Cuphead did one thing in 2017 that we might arguably by no means seen earlier than in a online game, or at the very least nowhere close to the diploma Cuphead went to: it constructed a complete recreation round utterly hand-drawn artwork and animation a la a 1930’s cartoon. We have not seen it since most likely since doing all of that painstaking visible work by hand is extremely troublesome, time-intensive, and laborious. However now, a brand new hand-drawn and hand-animated mission is on the brink of grace our PCs and consoles. It is known as Mouse: P.I. for Rent, and totally handcrafted artwork is about the one factor it is received in widespread with Cuphead. Mouse is its personal, equally beautiful recreation, and after getting a take a look at a hands-off demo, I am simply as involved in it as I used to be once I first noticed Cuphead. Which is to say, I’m very .
As you possibly can clearly see, Mouse is in black and white. It is paying homage to the Steamboat Willy period of early animation, full with weapons which might be all the time wobbling even after they aren’t in use, as in the event that they’re fabricated from rubber. (Extra on the weapons in a bit.) As you can even plainly see, Mouse is a first-person shooter. In it, you play as Jack Pepper, who in-demand online game voice actor Troy Baker performs with a stereotypical-on-purpose New York accent. He is an early-Twentieth-century gumshoe, in spite of everything, see? He is received to sound like one.
What I actually preferred in regards to the demo I noticed of Mouse was that it wasn’t only a senseless run-and-gun first-person shooter (not that there is something improper with that). As a substitute, the mission I noticed a part of was set at an opera home, the place Pepper needed to discover and query the stage designer. We began on the again door, the place we spoke to a waiter and requested about Roland, the aforementioned stage designer. He hasn’t seen him, so in we go to analyze for ourselves.
Inside, the kitchen provides you a greater take a look at the visible aesthetic at play right here. Discover how the characters are 2D inside the 3D house, not in contrast to the monsters within the authentic Doom. A peek by means of the porthole window of the kitchen door exhibits off one in every of Mouse’s detective-y options: reconnaissance, as Jack takes a photograph and sees some members of the Large Mouse Celebration – aka not guys we wish something to do with.
Transferring to the again of the kitchen, we meet up with a slick waiter who’s joyful to assist sneak us upstairs to the place we have to go quietly – for $30. We decline the bribe and as an alternative discover a vent we will sneak by means of. A bonus stash of money hiding within the vent is appreciated, however the backside falling out of the vent, crash-landing us again exterior the place we began, could be very a lot not appreciated.
Try quantity two takes us again by means of the kitchen and into the identical vent, fastidiously crawling across the newly made gap within the ground and taking us to the dressing room, the place a Thompson machine gun and a few ammo await. You’re not presupposed to be in right here, after all, and the Large Mouse Celebration members don’t take kindly to your presence. It’s right here that we get our first take a look at the first-person shooter fight, together with one of many beautiful reload animations.
We hear a muffled voice that is likely to be Roland, however first a secure provides us an opportunity to see the lockpicking minigame in motion, together with what the secure was hiding: a cup of espresso? Then issues get actually loud, because the wall in entrance of us blows up and we now have to snuff out the unhealthy man that emerges from the smoke earlier than utilizing TNT ourselves to make a gap within the ground so we will make our means down into the bowels of the opera home.
Lastly, we’ve discovered Roland. He’s been crushed up by the extras, who Jack deduces aren’t extras in any respect, and learns the Large Mouse Celebration’s actual plan: to assassinate mayoral candidate Stilton, who’s sitting within the balcony for that night’s present, throughout intermission, utilizing the cannon on stage that’s each filled with dwell ammo and pointed immediately at him.
Quick-forward to extra fight, together with the shotgun, which seems to be prefer it packs a pleasant wallop – and likewise has a fairly superior reload animation of its personal. Plus a take a look at explosive barrels that depart the unhealthy guys burning in probably the most cartoonish means doable. There’s even an ice barrel – liquid nitrogen, maybe? – that freezes close by foes when detonated, permitting you to kick them in order that they shatter right into a thousand items, Terminator 2-style. Moments later we additionally received a take a look at the third weapon featured within the demo: the turpentine gun, which melts these cartoon characters who’re actually fabricated from paint, not in contrast to the Dip from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
After a little bit of platforming and preventing a brand new helicopter-tailed enemy kind, we discovered our means again upstairs…solely to have a entice door beneath our ft open up, dumping us again into the basement. It’s right here we meet the Outdated Rat Stuntman, who teaches Jack the double-jump maneuver. After testing it out and discovering a secret – a baseball buying and selling card of “Brie” Ruth (get it, as a result of they’re mice and love cheese?) – we discover our means again on stage to sabotage the cannon and save Stilton, which triggers a boss battle with a raging opera performer. The turpentine gun finishes him off, and we get a take a look at its reload animation, which for those who ask me is even cooler than the others we’ve already seen.
The fireplace from the stage has unfold to the remainder of the opera home, and we’ve gotta get out of right here. However we’re going to need to shoot our means out utilizing each weapon at our disposal. No downside for Jack Pepper. Let’s watch some fight now, uninterrupted.
Lastly escaping the constructing, we meet up with the stage designer, who coughs up what he is aware of in regards to the performer who’s vanished. One thing a few secret lab beneath his mansion? No, that doesn’t sound suspicious in any respect… And with that, we exit the extent and the demo ends.
And so, although I haven’t but performed it myself, from what I’ve seen of Mouse – and also you simply noticed most of what I noticed – I’m actually keen to present it a strive. It looks like it’s received the fitting lighthearted, considerably comedic tone whereas additionally being self-aware however providing a strong first-person shooter on the core of it. In spite of everything, as beautiful and admirable as its hand-drawn artwork and animation are, if the gameplay can’t again it up and likewise preserve my curiosity in it over the course of its marketing campaign, then it gained’t actually matter how fairly it’s. However at this level, I’m extraordinarily optimistic.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
