Last Updated on Apr 16, 2026 @ 13:42:02 PM.
What do you get if you combine a rubber-hose art style from Disney’s early days, a 1930s Private Investigator that also happens to be a mouse, a range of weaponry that’d put Rambo to shame, and a lot of comedy? Mouse P.I For Hire, that’s what you get.
Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) is the voice of Jack Pepper, the titular mouse who is in fact, for hire. Investigating several different cases, you’ll be trying to piece things together and seeing how everything connects to the main story as you progress, all with regular inputs from the smart-mouthed, never short of a pun mouse.
As soon as I booted up the game, it was clear that I was in for an experience. The art design hit me like a truck. Rubber-hosed everything everywhere. If you can see it, it either has exaggerated limbs, or won’t stop bouncing up and down, and it is gloriously unique for it. It’s clear Fumi Games chose this early on and fully committed to it. There’s nothing quite like seeing a shotgun bobbing up and down inside a rubbish can for you to find, before unleashing hell on a group of bad guys that happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Add in the fact that the entire adventure is black and white, and I couldn’t help but buy into what the studio were throwing at me. It’s delightfully dated in the most modern of ways.
The majority of my time with Mouse P.I. For Hire, like yours will be, was spent exploring new areas and filling bad mouses with lead from a variety of weapons, all of which feel different in their use. My personal favourite? The DeVarnisher. Seeing my enemies skin fall of and turn into a pile of bones never got old. That may just be the most psychotic sentence I’ve ever written. From peppering (get it) with a Tommy Gun to using a handheld cannonball, there’s really a weapon for everyone and every situation.
While the weapons do feel different, and I did quickly have my favourites, actual shooting of them never really got out of second gear. It seemed far too easy to overpower hordes of enemies, seemed difficult to miss, regardless of the weapon being used, and the upgrades largely felt pointless. The AI of the enemies, which are surprisingly limited in their variety, regularly just stormed at me, no matter the difficulty level, making offing them so simple, and something I desperately hope is improved in future patches.
The level design on offer is more than good, with each area feeling different, whilst still falling back on the same FPS tropes we’ve come to expect in the boomer shooter genre. Find a new open area, fight an exorbitant amount of bad guys, kill said bad guys, loot, look for clues, move on, repeat. If you take some time to look off the beaten path, you’ll find various secrets, from comic book strips to baseball cards (more on that later), as well as ammo, money and weapons. Whether it was exploring the local Opera Halls, the Police Station full of dodgy cops, or the sewers beneath our cheese-loving mouse’s feet, each felt like an entirely different experience, and mixed with the aforementioned art style, was a genuine feast for my eyes.
While Mouse P.I. For Hire doesn’t delve into the Private Investigator side of things quite as much as Rockstar’s detective thriller L.A. Noire, it does employ a satisfactory wall mechanic, similar to Alan Wake 2’s case wall. Find the clues throughout the levels, and pin them to your wall all under the guise of solving the cases. By the end of my adventure, I felt like that popular Always Sunny meme, just instead of red string and colour photographs, it’s black and white photographs and cheese puns.
When You’re Not Shooting, You’re Playing With Cards and Walls
Mouse P.I. For Hire doubles down on the nostalgia with its map traversal. Used when going between locations, you’ll be greeted with a top down map you can drive around, and it put me in mind of two things every time I went into it. A 3D, top down version of the early GTAs, but also the car mats I’d play with as a kid, whizzing my Ferrari’s, lorries and so on round a cityscape my imagination made real, and Fumi Games deserve a raise, because its version had the same effect. Even with cases to investigate, I’d spend way too much time just driving around instead.
And the game doesn’t stop there with references. It is littered with them. From an unnerving Resident Evil 2 ‘Welcome Leon’ banner nod, to Indiana Jones and even Clark Gable, there’s too many to name and no doubt some that I missed. This is one of those things where I’d consider it both a plus and a negative to the experience. It was good to keep an eye out and nice to see all the little inspirations and callouts from the developers, but it also detracted from the experience as well. It’d been interesting to see what a Mouse P.I. For Hire adventure without an abundance of pop culture references would have looked like.
Beyond just the boomer shooter of it all, Mouse P.I For Hire does offer its own version of baseball, a rudimentary card game based upon the same premise as Top Trumps. High point wins, and you’ll score runs. Win enough rounds and you’ll end up getting tokens which can be exchanged for rewards in the local pub. It’s not that deep, it won’t take too much of your time, but it is something I found myself playing more than I thought I would, upon first finding it.
Mouse: P.I. For Hire
Join private investigator Jack Pepper on a guns blazing, jazz-fueled adventure in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire. MOUSE combines the charm of hand-drawn rubber hose animation inspired by the classic cartoons of the 1930’s with the adrenaline and action of an explosive first person shooter.
Summary
Mouse P.I. For Hire is a ridiculous good time, with solid level design, good-to-great voice performances and an art style I will not shut up about. Gunplay is hit and miss, mostly hit, and the pop culture references can be a bit too much sometimes, but if anyone were to ask if they should play Mouse? Well, that’d be the easiest yes of the year.
HOURS PLAYED: 16
PLAYED ON: PC
- Gorgeous art style. I want this to get a nomination at the Game Awards.
- Fun story with plenty of comedy.
- Not the deepest shooting mechanics.
- Mixed bag with pop culture references.
For more from us, check out our review of WWE 2K26, and Valorborn.
Luke Addison is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Thumb Wars. Having previously been a part of multiple outlets over the years, including building an entire gaming team from nothing to something, he thought it best to forge his own path and answer only to himself. As likely to be found playing the latest game as he is in the kitchen relaxing (by cooking), he always brings the same bold and brash attitude to everything he does, with a heavy leaning on sarcasm and dry wit!
