Take the Fleischer-style cartoons behind Cuphead’s beautiful visuals, slam them along with a basic first-person shooter within the vein of Doom and also you’d doubtless find yourself with one thing that appears like Mouse, an upcoming FPS with a hell of a classy look.
Indie builders Fumi Video games cite the “rubber hose” animation of the Nineteen Thirties as inspiring Mouse’s unbelievable presentation, which sees the participant working down anthropomorphic gangster mice armed with tommy weapons with their very own stock of revolvers, machine weapons, shotguns, sniper rifles and what seems to be simply their gloved hand making the movement of a gun.
There’s additionally temporary glimpses of environmental risks befitting the cartoon look – a precariously dangling piano will get dropped on enemies at one level – and the character scoffing down a complete wedge of cheese, a tin of one thing (Popeye spinach various, maybe?) and a cup of tea.
The jazzy music matches proper in with the vibe, with the gunplay offset by snippets of exploring a darkish tunnel with flashlight in hand, chatting with characters and accumulating buying and selling playing cards – together with mouse baseball star Brie Ruth. There look to be bosses, too, with a baddie in a Robotnik-style mounted turret having a devoted well being bar break up into three segments.
Fumi say that enemies don’t simply seem like cartoons of the period however behave like them too; the gameplay trailer is probably extra bloody than you may count on for a black-and-white recreation that appears like a Disney basic, with heads popping off in spurts of blood and barbecued enemies turning into charred matchsticks. It’s positively extra Itchy & Scratchy (or, a minimum of, Steamboat Itchy) than Mickey Mouse.
The monochrome palette feeds into Mouse’s noir-fuelled story of a PI encountering gangs and mobsters whereas searching for out justice – and dishing out it loads too, from the seems to be of issues. Ranges noticed embrace some form of dock and the inside of a ship, plus what seems to be like a big warehouse.
In brief, it seems to be great – a complete lot of Cuphead and Doom, and even a splash of BioShock by means of varied power-ups and the early Nineteenth-century setting. Fumi say they’re nonetheless pinning down a launch date, however hope to have Mouse out on Steam in 2025.
