Disney isn’t happy. It’s likely writing up legal documents as we speak, speaking with lawyers and drafting strongly-worded letters. The company’s beloved mascot that has projected a beloved, family-friendly message carefully curated over decades, with the ears that brand millions of t-shirts worldwide, is now an action hero brandishing tommy guns and revolvers and popping heads in a retro shooter?
Mouse – that’s the game’s title – is clearly riffing on Big Mickey, with the Steamboat-era art style and those iconic gloves clutching the assortment of rifles, pistols, and explosives available to him. The early footage shows him popping heads in the most literal fashion, as rival gangster mice find their bonces removed from their shoulders with a cartoon blood spurt (in black and white, of course) shooting from their neck.
It gives off big Cuphead vibes, mostly because of the rubber hose art style, mixed with a healthy dose of Fallout. The upgrade wheels and vending machines look like they’ve come from an alternate universe where Fallout started not as a CRPG but as a Doom-esque ’90s FPS. And then there’s the mice. Suddenly we’re in another parallel universe, one where Steamboat Willy didn’t take the wholesome right-hand turn towards Fantasia and instead turned left and met Al Capone. These mice smoke cigars and shoot tommy guns, and Mickey has to kill or be killed.
The resemblance to Disney’s iconic mascot is likely a clever marketing tactic – and it’s clearly worked already – but this game looks fun. It won’t rival Call of Duty in terms of sales, but as indie FPS games go, it certainly looks unique. I never gelled with Cuphead, but appreciated it was doing something different in an established genre. Studio MDHR’s hard-as-nails platformer was well received, but not innovative enough to spawn a legion of Cuplikes or Cuplites or whatever you’d call them. Mouse has done something different, taking the idea of a retro art style and applying it to a different genre.
It would be interesting to see other games try this approach. What if Dragon Age Dreadwolf uses a medieval aesthetic a la Pentiment to change things up? I’ve wanted an HD2D Octopath Traveller-style Pokemon game for years. These are huge risks that no multi-million dollar series is going to take, but we need a break from the same old triple-A offerings. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon may be innovating in the marketing department, but it looks like the same old realism affair when it comes to the art style, although I’m hoping From has a few Soulsy tricks up its sleeve for the most messed up robots you can imagine.
As usual, indies are trying new things. Fumi Games is developing Mouse, and at present is taking on publishing duties too, although I expect it might get picked up off the back of its viral launch. Fumi has not developed a game before, although it has one other in development, Galaxi Taxi, which seems to be an action-adventure RPG, a shmup, and a platformer all in one ‘90s cartoon-style package. Fumi has found its niche, and is putting it all on green.
It’s worth remembering we have seen very little of Mouse so far, so I’m not going to tell you to play it right now and it’ll be the greatest game of all time, my Game of the Year, the Decade, and All Time. For starters, it’s not even out yet, but I’m just saying it looks fun. The unique art style, the low frame rate animation selling the retro vibe, the middle finger pointed at the biggest corporation in the world, I’m telling you I’ll play this and I’ll likely have a good time, too. The first person shooter genre is probably the most stale of any, and I’m glad someone is trying something new.