Latest news with #FumiGames
CNET
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
I Saw This Cartoon Gumshoe Shooter in Action. It's a Video Game Miracle
Mouse: P.I. for Hire is the kind of fun video game miracle of making wild ideas into reality. What started as a throwaway "what if" post on social media about a first-person shooter styled like a classic Betty Boop-era cartoon has turned into a full video game I saw being played in front of me at Summer Game Fest -- and the gumshoe gunplay game is due out later this year. In Australian publisher PlaySide's private booth tucked into a corner of the Summer Game Fest grounds in Los Angeles, I sat down with the game's lead producer Maciej Krzemień and game director Mateusz Michalak of the Poland-based Fumi Games while the former played through a level that will be in the final game. The first-person shooter combat, detective gameplay and story were a delight to behold in the game's signature black-and-white cartoon style -- along with the icing on the cake, hearing famed gaming voice actor Troy Baker speak as protagonist Jack Pepper. It also gave me an idea for the flow of the game, which follows the titular private eye Pepper in his investigation, and is split between replayable levels (more on that later). Dripping with noir staples of cops, crime, loyalties and betrayal, the writing and story set the stage just as much as the period music and film grain visual filter. For a Polish studio, the game leans into the distinctly American side of noir; Raymond Chandler's works were prime inspirations for the game's story and vibe, and the team's narrative leads consulting historical research to make sure the language fit with gamer expectations. "Obviously, we are not Americans ourselves. We wanted to get a good grasp on this entire style of detective noir stories, but with some light-hearted elements to it," Krzemień said. Fumi Games My preview was an early part of the game and opened up at an opera house, where Pepper was trying to track down his old friend, a magician tied to the case he's investigating. Barred from entry to the opera, Pepper has to sneak in through the kitchen, giving players the option to pay off a line cook or sneak in through the vents. But we got a moment to peek through the window to engage with a detective mechanic: using a camera to gather clues, which gives you insight into the case and the big players who may have a hand in what seems like a growing plot -- one that Pepper will chart on a conspiracy board at the hub players visit between missions. You can hunt through levels, taking photos that will even open up sidequests, or just keep running and gunning. Fumi Games "Without spoiling anything, there is a bigger conspiracy behind it all, and it's all pretty serious in terms of social topics, social themes of the game, and it actually reflects the political climate of the world back in the 1930s -- and not only in America," Krzemień said. I asked if that meant the rise of fascism. "Exactly," Krzemień said. To deliver on their blend of heavy conspiracy story and levity in cartoon logic, Fumi Games started shopping around for a voice actor who could deliver both, drawing up a list of well-known names to do the job of Pepper's jaded P.I. -- and they singled out Troy Baker for his wide range (an astonishingly expansive list including Joel in The Last of Us, Talion in Shadow of Mordor and Indy himself in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). "It felt so out there that we didn't believe that this would be possible," Krzemień said -- but the game's publisher, PlaySide, played a huge role in reaching out to him. "It turned out that Troy Baker has been following our game for a while now, and he was very excited to take up this role." Fumi Games Mouse P.I.'s gunplay gameplay between gumshoeing around Sneaking through the vents to get into the opera house, we get to the offices upstairs and find one of the game's set of optional collectibles -- a newspaper, with headlines that Pepper talks about to fill players in on the backstory to flesh out the plot. When our gumshoe walks out the door into the backstage hallways, we're met with enemy goons, and the bullets start flying. A BioShock-style weapon wheel let us switch between a pistol, shotgun and Tommy Gun, which all had enjoyable cartoony reload animations. After cracking a safe with his tail (another fun mouse-themed mechanic), we corner the stage designer, Roland, in the control room overlooking the opera stage to ask about our missing friend, but he's mostly out of answers -- though he says the goons we fought roughed up and replaced the actors. Something is afoot: Roland says the toughs are lining up a prop cannon to fire at mayoral candidate Stilton, who we see in an opera box across the theater -- and Pepper has to race to