Take the Fleischer-style cartoons behind Cuphead’s beautiful visuals, slam them along with a traditional first-person shooter within the vein of Doom and also you’d possible 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 transient 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 suits 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 fastened turret having a devoted well being bar cut up into three segments.
![The player prepares to light a stick of dynamite in cartoony shooter Mouse](https://assetsio.reedpopcdn.com/mouse-gameplay-dynamite.jpg?width=690&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp)
Fumi say that enemies don’t simply appear like cartoons of the period however behave like them too; the gameplay trailer is probably extra bloody than you would possibly count on for a black-and-white sport that appears like a Disney traditional, with heads popping off in spurts of blood and barbecued enemies turning into charred matchsticks. It’s undoubtedly extra Itchy & Scratchy (or, no less than, 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 shelling out it loads too, from the seems of issues. Ranges noticed embody some sort of dock and the inside of a ship, plus what seems like a big warehouse.
In brief, it seems fantastic – an entire lot of Cuphead and Doom, and even a touch 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.