Being a disembodied hand won't stop this cop from dealing out justice

A hand, who is a cop, holding a gun
(Image credit: Jeff Ramos)

What happens when you take Thing from The Addams Family and give it a handgun license? You get Michael McWrist, a loose cannon detective packed into a single disembodied right hand.

Handcop is a very strange, very real game currently being developed by Brazilian developer Jeff Ramos. Working as a one-man team, Ramos has had Handcop in the pipeline since at least February, though Handcop truly grabbed the internet's attention with a gif posted to Reddit last week with the winking caption "Too lazy to animate the whole body". 

Speaking to IGN, Ramos stresses that this isn't just a gimmick. The developer wants Handcop to be a properly compelling stealth-action game, using your diminutive stature to finger-walk your way around baddies. There are dashes, executions, melee combat and throwable weapons, with plans to add rings that boost your stats.

"Different from most comedy games, the shooting is for real here," Ramos said. "It is very satisfying and the headshots are superb." 

Ramos has been messing with disembodied hand prototypes for some time, a habit that he says started when he was "playing finger football with my wife and saw a TV commercial featuring the hand from The Addams Family". One of these is even playable on Itch, a neon-blasted cyberpunk shooter called Hand of Pain developed for a game jam last September.

(Image credit: Jeff Ramos)

In the time since, Handcop has taken on a more dishevelled, '80s cop flair, complete with striped shirt and loose tie. Ramos is currently seeking funding and looking for a publisher to help make Handcop a reality. He reckons the game has the potential to be "much more than what a solo dev with zero funding" can do—but even if he doesn't find funding, it sounds like he's determined to make Handcop a reality.

Personally, I look forward to getting my hands on it when it's finished. Get it?

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.

Read more
Shotgun Cop Man, who looks like an angry thumb, holding a shotgun and a pistol
In Shotgun Cop Man you are a man who looks like a thumb and has gone to Hell to arrest Satan
The titluar Cyberlich of Cyberlich surrounded by a smoky cloud and with a saintly halo behind his head
I felt goodwill and hope for the future seeing Cybrlich and the Death Cult of Labor, an FPS that's 60% HUD and looks like an Adult Swim cartoon where you smoke 'deepweed' to restore your health and blow clouds that spell out 'doink' and 'loud'
In-development screenshot of game Psycho Patrol R. It is a low-poly, low-fidelity graphical style with deliberately clashing colors and interface elements.
The next game from Cruelty Squad's creator, a 'policing and punishment simulator', has dropped a new trailer showing off its gruesome mech combat
A woman holding a gun in a sci-fi setting
'It's like Die Hard but with more comedy': Immersive FPS Skin Deep has talking cats, banana traps, and enemies you can disable by making them sneeze
A goalkeeper in a plague mask wields an axe
Silent Hill gets a soccer league in FEAR FA 98, and you can play the demo now
A mish-mash of fantasy and modern-day characters, including a Viking, a necromancer, and a businessman
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser's new project looks like nothing special, to be perfectly honest
Latest in Action
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
One of the biggest victories of Monster Hunter Wilds' streamlining is I don't have to deal with those awful gimmick fights anymore
A young witch watering a smiling mushroom in a magic garden
Here's a roguelite dungeon crawler Steam reviewers call 'a botanical Diablo' and 'like Cult of the Lamb' except you manage a mystical garden
Chatacabra from Monster Hunter Wilds
The latest Monster Hunter Wilds event quest gives piles of Armor Spheres for hunting a Chatacabra, making this a very bad week to be a frog in the Forbidden Lands
A hunter posing with an absurd Blangonga outfit in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Attention, fashion hunters: There's a Monster Hunter Wilds mod to disable all those obnoxious glowing buff effects that distract from your fits
A red Porsche spaceship in front of a red planet
Naughty Dog's next game is definitely steering clear of controversy: 'Let's do something that people won't care as much about. Let's make a game about faith and religion'
Olivia, Alma and a palico
I wish Monster Hunter Wilds wasn't so afraid of letting me play Monster Hunter
Latest in News
Marvel Rivals Human Torch
Marvel Rivals is carrying on the tradition of chaotic patches after buffing two of the most annoying heroes, but I main one of them, so I'm not complaining
 photo shows a factory tool that places lids on data center system-on-chips at an Intel fab in Chandler, Arizona, in December 2023. In February 2024, Intel Corporation launched Intel Foundry as the world’s first systems foundry for the AI era, delivering leadership in technology, resiliency and sustainability.
So, wait, now TSMC is supposedly pitching a joint venture with Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom to run Intel's ailing chip fabs?
Monster Hunter Wilds Artian weapon crafting - Gemma holding hot metal
Gemma's English VA is right with us on Monster Hunter Wild's confusing menus, which makes me feel a little better for having to Google symbols all the time
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT on a red and orange background
Some Sapphire RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards have hard-to-spot foam inside that must be removed or it 'may result in a decrease in cooling capacity or product failure'
Promotional image of the HP Envy Inspire inkjet printer
Haunted printers turning on by themselves and printing nonsense has to be one of my favorite Windows 11 bugs ever
The UHPILCL water cooled gaming laptop
This water-cooled gaming laptop packs a full-size desktop RTX 5090 and even fits in a backpack, but I sure wouldn't want it in mine