save his politician friend, who he knows from their time in the Great War. See what I mean about noir staples? Dashing around the backstage areas filled with goons to shoot and stage props, we catch sight of a hook above us leading to another area we can't get to just yet -- when we get the ability to grapple with our tail (as shown in Mouse: P.I.'s earlier trailers), we'll be able to return to this level and grab some extras. In fact, this level has several secrets tucked away in hard-to-reach areas that require some nimble platforming, another feature from old-school shooters. One of these had another of the game's collectibles: a baseball card (of "Brie Ruth," har har), which can be used in a tabletop baseball minigame playable in the hub area between levels. In addition to baseball cards, newspapers can be gathered to fill the player in on the game's world. Fumi Games As Krzemień played, I asked how they got the animation to work. In the old cartoons, the entire background is slightly blurry, but if something is supposed to move in a second, then it slightly stands out from the background, which Fumi Games replicated. "This is what we're going for with outlines, certain shaders and also most of the interactive elements like save [spots], barrels and whatnot. They tend to bounce a bit, jump a bit, just to give you a feeling of, OK, I can interact with that," Krzemień said. Players will be able to toggle on or off the optional effects that make the game feel like it's straight out of the 1930s, like the visual filter of film grain. The audio filters that make it sound like the music is coming from a wax cylinder will still be in the game too, Krzemień assured me. (He first teased these when we chatted at Gamescom 2024 last August.) Just in time, Pepper makes it to the opera stage and moves the cannon, which goes off and wrecks the house. Despite the theater crumbling around us in a fiery inferno and more goons who don't know when to quit, we make it out, only to find Roland the stage manager, who points us in the right direction to hunt down our magician friend. Climbing in the car, the level ends. Fumi Games From exploding barrels to a turpentine gun that melts enemies (turpentine being a solvent used to wipe animation cells in the old hand-drawn days), Mouse P.I. is a flavorful mix of shooter tropes and platforming, punny gags and hardboiled noir. It's obviously impossible to gauge whether the rest of the game will live up to the promise of the art style, but it's clear that the devs have very thoughtfully adapted a classic art style to modern first-person shooters with, I can only imagine, a ton of work to get it right. Mouse P.I. For Hire is coming later this year for PC, Xbox, PS5, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
CNET
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
I Saw Mouse: P.I. for Hire Gameplay: It's Got Cartoon Gumshoe Gunplay Aplenty
Mouse: P.I. for Hire is the kind of fun video game miracle of making wild ideas into reality. What started as a throwaway "what if" post on social media about a first-person shooter styled like a classic Betty Boop-era cartoon has turned into a full video game I saw being played in front of me at Summer Game Fest that's due out later this year. In Australian publisher PlaySide's private booth tucked into a corner of the Summer Game Fest grounds in Los Angeles, I sat down with the game's lead producer Maciej Krzemień and game director Mateusz Michalak of the Poland-based Fumi Games while the former played through a level that will be in the final game. The first-person shooter combat, detective gameplay and story were a delight to behold in the game's signature black-and-white cartoon style -- along with the icing on the cake, hearing famed gaming voice actor Troy Baker speak as protagonist Jack Pepper. It also gave me an idea for the flow of the game, which follows the titular private eye Pepper in his investigation, which is split between replayable levels (more on that later). Dripping with noir staples of cops, crime, loyalties and betrayal, the writing and story set the stage just as much as the period music and film grain visual filter. For a Polish studio, the game leans into the distinctly American side of noir; Raymond Chandler's works were prime inspirations for the game's story and vibe, and the team's narrative leads consulting historical research to make sure the language fit with gamer expectations. "Obviously, we are not Americans ourselves. We wanted to get a good grasp on this entire style of detective noir stories, but with some light-hearted elements to it," Krzemień said. Fumi Games My preview was an early part of the game and opened up at an opera house, where Pepper was trying to track down his old friend, a magician tied to the case he's investigating. Barred from entry