Mice, Guns, and Mystery: Mouse PI Review

Mouse: PI For Hire (, Xbox, Switch, PC, £24.99)

Verdict: Riotous rodents

Rating:

BLAM! Welcome to Mouseburg, kid, where the streets are violent, the politicians are mice, the cops are mice, and the dames... well, they’re mice too.

For this is the setting of Mouse: PI For Hire, a cartoon world of talking animals that’s part Raymond Chandler, part Looney Tunes.

You play as a rodent detective, with the brilliantly piquant name of Jack Pepper, as he sets about solving his biggest case yet.

And, in this town, that means shooting. Lots of shooting.

Pepper’s arsenal includes everything from a Tommy gun to a ‘Devarnisher’, which strips underworld goons down to their skeletons. Blam! And, indeed, bleurgh!

This guns-first approach might disappoint those who want a bit more detecting in their detective games.

It might even disappoint those who are used to more sophisticated modern shooters; the action in Mouse definitely tends towards the brutal simplicity of 1990s titles like Doom and Quake.

But it’s still hard not to be charmed by a game with such style. Much like 2017’s Cuphead, Mouse is an homage to the twisty-twirly animations of the 1930s. And it’s got plenty of love for the film noir of the 1940s, too.

The result is something that’s plenty referential, but – compared to most other games – pretty distinctive too.

Oh, and funny. You might tire of all the cheese-related puns after a while, but there’s always some other gag to tickle your funny bone while you’re reducing the baddies to theirs. Mouseburg, kid...you’ll like it here.

Pragmata (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £49.99)

Verdict: Game of two halves

Rating:

SHOOTING games are, in their way, always a bit of a puzzle. Which way should you face while under fire? Which enemy should you aim for first? What’s the best weapon for achieving what you want, which is total battlefield dominance?

But what if another puzzle – a more puzzle-y type of puzzle – were layered on top of all that? This is the question asked by Pragmata. And answered, too, with great panache.

But first, the setup: you are a sort of moon soldier, called Hugh, who, after the celestial body’s security systems go haywire, has to fight his way to safety.

To do this, he carries a bunch of weapons, but also a young-girl-looking android, called Diana, on his back – and she might be the most powerful weapon of all.

For Diana is able to hack into the baddie robots and make them more vulnerable to your gunfire.

Which brings us back to Pragmata’s bifurcated gameplay. Whenever you enter combat, you first have to do the hacking part – operating nodes on a small grid – before you can get blasting.

Which makes for some wonderfully tense encounters. Quick, quick, quick! Can you break this robot’s brains before one of his buddies shambles up behind you? As the game progresses, the puzzles become more complicated and the AI resistance gets smarter.

And... that’s it, really. There isn’t much to Pragmata’s story, nor its world.

But, with such innovative and satisfying combat, you’re never really left questioning those absences. You carry on for the thrill of the puzzle.