Mouse: P.I. for Hire

[00:00:09] Welcome to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren and I'm joined as always by the pixel professor Jacob Odysseus Price. It's April 24th, 2026. We're back to talk about video games. Jake, Black Flag Resynced. It's finally coming out. We got the reveal. This thing looks gorgeous, man.

[00:00:35] I might even venture to say it's the first triple or quadruple four game. Man, I butchered the joke. It might venture to say it's the first quadruple A game I've ever seen. But you know what, folks? Sorry. Feed that one to the dogs. It's over.

[00:00:53] So it's been an interesting time for pirate media in the last couple weeks because we've got the launch of Windrose, which is the pirate survival crafting game that has popped off on Steam. So me and the buds have been playing this. Jake has not gotten in there yet because of his streaming obligation. You're just too busy, Jake. You're too busy to game with the bros. You know what I mean?

[00:01:17] Too busy for a lot of things. Most, you know, there's actually a lot of people listening. This is actually a little validating. Nobody should ever feel like that I'm snubbing you because I have snubbed every single person when it comes to multiplayer games.

[00:01:32] So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's part of the Jake's too busy. You know, he's got too many little kids and, you know, he's got two year old and, you know, it's too much streaming, podcasting, professorship. You've got other kids now to your students are basically kids at this point. You know, usually they're they're pretty good at being grownups, but sometimes they're looking for a father figure and it gets awkward.

[00:01:59] It does get awkward. No. So Windrose, we've been playing survival crafting. Dude, this game is solid, man. This is like. This is doing this is hitting a lot of notes. It's in early access out on Steam. I mean, this is like pirate fantasy. It's basically Black Flag. This is a funny. This is why I bring it up because we've had Black Flag. Re-sync Black Flag. I've mentioned on this podcast, one of my favorite, probably one of my favorite games of all time, like top 10 for sure.

[00:02:27] Favorite Assassin's Creed game. And then they dropped Windrose and I was like, dang, like they need pirate games are pretty dope. And this game is like really hitting a lot of interesting notes. And the combat, like the ship to ship combat is literally ripped straight out of Black Flag. I mean, it's like almost like lawsuit worthy. And so, yeah, dude, we're just like we're like for lack of a for to make the pun here.

[00:02:54] We are swimming deep in pirate games and it's a good time. It's a good time. Nice. Yeah. Jake, you going to try out Black Flag? Man, I caught. Did they do like a full announcement with a trailer and everything? I've mostly been looking at screenshots, to be honest. Yeah, they just it's coming July 9th. So I mean, I think it looks really good. I really liked Assassin's Creed Black Flag.

[00:03:23] I honestly remade version of that game sounds like it'll be a ton of fun. So, yeah, I see myself picking it up and giving it a go. Yeah, man, like it looks beautiful. 60 FPS. Yes. They reworked the combat system. They reworked stealth a little bit. There's some quality of life. Apparently, they've added like new missions for Blackbeard. There's like some new elements. So, I mean, yeah, like I said, this is one of my favorite games. So having an excuse to replay it with a fresh coat of paint is pretty sick.

[00:03:53] Yeah. So other than that, I think the biggest news that is worth talking about, and it's something that I predicted on this podcast. So I just want to throw that out there. Reduction in price for Game Pass. And they did the exact thing that I had talked about that I thought that they should probably do. And that is drop Call of Duty. New Call of Duty will no longer be on Game Pass.

[00:04:22] And they've dropped the price down to $22 a month. Jake, what's your reaction to this? Was this a good move? Is this enough? Is this like smart, good stuff from Microsoft? Or are they just going to step on another rig? You know, so I was one of the people that I dropped my pass from Ultimate down to Premium, I think it's called, after they hiked up the price. So like, this is just too much. And I've seriously considered going back on Ultimate because now it's just a few bucks

[00:04:52] more a month. And I mean, there are perks there, like between the two tiers. But I think part of the reality for me is just like, you know, I don't know if I get around to as many games on Game Pass these days as I would like to. So I think in that sense, it's not worth it to shift, you know, tiers. Now what makes it worth it is the day one big, you know, Xbox games.

[00:05:20] So I could see myself, for example, I don't know, Halo remake rolls around or whatever, you Xbox has, Xbox has that's coming rolls around. I'm like, oh, you know what? If I just up my sub right now from, you know, 17, whatever it is to 22, that's five bucks. And I could play this game day one and not have to do it at full price. That's I feel like the kind of gamer math that I'm doing there. I know it's flawed.

