Cuphead‘s visual design is deeply aesthetically pleasing and a beautiful ode to animation styles of the past, so it only makes sense that more games are looking to the past in terms of art direction. Enter Mouse, an upcoming title from Fumi Games.
Mouse is a “gritty, jazz-fueled shooter” from Polish developer Fumi Games that draws from the rubber hose animation style of the 1920’s/30’s. You play as private detective John Mouston, and you’ve got to battle your way through a corrupt city full of crooks and danger. You can check out the trailer below.
The Steam description is pretty lofty and boasts some incredibly cool features, including an array of weapons such as Revolvers, Tommy Guns, Hammers, Carcanos, and Dynamite. It also mentions a “Fantastic-o-Matic power-up system” for weapon upgrades.
But while Cuphead sticks to its art style wholeheartedly, Mouse seems to include a mixture of 2D and 3D in its visual design, with characters appearing in 2D and the environment appearing in 3D. It’s very Steamboat Willie meets film-noir meets Doom. That being said, the environment is clearly not quite done yet.
When I say this game has potential, I mean it in the sense that it seems to still be in the very early stages of development. The environment still includes a fair few placeholder assets, and a note from PCGamer mentions that the developer has stated the game is still in the early stages.
So, therefore, we can only really judge the game based on what’s being shown off so far. My theory is that the developers are probably doing a bit of an interest check here, throwing out what they’ve got so far to see if people like the idea. A Reddit thread for the Mouse trailer seems to echo one sentiment from many: Very cool proof of concept!
It’s not the only conceptually fascinating game that Fumi Games is working on either. Their other title Galaxy Taxi seems to draw inspiration from 90’s animation styles, and seems to be more of a run-and-gun title akin to Cuphead‘s gameplay. With both titles currently in development, it’s unlikely we’ll see them anytime soon.
That being said, what a freakin’ cool-looking game! Can’t wait to give it a go once it’s ready, and I’m happy to wait what’ll likely be years!
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