Combining classic 1930s “rubber-hose” animation, retro gunplay, modern mechanics and exploration, and a deeply bizarre setting, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is shaping up to be a truly unusual treat – but there’s more to this game than you might have realized from earlier trailers.
After announcing a March 19, 2026 release date during today’s ID@Xbox Showcase, we were treated to a deep-dive on the game, directly from the developers at Fumi Studios in Warsaw, Poland.
You can watch the full deep-dive above, or read on to find out the big new details we learned along the way:
“More Than Just an Old-school Shooter”
If there’s one thing to take away from today’s introduction, it’s that Mouse is far more than a retro shooter in even more retro clothing. While your core interaction is with the game’s gunplay (more on that later), this is a far more modern game than you might think.
For a start, your character – war veteran-turned-private investigator, Jack Pepper – doesn’t have just a single case to solve. From the very beginning, Jack’s presented with three separate cases to solve, each of which will take him across the city of Mouseburg to unravel their secrets.
Each case can be taken on in any order, asking you not just to take down the enemies in your way, but to find clues – whether those are physical objects, information learned by talking to NPCs, or photographs you might take. Clues can then be taken to your office’s classic string-adorned corkboard, and put in place to unlock new revelations and destinations.
With 10 biomes to explore, each containing multiple levels, this is very different to a Point A-to-Point B shooter.
The Hub
At the core of all that exploration is the game’s hub world – set at the centre of Mouseburg, the hub contains Jack’s office, his local pub, and a workshop where he can upgrade his weaponry before heading to the next case. But there’s far more here than a series of menus. NPCs might offer conversations, and a range of minigames are on offer to provide different gameplay experiences, and even rewards of new clues, or upgrades.
The biggest of these minigames will take you across the entire game – a classic collectible card game, themed around baseball, will see cards dropped across many of the levels you’ll be fighting through, letting you build a deck and take on increasingly difficult matches.
And once you’re ready to leave, you can jump in your car and take a trip across the beautiful overworld map to your next firefight.
Cartoon Combat
Mouse’s combat draws on classic shooters like DOOM, but with added touches that bring it right up to date. With a philosophy of “challenging but fair”, you’ll be pitted against hordes of enemies, collecting weaponry that ranges from the expected (Tommy guns, shotguns) to the gleefully insane (a brain in a jar that fires psychic waves).
Every gun comes with an alt-fire mode, and can be upgraded over the course of the game, helping things stay fresh. But beware – enemies themselves will see upgrades, too. As you progress, familiar enemy types will start to get their own modifications – a tank-like enemy you may have mastered can start coming equipped with a forcefield, for example, forcing you to change you tried-and-true approach.
Bosses might even throw in whole new mechanics, too – we saw a ghost-like boss named the Third Wife, which seems to require you to weaken her with a flashlight before you can start pumping lead.
Making the Past the Future
And, of course, we need to talk about how this game looks. While enivronments are rendered in 3D, every single character, enemy, and weapon has been painstakingly hand-drawn and animated to resemble classic 1930s “rubber hose” animation. The way everything in the world bounces, stretches, and bends is a tribute to that distinctive style (even shotgun shells seem to dance in their chambers during a reload), and took an enormous amount of work from Fumi.
To add to the challenge, the game is entirely black-and-white, which changed how Fumi approached traditional level design. Where most games use colour to subtly guide the player, Fumi needed to take that approach with light, giving the entire game a unique look from a player’s perspective. Even here, we’re seeing a tribute to classic cartoons – interactable objects dance in place, waiting for you to find them.
And to complete that tribute to the past, we even learned that Fumi has added customizable audio filters to the game – you can choose to play with crisp, modern sound effects and music, or add degradation to help it everything sound as if it’s being played off of old-school vinyl. The attention to detail – and to how players might want to experience it – is clear across everything Fumi has touched.
Mouse: P.I for Hire comes to Xbox Series X|S on March 19, 2026.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire
PlaySide
DEADLY INVESTIGATIONS
Meet Private Investigator Jack Pepper, a former war hero-turned-detective in a world where danger lurks even in the smallest mouse hole. Uncover the truth when a simple missing persons case quickly escalates into a complex web of intrigue, with corruption, kidnapping and murder all on the docket. Investigate the seedy underbelly of Mouseburg, battle heavily armed gangs and crooked cops, and discover clues to reveal the conspiracy buried underneath the surface.
LOCK, LOAD & LAUGH
From crackling machine guns to explosive firepower, each weapon in Pepper’s arsenal is designed to deploy non-stop cartoon chaos. Arm yourself with an array of classic, creatively twisted and experimental firearms, and consume powerful upgrades when you need that extra spinach-loaded punch! Lethal encounters and manic boss battles await in this boomer shooter-inspired, retro-vibed adventure – and the denizens of Mouseburg never go down without a fight.
A CITY OF SECRETS
Explore a diverse city playground, from dark streets to classic film studios, opulent opera buildings, poisonous swamps and underground sewers. With a myriad of cases to solve and collectibles to find, Mouseburg is truly a detective’s delight! Use every tool at your disposal to wall-run, grapple-hook and double-jump through this unrelenting cartoon world.
FEATURES
– Black and white, hand-drawn rubber hose animation, inspired by cartoons of the 1930s
– Fast-paced FPS combat, where constant movement is key
– A thrilling single-player campaign that unravels a complex web of crime and corruption
– Over 20 noir-infused levels, teeming with mice, rats and shrews
– Fully-loaded arsenal of over a dozen unique weapons and equipment – with a cartoon twist
– Devastating consumable power-ups, capable of turning the tide of any battle
– Unlockable movement abilities and Metroidvania-inspired level traversal
– Original jazz soundtrack, featuring a big band orchestral ensemble
The post Mouse: P.I. for Hire Is Much More Than It Appears appeared first on Xbox Wire.