[00:05:51] So gamer math is scary because it's usually wrong. But so I just want I'm thinking out loud through kind of my logic here where it's like right now. No, I don't think I'm going to shift in my Game Pass tier. However, when one of those big games rolls around, I will be much more likely to do it. And so I think that's kind of their plan here. And I think it'll work by the end of the year. But right now, I don't think they've seen a ton of numbers shift. No, no.

[00:06:19] But I mean, people, you know, I think you're gonna have to do it. An amazing job with the marketing for this. You need to say, hey, like the marketing needs to be. Look, Forza Horizon six just came out. It has a 90 on Metacritic. It's critically acclaimed, but you can get it as part of Game Pass for 22 bucks a month. And then the next one is when Fable comes out. Look, we have Fable and Forza. Both of these are critically acclaimed.

[00:06:48] You can get both of these right now for 22 bucks a month. That's how you if they don't do that marketing campaign, then they're stupid. Because the parents who canceled it when it went to 30 bucks a month, and I know a few parents who actually did that, they turned it off because it was too expensive. When their kid's like, hey, when it comes to Christmas time this year and their kid's asking for Fable and Horizon and the new Gears game, they're going to figure out what's the cheapest way for me to get that. And it's like, OK, I need to get back on Game Pass.

[00:07:17] So I think from that perspective, it's great. And I think, honestly, the Call of Duty audience gets it. And I made the argument that I don't think the overlap between the core gamer who's going to play Fable and Gears and Forza overlaps that much with the Call of Duty. I think Call of Duty is like its own audience that sits independent. And so, yeah, some people might be a little bit miffed by this, but most people are not even going to notice.

[00:07:46] I, yeah, I a thousand percent agree with that. I think they were just assuming that there was somehow value in trying to combine these two different gaming demographics. And there just simply wasn't. It didn't cut it. It does make me wonder, though, like, do you get like any sort of cosmetic perks or anything? Or is that like when you when you have some of these battle passes rolled into Game Pass? Game Pass. I'm just trying to think like, I don't know. Actually, we can throw away this thought.

[00:08:14] I'm not sure I want to explore for fully, but like. So to that end, they are coming out with. It looks like there's more changes to Game Pass coming. Now, I don't know if that means they're getting rid of like Fortnite crew or whatever, but it looks like some of the ideas that have been thrown around or rumors is that it's going to be like a choose your own setup for Game Pass.

[00:08:37] So you'd have the option as part of your Game Pass to select either Fortnite crew or some other thing or like a World of Warcraft subscription, for example. So I think that could actually be great because then you kind of give people choice of the benefits that they actually want. And then that just gives you more. Yeah, kind of like a build your own Game Pass sub. Build your own Game Pass. That makes way more sense to me than the tiers that they've done.

[00:09:06] One, just because in terms of like player choice. Right. So like you take a look like a gamer like me, like I'm going to be interested. The reason like I like Game Pass primarily is like for day one Xbox games, a bunch of the big indie games. They have a huge. Here's one of the things. Game Pass is historically had a very good indie game like curation. So those are probably the primary two primary reasons I would get it in terms of like value.

[00:09:35] And then the other reason I would get it not so much for value, but just like sometimes you stumble across this game that otherwise wouldn't have crossed your path. Right. If I could maybe build my own Game Pass that would focus on those things. I mean, I like that, you know, but Xbox historically has been a little confusing with how their tiers operate. So I think it's a really great idea in practice. I would love to see them pull that off though, too. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:02] The other rumor that's going around to that end is only Xbox first party Game Pass level, which is that would be interesting. So then it's your only getting the Xbox first party library plus whatever day one. And then all those other like deals that they make would be part of some other tier. Nice. So what do you the Xbox only Xbox Game Pass? I'm sorry, just the Xbox Xbox Games for Xbox Pass.

[00:10:31] They'd probably name it something like that, to be honest. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, let them experiment with it. Obviously, what's been what they've been doing the last few years has just been more misses than hits. So I honestly, typically not a big fan of capitalism. But when you have a big company kind of on the ropes, that's where they actually start doing things that might be interesting. And so I'm kind of excited to see what they do.

[00:10:57] You know, they clearly didn't have a bunch of things didn't go their way with their last few campaigns. So now they're feeling a little bit of the stress and pressure to really do something else. And let's see it happen. You know, hopefully it works out for them. I typically don't want game companies to lose. You know, that's typically not my MO. So I want to see Xbox get a win here. Yeah, for sure. I mean, Asha Sharma got a lot of crap when she got pulled in and got a lot of flack for not being gaming background.

