MOUSE: P.I. For Hire has the wretched stink of cheese and corruption. Mouseburg and its surrounding locations are so dirty that not even a mouse would eat from them. But I’m not talking about the graphics, because they’re as captivating as anything I’m going to experience in 2026, thanks to MOUSE’s flawless, cartoony rubber hose design that brings the 1930s to life.
I’m talking about a story and characters sharper than a wedge of refrigerated Blue Stilton. You play as Jack Pepper—whose name is the starting point for the game’s 15+ hours of humor so cheesy you could snap the perfect cheese pull for social media—and he’s a war hero who’s turned to detective work to put his extensive skills to good use.
This fairly basic first-person shooter doesn’t reinvent the cheese wheel, but MOUSE is delicious and determinedly decadent.
A Mature MOUSE Massacre
MOUSE’s artistic framework is conceptually difficult to achieve—as Studio MDHR learned while developing Cuphead—and Fumi Games pulls it off magnificently. When the game was just called MOUSE, before it added the colon and extra bits, it drew attention for its loving and painstaking attention to detail, which it delivers for the full release.
Weapons bob up and own and flex in a fun and floaty way, and reload animations are also incredibly unique—my personal favorite being the Shotgun and how Jack stuffs a bunch of shells into the gun like he’s packing the Thanksgiving turkey.
The bonks and boings of the game’s sound effects would slip and slide into any Looney Tunes or Tiny Toons episode, and the charred ashes of flamed enemy corpses remain, looking at you comically, but serving as a reminder to me that MOUSE has a dark side that would have Star Wars quaking.
It’s a wonderful juxtaposition that the slapstick media being delivered is actually very morbid. MOUSE is a first-person shooter, and while it looks cutesy, you’ll come into contact with hundreds of gangsters, corrupt cops, zealots, flying beasts, and tanky bosses trying to kill you. You can drop steel girders on them like Roadrunner fending off Wile E. Coyote for the thousandth time, and blasting a foe up close with a shotgun can produce a squeamish squelchy splat.
There’s plenty of enemy variety, many hilarious weapons, and while I don’t think the gunplay is the game’s greatest asset, it’s coherent enough to be a blast. Each level has a secret area to find, there’s a lockpick…sorry, tailpicking mini-game to open secure safes, and you acquire handy abilities throughout, giving Jack new ways to fight and forage.
The level design can also be a bit and miss, but largely delivers. A fairly non-descript journey through the sewers is easily forgotten when you’re unleashing havoc in an Opera House, running from boulders on a movie set, and fighting your way through what can only be described as a real-life fever dream of ghosts and garish horror vibes.
We Feta Get More Of This
The selling point for a lot of people will be MOUSE: P.I. For Hire’s graphics and glorious soundtrack…and you would be absolutely vindicated in your decision.
I want more games that look and sound like this. Obviously, if every man and his mouse starts making their games in this style, it might lose its appeal, but I feel the look of MOUSE is something we can all relate to as kids growing up watching cartoons. Whereas other studios remain steadfast in producing realistic and lifelike gameplay, a team like Fumi Games wants to complement its award-worthy soundtrack with a seldom-seen aesthetic.
I already know that I’ll be listening to the MOUSE: P.I. For Hire soundtrack for months and years to come. Smooth jazz, the crashing of cymbals; it’s that big-feel orchestra sound that made watching Tom chase Jerry for years so endearing and entertaining. Troy Baker plays Jack Pepper, and his thick accent gives our detective an edge, like he’s seen and been through everything. A great cast of supporting characters bolsters the narrative, and it’s all well-acted and laden with the right level of intensity.
And I just want to point out that this is a single-player campaign with 15-25 hours of content, a world-class voice actor at the helm, and it reeks of so much premium quality you’d mistake it for Camembert, and it’s only $29.99 or £24.99 for the basic edition.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire might be the best pound-for-pound game of 2026.
The Gouda, The Bad & The Ugly
The story is good, and before you know it, Jack Pepper’s evidence board starts to look like a cheeseboard, littered with clues, photos, and key evidence required to solve the game’s interwoven mysteries and cases. The plot never veers into the extreme, nor does it unfold at a glacial pace that makes you want to take regular wine breaks. The cheese puns and lines are overbearing, but I’ll allow it. I like cheese.
Mouseburg serves as the epicenter for Jack and his base of operations. It’s a basic hub area where you’ll find regular side characters to interact with, acquire side missions from, and even earn some handy money to put toward inventory restocks and collectible purchases. As the game progressed, though, I found it quite tiresome going back and forward to Mouseburg after missions, as I just wanted to get into the next level.
It’s a fairly linear area, and not much ever really changes: You’ll come back, pin some clues on the evidence board, talk to a character or two, and leave. I feel this is undercooked and either needs more things to do, or dropping altogether. Furthermore, Jack’s evidence board also feels like a tacked-on and arbitrary addition—Saga Anderson’s Mind Place and case board in Alan Wake 2 is far superior and made me feel involved, for example.
My rattiness also extends to the wider world, where you use Jack’s car to drive around the city to mission locations. It’s slow, and again, not much happens. Cuphead’s Inkwell Isles (as another comparison) let you walk around as Cuphead and Mugman, but you could visit (and replay) levels, find secrets, and talk to NPCs. I think MOUSE could have benefited by integrating both of its hub areas into one for a more seamless world.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire Review Verdict
A few ideas are a bit crumbly, but I can’t take anything away from MOUSE: P.I. For Hire’s shining qualities: Its look, its euphoric and nostalgic sound, its fun characters and story, some terrific levels, and easter eggs and references designed to put a smile on your face—after all, isn’t this why we play games?
I truly hope MOUSE: P.I. For Hire succeeds, which it should do at its price point, because this is Edam good!
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MOUSE: P.I. For Hire
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MOUSE: P.I. For Hire
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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