to the opera, Pepper has to sneak in through the kitchen, giving players the option to pay off a line cook or sneak in through the vents. But we got a moment to peek through the window to engage with a detective mechanic: using a camera to gather clues, which gives you insight into the case and the big players who may have a hand in what seems like a growing plot -- one that Pepper will chart on a conspiracy board at the hub players visit between missions. You can hunt through levels, taking photos that will even open up sidequests, or just keep running and gunning. Fumi Games "Without spoiling anything, there is a bigger conspiracy behind it all, and it's all pretty serious in terms of social topics, social themes of the game, and it actually reflects the political climate of the world back in the 1930s -- and not only in America," Krzemień said. I asked if that meant the rise of fascism. "Exactly," Krzemień said. To deliver on their blend of heavy conspiracy story and levity in cartoon logic, Fumi Games started shopping around for a voice actor who could deliver both, drawing up a list of well-known names to do the job of Pepper's jaded P.I. -- and they singled out Troy Baker for his wide range (an astonishingly expansive list including Joel in The Last of Us, Talion in Shadow of Mordor and Indy himself in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). "It felt so out there that we didn't believe that this would be possible," Krzemień said -- but the game's publisher, PlaySide, played a huge role in reaching out to him. "It turned out that Troy Baker has been following our game for a while now, and he was very excited to take up this role." Fumi Games Mouse P.I.'s gunplay gameplay between gumshoeing around Sneaking through the vents to get into the opera house, we get to the offices upstairs and find one of the game's set of optional collectibles -- a newspaper, with headlines that Pepper talks about to fill players in on the backstory to flesh out the plot. When our gumshoe walks out the door into the backstage hallways, we're met with enemy goons, and the bullets start flying. A BioShock-style weapon wheel let us switch between a pistol, shotgun and Tommy Gun, which all had enjoyable cartoony reload animations. After cracking a safe with his tail (another fun mouse-themed mechanic), we corner the stage designer, Roland, in the control room overlooking the opera stage to ask about our missing friend, but he's mostly out of answers -- though he says the goons we fought roughed up and replaced the actors. Something is afoot: Roland says the toughs are lining up a prop cannon to fire at mayoral candidate Stilton, who we see in an opera box across the theater -- and Pepper has to race to save his politician friend, who he knows from their time in the Great War. See what I mean about noir staples? Dashing around the backstage areas filled with goons to shoot and stage props, we catch sight of a hook above us leading to another area we can't get to just yet -- when we get the ability to grapple with our tail (as shown in Mouse: P.I.'s earlier trailers), we'll be able to return to this level and grab some extras. In fact, this level has several secrets tucked away in hard-to-reach areas that require some nimble platforming, another feature from old-school shooters. One of these had another of the game's collectibles: a baseball card (of "Brie Ruth," har har), which can be used in a tabletop baseball minigame playable in the hub area between levels. In addition to baseball cards, newspapers can be gathered to fill the player in on the game's world. Fumi Games As Krzemień played, I asked how they got the animation to work. In the old cartoons, the entire background is slightly blurry, but if something is supposed to move in a second, then it slightly stands out from the background, which Fumi Games replicated. "This is what we're going for with outlines, certain shaders and also most of the interactive elements like save [spots], barrels and whatnot. They tend to bounce a bit, jump a bit, just to give you a feeling of, OK, I can interact with that," Krzemień said. Players will be able to toggle on or off the optional effects that make the game feel like it's straight out of the 1930s, like the visual filter of film grain. The audio filters that make it sound like the music is coming from a wax cylinder will still be in the game too, Krzemień assured me. (He first teased these when we chatted at Gamescom 2024 last August.) Just in time, Pepper makes it to the opera stage and moves the cannon, which goes off and wrecks the house. Despite the theater crumbling around us in a fiery inferno and more goons who don't know when to quit, we make it out, only to find Roland the stage manager, who points us in the right direction to hunt down our magician friend. Climbing