[00:11:27] I don't know, man. Like saying the right things feel like she's maybe doing the right thing. I mean, I'm optimistic that she might have. I mean, obviously, time will tell. We're only we're still very, very early. But she might have like the strategic mind to figure out how to make the monies and appease the gamers. She might be able to thread that needle. Maybe not. But it looks like she might she might be able to. And I think this is a good first.

[00:11:54] Honestly, I think willing to just kind of go back to basics and like reexamine what they've been doing is a good sign. Right. Listen, she will have some misses out there because I don't think any. See, she'll have some rakes, you know, but we'll just we'll just have to see which ones they are and if the wins compensate for those. But I don't know. You know, I have said this before. This will be my last thought on the topic.

[00:12:20] Xbox has a bunch of big games coming this year so they could turn things around. Xbox has this. Listen, for as much as they screw things up, they managed to win back a lot of goodwill. So they just got to do that and then not screw up. No pressure. Xbox only has one. It's the same core problem that they've always had is that. Nothing matters if the games aren't good. Yeah. And that's what it always comes back to.

[00:12:50] The games fable needs to be must play. Forza needs to be must play. And the last force, it was must play. It was like game of the year. Gears needs to be must play. Halo campaign evolved needs to have a great marketing campaign and grab a generation that never played before. Right. And wants to re-experience that. So anyways. Yeah. Video games. I will say I got kiln and I've been playing kiln.

[00:13:22] Nice. I got to say, man, it's a $20 game with that launch discount of 10%. So it was like 18 bucks. Dude, well worth $18. I think. I'm shocked that they are going like the full live service route with it. This seems really odd to me. I'll be honest. Are they really? It's like it's going to have a roadmap, man. Passes and stuff. Really? Kiln has a roadmap.

[00:13:51] It currently has like 84 players on Steam right now, which is unfortunate. Which is. It is unfortunate. It's a fun game. I think it's a fun premise. I kind of feel like if you. This is my pitch for kiln. And I don't know if we'll do an episode on it. But this is my pitch. It's like if you've ever wanted. If you like live service games and you wish somebody would just do something really unusual and out of the.

[00:14:17] Out of the wheelhouse of live service games in terms of like map design mechanics. Like, dude, kiln does all of those things. I mean, it's freaking double fine. Right. For crying out loud. So they do a bunch of off the wall things. Like I played this one map, which was I thought was a ton of fun. Actually, it was super unusually designed for for a game of this type. Obviously, huge miss that it doesn't have couch co-op.

[00:14:45] So I think that is a massive miss. But we'll see where it goes. My kids are loving it right now. It's a ton of fun. I want the thing to be successful. We'll see. Nice. Well, ladies and gentlemen, with that, let's move into our main topic of today's show, which is mouse PI for hire. Jake and I got codes for this one.

[00:15:14] And so we played this a little early, although the game is already out fully. But we took a little bit of time to play it so we can break it down. Jake, how are we going to break down mouse PI on this episode? All right. We are going to be talking about mouse PI for hire in our characteristic category structure. So we got three categories for you. The first one will be the narrative. We will be talking about the story, kind of what goes on. Listen, this game actually ended up being a lot beefier than I think I or Cameron expected.

[00:15:44] And so we haven't finished the game yet. I'm pretty far into it. I think Cameron's made some pretty decent progress in it as well. So that being said, we can't spoil everything because we don't have everything to spoil. But we will only be talking about the first few missions. There are quite a few missions here. So if you are new to the podcast, just know that nothing will be spoiled here. Next, we'll be talking about the game design. Just kind of what you're doing. It is...

[00:16:13] Do they call them Doomer shooters, right? It's an FPS shooter that feels very much like it's coming from Doom's classic take innovation on the formula. And so we'll be talking about essentially what you're doing and how you're playing through it. And then finally, impact on the industry. We'll zoom out. We'll get a little more speculative. We'll think we're mouse PI for hire. Kind of fits into the game industry. It's hilarious. This game, it's not even the game. I think it's something that Troy Baker, who actually is one of the voice...

[00:16:43] He's the main voice actor. He's Jack Pepper in this. Dude, listen. The guy's got a lot of talent because I did not even know it was him until I saw it somewhere. But he's had some opinions about this game. I don't know if you've seen those, Cameron. No, I haven't. Is he... Oh, no. He loves mouse PI for hire. He was pretty upset with the IGN review of the game. Oh, okay. Well, you know, when you're in the game... Yeah, I mean, it's a little more personal for you.

