where you’re going when it’s too dark. Use the Detective brush by pressing down on the D-Pad. This will make a literal brush pop up and brush its way toward your next destination, thus pointing you where you should be heading right away.
Found a lock? Then you can use your tail to pick it! Yes, this is called tailpicking. You’ll need to solve a short puzzle by using your tail to trigger all tumblers and set them into place before having your tail exit on the other end. Just be careful, because some of the trickier locks will place a limit on how many moves you’ll have for solving the puzzle at hand.
If you’re the type of gamer who likes to 100% games, then you need to know that there’s a ton of different collectibles for you to find during your time with MOUSE: P.I. for Hire. There are newspapers, comics, figurines, newspapers, baseball cards, clues, as well as schematics for you to find as you search high and low in each area. The good news? You’ll be able to use your hard-earned money and purchase some of the ones you miss along the way.
MOUSE: P.I. for Hire is a film noir-style rubber hose animation-inspired fast-paced first-person shooter on Nintendo Switch 2. You’ll be placed in the role of Jack Pepper, a former war hero who has now become a hardened private investigator who calls Mouseburg home. Danger lurks around every corner and might even be hiding in the smallest mouse hole. Your new journey begins when a missing person case calls you into action, leading you to discover that there’s a lot more hiding in the dark, seedy parts of the city.
You can also customize how the game looks by going with the Studio Cut, Director’s Cut, Vintage Cut, and Custom. The Studio Cut offers the baseline look with reduced filters and audio color. The Director’s Cut adds a cellulose disc sound degradation as well as a high film grain effect. The Vintage Cut dials things up even more, with a brown wax cylinder sound degradation and full film grain and diffusion effects. As for the Custom option, it will allow you to mix and match effects and sound as you see fit. You can also enable or disable lens distortion, camera and UI shake, head bobbing, and dash effects.
The game offers a Performance Mode and a Quality Mode for you to choose from. As expected, Performance Mode will lower the overall resolution for the game to favor frames per second, while Quality Mode will bump up the resolution to the max while lowering the max resolution. MOUSE: P.I. for Hire is out on Nintendo Switch with a $29.99 price tag. And no, you can never have too much cheese. Or rubber hose animation. Or film noir homage-by-way of parody.
Disclaimer
This MOUSE: P.I. for Hire review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 code provided by Playside.