in the car, the level ends. Fumi Games From exploding barrels to a turpentine gun that melts enemies (turpentine being a solvent used to wipe animation cells in the old hand-drawn days), Mouse P.I. is a flavorful mix of shooter tropes and platforming, punny gags and hardboiled noir. It's obviously impossible to gauge whether the rest of the game will live up to the promise of the art style, but it's clear that the devs have very thoughtfully adapted a classic art style to modern first-person shooters with, I can only imagine, a ton of work to get it right. Mouse P.I. For Hire is coming later this year for PC, Xbox, PS5, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A First Look At Mouse: P.I. For Hire—Rubber Hose and Rubber Bullets
It should probably go without saying that when I first saw Mouse: P.I. For Hire—initially just titled Mouse—I was immediately intrigued. It was another one of those games that found its way across one of my socials, and I loved what it was doing. I've mentioned before that I've come to really enjoy the combination of 2D characters in 3D environments, seen in games like Demon Turf, Ruff and the Riverside and Forgive Me Father. But Mouse: P.I. For Hire was really taking it to the next level. With Summer Game Fest being as crazy as it is, CGM was unable to sit down with Fumi Games personally to take a more in-depth look at Mouse: P.I. For Hire, however, the team was gracious enough to share with us some first-look footage of the game in action and I've got to say—its quite an evolution. What started as a fairly simple shooter with an incredible aesthetic has transformed into something wildly creative and seriously inventive. The gameplay video we were shown saw Jack Pepper—the game's protagonist, voiced by the one and only Troy Baker—tracking down a lead to an old Opera House where it seems a mayoral candidate is about to be the target of a murder. Jack's gotta fight his way through a bunch of mooks in order to stop it and get his next clue to crack the case. What was immediately interesting about the demo was how it seemed to showcase a bit more than the standard combat—which has been the focus of many of the game's pre-release trailers. While it may still take on the fairly straightforward level structure of a lot of classic FPS games, it almost seemed to show off gameplay that might suggest Mouse: P.I. For Hire even has a few Immersive Sim elements. In approaching the Opera, players were given the choice to pay off one of the waiters for access inside without alerting the crowd, or they could potentially sneak in through the vents. Not only that, it showcased a brief moment where Jack snapped a photo of some suspicious happenings, suggesting there may be an element of mystery solving going on in this game. While it wasn't much, it would play well to the game's Noir style, incentivizing players to look around, gather clues and approach situations in a number of ways. The combat itself looked incredibly tight and exciting in the same way that so many of the classic shooters are. Tight spaces and multiple enemies will keep players on their toes, and they'll need to not only take advantage of a plethora of traditional and interesting weapons, but also the environment itself—as explosive barrels can be used to gain a strategic advantage. But of course, the highlight of the trailer was seeing the game's incredible aesthetic come to life. It's a technique that dates back to the days of the Nintendo 64—take a 2D object and have it always face the camera. However, Fumi Games has put an extraordinary amount of work into capturing the look and feel of classic cartoons in a fun and creative way. From the way Jack picks up new weapons in a way that's both realistic and silly, to the way those weapons bounce up and down like they're made of rubber, to enemy deaths that are both slapstick and gory—think more Itchy and Scratchy than Steamboat Willie. And the creativity of Mouse: P.I. For Hire shines through in the weapons themselves. While the demo showcased a majority of them that are fairly standard for the Noir setting, the one that really caught my eye was the Turpentine Gun. I couldn't help but laugh at a weapon that, in any other shooter, would've just been a Plasma or Acid Gun, but here it is using a chemical that specifically dissolves paint. It was this little detail that really had me anticipating what other fun ways Mouse: P.I. For Hire would play with its premise. While it's still a little ways away from release, it's amazing to see just how far Mouse: P.I. For Hire has come in its development. It's a solid reminder that even games that are simple in genre can be made all the more transformative by an inventive premise. Games like this are the reason I'm always saying the Indie scene is more worth keeping an eye on than the 'AAA' one.