[00:17:12] So we probably won't address that too much. But we will be talking about kind of where this game sits right now in the games industry a week or so at a long time. Should Troy Baker just be like the de facto democratically elected male voice actor for every video game? You know, I would have said... For every leading man character, you just... Troy Baker. Troy Baker. Here's the thing. Dude has got to be very pricey at this point, right?

[00:17:39] He's like one of the most recognizable names in video game voice acting. So, I don't know. I would have said no. Then he did Indiana Jones. And now I'm kind of like, well, maybe he can do... Maybe he can do any role, you know? No. He was recently on a podcast. I listened to talking about how he just became a dad. And he said that he thinks that Joel will return. Oh.

[00:18:09] So, we're going to get the remake of the remake of the remake of The Last of Us part. I'm sorry. If you're doing the audio only for this, I'm shaking my head. I'm rubbing my temples. This is... You know what? We're talking about Mouse PI for Hire today. So, I'm going to leave that one right where it is. Yeah. We'll just leave that one. The narrative, though. We're going to start with the narrative. Sorry. We got sidetracked. Yes. Narrative. This is Mouse PI for Hire.

[00:18:39] So, this is probably the first... I probably shouldn't say first, but this is a Knorr-styled game. And it's in black and white. It pays homage to the detective Knorr of sort of the 1930s, 1920s, film, TV, etc. Plus the animation style from that era.

[00:19:08] Like, think Steamboat Willie. Yeah. But you're in sort of this 2.5D space where all the characters and everything in the world is 2D. But you're looking at it and you're moving through it in 3D. So, you can see kind of the 2D silhouettes move as you move around them, which is very interesting. But yeah. So, this is detective taking on a missing persons case that obviously devolves into something

[00:19:36] bigger with corrupt politicians and a central character who's sort of this central bad guy. Stuff like that. And this is in the city. Obviously, you're a mouse. So, there's lots of mouse-themed puns. A lot. There's a lot of mouse puns on this. And this does take place in the city of Mouseburg.

[00:20:05] I think overall... And again, we haven't finished the games story-wise. But overall, I think this was a really cool idea. I don't know. I think I... Obviously, look. It's a mouse-themed game. It's like dark humor, right? I think narratively, in terms of the impact it had on me personally, I think it was fine. I had nothing bad to say about it.

[00:20:32] I think I either wanted to find it either funnier or more serious. And so, you're kind of caught in the middle, right? With dark humor. Like, if dark humor hits, it can hit really well. But it's also something really tough to pull off. That was, I think, my main takeaway from the narrative. But overall, it's always interesting to be like in a Noor-themed, you know, in the style. I think it's a style that's maybe not explored that much in video games. So, it was cool to kind of be in that setting. Yeah. Honestly. And I feel like it should be explored more in video games.

[00:21:02] That was maybe something that I got from my play time with it up until now. Yeah. Okay. So, narrative. So, you're playing as Jack Pepper, which obviously is a play on Pepper Jack Cheese. Motherpun. Yeah. It's honestly, I understand what you're saying where there's a lot of pun humor. There's a lot of witticisms that kind of happen through here. And the game gets into some pretty dark topics.

[00:21:30] And the further I got into it, the more that I realized that this is pretty allegorical for, like, the interwar period between World War I and World War II in Europe. Yes. And there's some pretty on the nose kind of parallels between shrews, which have long been a symbol, typically a derogatory symbol for Jewish people. Yeah. And, yeah.

[00:21:57] So, it starts getting, like, pretty on the nose about, like, anti-Semitism. So, it's like Jack Pepper starts wisecracking about Munster Cheese. And then he's like, they've kidnapped, they've rounded up and kidnapped another group of shrews. And you're like, oh, geez, dude. Like, what is, what the freak is going on in this game? I have to say, though, like, the first hour, I was kind of like, dude, I am not bought into this.

[00:22:26] But now that I'm much further than that, everything comes together, I think, pretty well narratively. But it's spinning some wheels, I think, for that first little bit. I don't think it does a really good job of selling either the characters or the story or the space, you know, up front. But, like, I mean, light spoiler, it does start with, like, a flash forward. So, I think it tries to kind of get you into the action a little bit quicker.

