Walt Disney rolls over in his grave as I wishlist this M-rated Mickey Mouse FPS

mouse
(Image credit: Fumi Games)

Just in time for Steamboat Willie's upcoming induction into public domain is a new indie FPS inspired by '30s-era Disney animation: Mouse. Developed by Polish studio Fumi Games, you might have caught a first glimpse at Mouse on TikTok, where short clips of early gameplay have earned millions of views since late April.

It's easy to see why—Mouse's art and animations are immediately striking in the same ways that Cuphead dazzled us with its meticulous hand-drawn look years ago. Except where Cuphead largely stayed within the bounds of its family-friendly source material, Mouse dives headfirst into hard-boiled noir darkness and '90s FPS gore. Seeing the Disney vintage look applied to machineguns and exploding headshots feels a little wrong, but also very right.

With its blending of 3D geometry and 2D animation, Fumi Games doesn't seem to adhere to the animation aesthetic as strictly as Studio MDHR, but its early prototypes look great nonetheless. There's a satisfying bendiness to the tommy gun's equip animation and I particularly appreciate the pillowy clouds of smoke spewing out of the guns.

The Mouse Steam page describes it as a "story-driven experience that will take you on a thrilling journey through a dangerous and corrupt city." Combat promises to let you approach things your way, whether you want to "run and gun, jump and dodge, or carefully plan your attacks," and there will be an upgrade system for weapons. Sounds a bit like New Blood Interactive's upcoming stylized immersive sim, Fallen Aces.

mouse

(Image credit: Fumi Games)

Mouse is immediately intriguing enough that it's an easy wishlist for me, but don't expect any movement on its "to be announced" release date anytime soon. Mouse looks very early in development, judging by all the featureless prototype maps in the trailer, placeholder assets, and the way every bad guy's head explodes even if they're shot in the gut. Google-translated replies from a Fumi dev on TikTok clarify that the game is in "early stages." It's also worth knowing that Fumi Games has another yet-to-be-released game in the works inspired by another distinct era of animation: Galaxi Taxi.

Mouse's current iteration looks more like a cool proof-of-concept than a proper product, but you can see where it goes from here: waist-high cover, phone booth save points, cans of veggies that refill HP, maybe a fight where a mob boss throws steel girders at you.

Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

Read more
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'
Skin Deep official key art, featuring Nina Pasadena clutching a pistol like an action hero in a movie poster style collage image with sci-fi trappings around her
Immersive sci-fi FPS Skin Deep feels like Prey by way of Looney Tunes
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
Uplifted chimp Penn and cyber-rat Trip in the key art for Animal Use Protocol
Animal Use Protocol's dysfunctional chimp-rat alliance drags the Stasis series into a horrible new first-person era
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Popeye The Sailor, poster, circa 1945.
Popeye and Tintin have entered the public domain, so I'll just go ahead and start the countdown clock for our first Sailor Man soulslike
Latest in Action
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event