Engadget
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
There's more to Mouse: PI for Hire than cartoon violence
Mouse: PI for Hire is a lot deeper than I initially assumed. When the game first caught buzz in May 2023 with an early teaser populated by placeholder assets, I didn't understand the hype. The art style was definitely cool — Mouse is a black-and-white first-person shooter inspired by 1930s rubber hose cartoons, featuring bipedal rodents dressed like mobsters — but without any information about the gameplay loop, mechanics or narrative direction, I remained unmoved. After seeing Mouse in action at Summer Game Fest 2025, consider me movin' . Mouse is mechanically nuanced and fully voice-acted, starring Troy Baker as the protagonist, and it has more to offer than shock-value cartoon violence. This is a clue-gathering, photo-snapping, girlfriend-avenging, noir detective simulator that happens to star a bunch of slick-talking mice and rats, and I'm fully into it. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. In a private session at SGF, Fumi Games CEO Mateusz Michalak and lead producer Maciek Krzemien played through the game's third level, Gumshoe in the Opera, and discussed their intentions with the game. Krzemien said the team didn't want to simply lean on the art style at the expense of gameplay, and they focused on building a rich world with layered mechanics. Since that initial teaser came out, they've been fleshing out characters, drawing assets by hand, implementing puzzles and secrets, and tweaking individual weapons so that they feel just right. In Gumshoe in the Opera, the protagonist Jack Pepper is investigating his girlfriend's murder and he's backstage at the theater, looking for a friend who might be involved. Baker makes for a fine 1930s private eye, with a deep voice and a Boardwalk Empire twang. The supporting characters are voiced, too, and they tend to have a higher-pitched, henchman style of gangster speak. Mousey, you could say. Pepper fills up a 16-slot weapon wheel as he finds new guns and tools, including a flashlight, dynamite, Tommy gun, hookshot, pistol, shotgun and a turpentine blaster. The turpentine gun is ridiculous in the best way — since the characters in this world are cartoons, it melts their skin away like it's paint and then dissolves their skeletons. Killing enemies with a traditional gun leaves them lying in pools of black blood, sometimes with missing heads, and the game's environments have destructible elements. The mix of mature violence and classic cartoon art is strangely joyful, and it seems Fumi got the balance just right. Most enemies in Mouse take a few hits before going down, but headshots are a thing and a well-aimed blast can definitely flatten a mobster (mouse-ster?) in one blow. I didn't get a chance to play the game myself, but now that I'm fully seated on the Mouse hype train, I'm curious to feel the gunplay firsthand. I have a sense it's going to be more difficult than Krzemien made it seem. The preview was roughly half shooting action, half investigation and exploring. When he's not in a firefight, Pepper climbs through vents and sneaks around backstage, collecting corked health pots, a coffee cup and weapons along the way. The coffee cup turns Pepper's hand into a finger gun, which he uses to rapidly pew pew pew his way through enemies. He learns how to double-jump and is able to backtrack through the level with this new ability, picking up additional supplies and a hidden trading card — for the card-based minigame, of course. A lockpick mechanic has players snake their way past spikes to complete a small maze inside the lock. In one moment, Pepper takes a photo of someone through a small window and it's stored for later, hinting at a larger clue-organizing mechanic. Krzemien said that after this section, Pepper will return to his office to piece together the evidence. There are a lot of layers to Mouse: PI for Hire . Maybe it's my fault for being surprised by the depth in this game or the care being shown by developers at Fumi, but at least now, I finally get it. Mouse is due to hit Steam, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch this year, published by PlaySide.
Engadget
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Troy Baker is the big cheese in Mouse: P.I. for Hire
Troy Baker will don the cartoon fedora and play the lead role in Mouse: P.I. For Hire . The game has garnered buzz for its unique blending of genres. Imagine a film noir-infused cross between Cuphead and Doom . Baker will play Private Investigator Jack Pepper, the game's protagonist. He's a war hero turned detective who begins his journey responding to a cliché damsel in distress. Pepper's investigation then peels back the layers of the city's dark underbelly. It sounds like developer Fumi Games ticked all the items off the noir checklist. Oh, and don't forget the minor detail that he's a rodent. Expect plenty of cheesy (meaning puns about cheese) one-liners. Being a first-person shooter, Mouse: P.I. For Hire has plenty of Rambo-style room-clearing. Pepper's weapons range from conventional (shotgun) to comically ludicrous (turpentine cleanser). There's even an ode to Popeye: Down a can of spinach to beat your foes to smithereens. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. The game's animation draws inspiration from the same 1930s cartoons as Cuphead . Like that game, Mouse: P.I. For Hire 's monochromatic visuals are all hand-drawn. (But whether it's as punishingly difficult as the 2017 classic remains to be seen.) Watching the delightfully wacky trailers, it's easy to see why gamers are keeping an eye on this one. It sounds like a wild ride. But that doesn't necessarily point to a game in need of an industry titan like Baker. So, perhaps there's more to the game's narrative than you might expect. Or, maybe The Last of Us actor is merely checking "played rodent" off his bucket list. (Couldn't blame him!) Baker said he's been following the game's development from its first teaser. "Its art style, gameplay and 1930s film-noir aesthetic continue to win me over. I cannot wait to keep working with the team to bring Jack Pepper to life and hope to have some exciting things to share as we get closer to launch!" You can check out the game's new trailer here. Mouse: P.I. for Hire arrives later this year. It will be available on all major platforms, including Switch 2.