[00:22:55] But then the pacing kind of takes a hit because you go back and you're kind of following the story through. But, yeah, it takes a bit to get into it. And like you said, I think that was a great way to put it. So many plates that it's trying to spin. And with, like, the dark humor. And this is a setting that is, like, a fascinating setting. It's a setting that, like, over the many years. Because I've been, like, a World War II buff since even I was a kid.

[00:23:22] Like, I was reading, like, World War II historical novels, like, in middle school. I was, like, a super nerd. And, you know, I don't want to say it's, like, a washed history. But there's a certain amount of, like, patriotism. And, like, the nation comes together and saves the world, right? But when you dig a little bit deeper into kind of that 1930s, 1920s, early 1930s period, it's pretty gritty, man. It's like, that's a, there's a, it's a dark time.

[00:23:53] It's a rough time, obviously, depression era. You have depression going on. You've got prohibition going on. You've got, you know, a lot of racism going on. And a lot of things, you know, it's not, not everybody was, like, in to go fight the Nazis. Yeah. You know, right? So, like, there is that sense of sort of anti-fascism, but also not. And so, complicated period. Super fascinating to see, especially, like, in a modern setting, how they, you know, he took, again, dark humor. Because you're, it's, like, all mouse adjacent.

[00:24:22] And you're in Mouseberg, and, like, you talked about, like, the shrews. Does a pretty good job of balancing the plates, but he also drops a few. Like, a few also get dropped, like, as you go through the story, for sure. Yeah. Did you ever have to read Mouse? That's M-A-U-S. That graphic novel. I did not, but I'm familiar with it. I've never read it, though. But I'm familiar. It's been a hot minute since I've read it.

[00:24:48] But this is kind of what I was thinking of, because Mouse, obviously, is, like, it's not even on the nose. Like, it's exactly an allegory for, like, anti-Semitism in Europe and the rise of Nazism and fascism. Right? And I kind of feel like it wants to do something as serious as Mouse does. And it does in some moments. But in other moments, yeah. I don't know, man. It's just super, super unusual balance.

[00:25:17] But because, again, like you said, it's this rubber hose animation style. It kind of makes you want to think of the slapstick humor of that animation of, like, very early Disney and other things that were going on at the time, like, in terms of animation. But, yeah, it just straddles a line in a really awkward way. But I will say, like, just to reiterate, the further I get into Mouse P.I. for hire, the more I'm like, okay, this is coming together. This is getting more interesting.

[00:25:45] And I do think that the game is better narratively when it is more serious. I think dry, you know, the dry puns or witty remarks that are kind of off the cuff that aren't meant to invoke any laughter is kind of the best kind of humor for this game. Which I feel like is much more aligned with what the detective noir stuff does anyway. But, yeah, I don't know. I would say Jack Pepper becomes an interesting character.

[00:26:15] Some of the people that you meet or that you're looking for, they're also interesting characters. Here, this will probably be the final thing I say about the narrative. It just takes a little too long for that writing to feel shiny and polished. Up front, it's a little dull. This is a game that I think when we first saw it was like, oh, this is going to be like this three-hour... Yeah. ...Steebo Willie cartoon and video game form. Yeah. Right. Or two-hour, right? Like a movie.

[00:26:46] And I think when it popped off, it became something bigger and more serious and more invested. Maybe to its detriment, like a teeny bit. Like maybe it got a little bit too big and would have been, again, condensed down and cut the fat a little bit. Yeah, I think that's my takeaway. But overall, like well-executed and looks...

[00:27:13] I mean, just how they even executed like a boomer shooter in this style is just incredible on its own stand. Even if you're like not there for the narrative, just looking at this thing move is kind of nuts. Yeah. So with that, let's move into the mechanics game design. Yeah, so boomer shooter. So if you played Quake, you played Doom, that's what this is.

[00:27:38] My biggest like off-the-cuff thing that I didn't like right out of the gate. I have no problem with like the boomer shooter thing. I just don't know if the like paper 2.5D works for boomer shooter. I just don't know, man. I don't know.

[00:27:55] It didn't like the boom part of the boomer shooter is you feel that like heavy grittiness, you know, body horror explosions of body parts and you're blowing people's heads off, which that's here. But because of the animation style, which again is amazing, it just doesn't have that punch like that. I think I've felt in other like boomer shooters that I played in the past. Yeah, I don't know. I'll be honest.

[00:28:25] In my opinion, I kind of feel like there are two major styles of FPS games. There's Doom and then there's Halo, which listen, maybe I'm getting really nitpicky in here, but I feel like there's a distinction there. Like 90s shooters versus like 2000 shooters. Okay. I personally, I mean, even Halo is probably its own genre. It's more like Call of Duty. Well, okay. No, we can't. There's too much.

[00:28:54] I mean, on a very surface level way, I feel like there's a very different, I guess, feel to the shooters from the 90s versus shooters from the 2000s. And I personally, and this is part of my age group too, right? I grew up on the shooters of the 2000s. And so I typically don't like boomer shooters, like games that are modeled after this kind of 90s style. I think mouse PI for hire actually was one that I did enjoy.

[00:29:22] It does feel much more like a shooting gallery than something that's a little more, I guess, tactical. Maybe that's the difference between 90s and, you know, 2000s shooters where, and I feel like that, but the shooting gallery feel to it is even more enhanced with what you're talking about. Because these are paper flat sprites that are charging at you. And every time you move around them, you see that paper edge on all the different characters. And I don't know.

[00:29:51] So I would say that the first level of this game was incredibly underwhelming. And I think part of that was because they were trying to cater to like anybody with any level of experience with shooters can play this. There's like a save and like a health potion. I feel like every room there's like two or three people. Dude, there's so many health potions. Yeah. There's like two or three enemies per room. Again, it just takes too long to hit its stride.

[00:30:20] I think at about the fifth level in the game, I was like, okay, they can do it. They can design a level that is much more engaging. And they got, I've unlocked more guns and the game has just gotten better and things have felt a lot better. And I've felt challenged a lot more. So like the shooting aspect, I think is, I mean, it's a shooter and some of the guns are going to feel one way. And you got to be managing your ammo and your health and you got to be dashing and zipping around these rooms.

[00:30:50] So if you've played a game, like you said, like Doom or Quake, like you're going to understand the feel of this game quite a lot. I think that where it shines is where it allows itself to get really wacky. When it leans into this kind of rubber hose animation, not just in terms of its looks, but also in terms of how its guns operate. Then I'm like, yeah, okay, now I get it. Now this game is like doing something pretty cool that I'm into. But again, it just took a while to get there.

[00:31:20] I think that's where it shines is when it leans super hard into that. Like just get goofy, super goofy with it. No pun intended. Copyright. Copyright. Yeah, totally. I think that's where this game shines. It's like when they lean into that specific because that's what makes it unique, right? It's that combination of the animation style with the boomer shooter.

[00:31:45] But they got to get more fun with it, more crazy with it like early. Yeah. Like a little earlier. And I think they could have even gone nuttier and crazier. Like they could have been more wacky. Even like with the weapons. The weapons, they do do some interesting stuff there, but it's a little bit boilerplate. I feel like they could have gone even wackier with it. Like having you shooting, I don't know, shooting. And, you know, I'm thinking of like Mickey Mouse cartoons where they shoot like weird stuff

[00:32:14] and have shotguns that like go in loops and stuff. Anyway. So, yeah, that's where I think it shines. But overall, yeah, I just, this is probably, again, the wrong crowd because I think I agree with you on the boomer shooter. There are people that absolutely adore Quake, Doom, that whole set of games. They just love it. And they're usually boomers. And that's why it's called boomer shooter.

[00:32:43] I think, I'm with you, Jake. I'm much more of a Halo sort of Call of Duty style. It just feels better to me. And so there is a bit of just a game feel preference there that probably turned down the experience like a couple notches for sure. And that's just personal preference. Yeah. I mean, aside from that, listen, there is this trend going on of let's add a mini card game

[00:33:13] into every game ever. And I'll be honest. Did you play the baseball card game in Mouse PI for hire? Uh, I did not get a chance yet. No, dude, I like it. I did collect the cards, which I thought was a super cool addition. Because it's like that 19, you know, like early Americana baseball, but with like the mouse character. Yeah.

[00:33:40] Another great example where I feel like they did something super cool with the animation style, like with the baseball cards that you can collect and add. I don't know, man. Usually when there's a mini game, I'm like, why is this here? But honestly, I almost kind of feel like that the baseball mini game in here was just like some of the devs were like, you know, they're scratching their heads, they're stuck at something. And they're like, I just need to do something different for a second. Let me design something different. And then they designed this like baseball card game.

[00:34:10] And dude, it's fun. It's, it's way fun. I'm a huge fan of it. And so like another random mechanic that they kind of threw in there. I like that though, because in a game like this, that has a bunch of collectibles. I love it when collectibles will do something for you, even if it's to give you more cards for your baseball deck, you know, for something that's totally unrelated to the main story. Um, so I think that kind of helps a lot with collectibles, but there are so many freaking collectibles just everywhere.

[00:34:37] Um, and then one thing that I do really like about these old school shooters is that this is a level based game, man. You, the level has a bunch of checkpoints and it's got mini bosses. Some of them got big bosses at the end and you just kind of make your way through it. I love it because I know exactly what to do, where I'm going and I can get in it. Like I can have a short play session and make measurable progress. And so huge fan of that. That is always enjoyable for me.

[00:35:10] Jake, anything else to say about game design for mouse PI for hire? Um, I think that's about it. Yeah. The mini game was great. The shooting gets, I mean, when they get wacky, the game gets that much more fun. Yeah. And, uh, so yeah, no more, no more there. More wackiness. Yeah. Bazookas that shoot like birds or something. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what's the craziest weapon in a video game, Jake?

[00:35:39] It's gotta be like a Borderlands weapon, right? Borderlands has got some pretty wild weapons. What's the, is it Turok where you get like a nuke gun? You just straight up just shoot nukes. Sounds about right. Fallout. I know you, you get like a nuke cannon. And, you know, I gotta say the Cameron and I have played this game. Listeners, let us know if you played this game, but stick fight, the snake cannon. Oh yeah. That's a pretty wacky one. Classic. Stick fight to solve.

[00:36:09] We should do an episode on stick fight. It's a great time. Yeah. No narrative, but you know, maybe they should have a narrative. Uh, what's the craziest weapon in video games? Dude, it's gotta be harkened back to some N64 era shooter where you've got like 16 different weapons. It's definitely a boomer boomer. Probably doom. I'm forgetting doom. Like you have psychotic weapons in doom where you're shooting like, you know, giant razor blades and bouncing them across the back.

[00:36:39] Half-life too, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Probably not as crazy as Quake. I feel like there's, there's like, or some sort of rail gun, more crazy weapons in video games. How about that? Yeah. Yeah. Snipers that shoot through walls and track people probably make a PVP game, please. Yeah. Yeah. Impact on the industry. Jake, we're seeing a lot of games.

[00:37:06] I think my initial thought on impact is this 1920s, 1930s era animation style is a goldmine for video games. It's the, the Renaissance began with Cuphead. We saw, we've seen it with this game. We saw it with, we've seen it with like a couple other games. We know we've talked, we've already mentioned eternal life of Goldman, which just looks absolutely

[00:37:36] stunning. And is also in this like sort of early, uh, like this illustration style. This did, there's something about this that people just are drawn to that just draws the eye and really makes your game stand out. Like it, it really does. Like we saw that game. Um, oh my gosh, I can't remember the name of it, but it was in the, the nineties Disney animation style, that horror game. I can't remember the name of it. Sweet Carol. Yes.

[00:38:05] Which that didn't pop off. I thought it looked cool because it had that like sort of nineties animation style. Apparently the game wasn't that great, but for whatever reason, this 1920s, 1930s era animation style, just slap any genre on it. And it seems to just pop off from a marketing standpoint. Why is that? Honestly, I think it's because you can get wacky with it. You can, um, actually we were just talking about this in one of my classes, uh, with my

[00:38:34] lower division class and classes, I'll have a question of the day, which is a way to get students' brains warmed up, but also for the people who didn't do any of the homework to feel like they can participate. There's my teaching philosophy, everybody. There it is. It's for you who didn't do jack squat this semester. But, um, what are the questions I asked them is, uh, like, do you feel like it's easy? Why do you feel like it's easier to suspend your disbelief in animation? Right?

[00:39:02] Because when we watch an animated anything, right, even if it's one that's shooting for realism, we have, we tend to be much more forgiving with any of the things that happen logically, especially in terms of physics and that. And part of that is just like, we know it's animated. We know it's not live action. Right? Um, I feel like this rubber hose animation style, like is extremely wacky by, you know, nature.

[00:39:27] And it really leans into the fact that none of this needs to make any logical sense in terms of how it happens. So I feel like, you know, cuphead and then now throwing like mouse PI for higher in, in there, like you just want to see something cool happen. I feel like, and you know that something very random and cool can happen. I feel like that your imagination is on, it's unbounded. And, and with that early animation style, you definitely can like anything that would be

[00:39:55] logical in a dream, you can make happen pretty logically as you're drawing it out. Um, it also kind of helps that in the early like twenties and thirties when this animation style gets really popular in American animation specifically, we're like hot on the heels of Freud and people are obsessed with psychology. This is, this is the era of surrealism.

[00:40:21] And so people really are trying to push the bounds of what it is that you can show like visually. Um, and part of the reason why, sorry, this is turning into a lecture. Part of the reason why they do that is because it's a reaction to the photorealism literally from a camera. And so a lot of these artists are like, what can I do that a camera can't? And so they go hard. And I think, I think that's exciting for people to look at this era.

[00:40:45] I think in a way, maybe we recognize this subconsciously, but this is an era of animation where we kind of expect to see the unexpected and it can be a lot more fun to look at. And so, yeah, make a billion games in this genre. It'll work. It is, it is fun and interesting to look at. Like it catches the eye. There's something about it. That's like timeless where you recognize that it's from an earlier time, but you're like,

[00:41:12] Oh, like you want to, like, you want to see what it offers for some reason. Like, right. Um, that's just fascinating. And like, yeah, dude, eternal life of Goldman coming soon. Also in the style, I've already played the demo for that game and that game, that game's going to be really good. That could easily be one of the best indie games this year. If not one of the best games that that's going to be really good. I've, I've already played, I actually had to stop playing the demo. Cause I was like, Oh yeah, yeah, we're in it.

[00:41:41] We're in it. Um, yeah. I mean, and so in terms of impact, like, yeah, you're going to continue to see, obviously, like I said, Cuphead started this, this, uh, game art direction style Renaissance probably wasn't the first one to do it obviously, but was the first one to really kind of make it stand out. And now you're seeing so many other games do this and it's going to continue. It's just works. It just works. Like people just are drawn to it. It draws the eye.

[00:42:10] Like you said, I mean, you explained it very eloquently on that, like the psychology behind it. So I think that's the impact. I'm glad that this game got kind of a big marketing seat at the table and kind of got pushed. Um, obviously wished it did a bit more with the mechanics and with kind of how it was designed personally, but, uh, in terms of kind of what it did, did artistically super cool. Yeah.

[00:42:34] Um, as far as anything other impact on the industry might have, um, it, it came out in a time where there are right now just so many high profile games have hit April ended up being one of the biggest months, if not the biggest month so far of 2026, perhaps one of the bigger months of the year. Just, um, I even saw that, um, the social media account for mouse PI for higher, like, uh, drew

[00:43:01] like in their animation style, the protagonist from pragmata and wind rose because it came out within like days of each other or week, a week of each other or something like that. Right. Um, and man, it's, it's kind of wild. Sometimes I feel like you get this perfect storm of marketing where you have a bunch of big games coming out within a week or 10 days of each other and they all kind of buoy each other.

[00:43:27] Um, it always seems super risky to allow your game to kind of come out when other big games are coming. And we've had this conversation I think before just about like GTA six moving its deadline or its release date and people trying to plan around that. But this is, I think it's interesting and I only bring it up because I feel like this is something that is totally unpredictable about the industry. But if you happen to release your game that has momentum and, you know, some visibility

[00:43:56] to it at the same time as other games, it's just for some time, for some reason, sometimes, um, you'll just get this huge cohort of games that everybody's interested in and they all kind of share the limelight equally simultaneously. And I just, I don't know what rep, how you would replicate that kind of reaction, but I feel like mouse PI for hire somehow was able to get in there with like replaced also came out now.

[00:44:23] Um, titanium court is this indie game that is getting a ton of press for being super original. And then of course, like I already mentioned, Pragmata you mentioned, and we talked a little bit about wind rows. Um, they're all kind of booing each other up and it's kind of one of these rare, really, I guess, exciting moments in marketing in the industry where all these games can just support each other. And everybody seems pretty happy with, with this big old feast of games that came out. Totally. Yeah.

[00:44:50] It's awesome to see a lot of games, especially indie titles, like doing really well at the same time. Well, ladies and gentlemen, with that, that's been our episode on mouse PI for hire. If you like the show, please leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. Leave a comment or a like on YouTube. If you're watching this on YouTube, uh, if you want more from us, you could find it on patreon.com slash period of cast. You can get access to extended editions of our regular episodes plus special topics episode,

[00:45:19] which we do, uh, at least once a month. Um, you can find us on our discord channel. Link to that is in the description. Please watch Jake stream on Twitch, twitch.tv slash chip dip 18. Thank you so much for supporting us, listening to us and have a great night.