Unlike a majority of people I didn’t grow up watching anime. Younger me always dismissed it as something for weirdos, or people who don’t know how to talk to women and shower properly. Then I got older and all the stereotypes I believed in ended up applying to me as well. So I gave it a chance and eventually I came to terms with anime. I like anime. I like anime a lot. Not a die hard watcher, but the ones I have seen I’ve really enjoyed. Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen because I haven’t watched the second season yet. Mob Psycho 100 is my all time favorite anime of recent memory, and very well be one the greatest things I have ever seen. Ranking of Kings is my second favorite, and I've been hearing fantastic things about Dadadan. I have had the opening song on replay for weeks now, and plan to check it out during my spare time now that I'm on break. One anime I finally managed to check out this year was the all time classic Cowboy Bebop. The stellar 1990s masterpiece numerous anime enjoyers consider a godfather for the genre. It wasn’t the first of its kind. Around the same time you have Trigun which was also going for a space western story, but it helped pave for what would come.
A fantastic visual style, memorable characters, development, pacing, and aside from the first few and last episodes you can hop in and easily enjoy the adventures on offer. It was great and made me realize older anime have this flare that no one has managed to capture since then. As much as I love Mob Psycho 100 and the others, none have matched the visual identity 1990s had. Folks have tried to recapture the look and feel of those shows, and many have failed. I don’t know why the magic hasn’t been recaptured and neither do anime lovers. I don’t want to make this sound like a battle between the old and the new, but the point is we haven’t seen some perfectly capture the look and feel of 1990s anime. That wasn’t until I played Mullet Madjack, a fast paced shooter that released earlier this year and I finally decided to check it out. Originally I planned to dismiss this one due to it being another retro shooter, and you know me I’ve played seven of those now and they’re all starting to feel the same. Then I saw it had an overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam and that it was heralded as the best FPS of 2024. I knew something was up, so I bought it in a bundle alongside Post Void because that’s the game it took inspiration from for gameplay.
If you don’t know Post Void is another fast paced FPS stylized after retro shooter gameplay, but the gimmick is your health is also tied to time. When the timer runs out you die and have to start from the beginning, so it’s this mad lad dash to the finish line. It’s this adrenaline rush that keeps you coming back for more, and Mullet Madjack decided to add a little more depth to this. Taking what Post Void did well, adding some polish, and more fairness because Post Void is a punishing game if you don’t adapt to its style of play quickly. Then Mullet Madjack went and combined the chaotic gameplay of Post Void with the look and feel of 1990s anime. The style, the finesse, and how it played off its retro futuristic story. It was surprising to see a mindless shooter do it well, and I kept my eye on Madjack. Now having played Mullet Madjack a few days ago I can safely say it was good. Here comes the frustrating part my dear readers. I liked this game and happily recommend it to those intrigued enough, but I wouldn’t say I love it as much as most people. I have some critiques towards its general game design and ideas, and not a lot of fans are going to be happy with what I have to say. I’m just saying this right now so indie shooters fans who read this review don’t blow up in my face and why I didn’t rate it higher at the end. Mullet Madjack is just good and today we’re gonna be discussing why it may deserve your attention.
Story
The setting of Mullet Madjack takes place somewhere in the far future. Mankind has made huge technological advancements, but unfortunately some of them weren’t very smart. We made sentient robots, but the sentient robots grew too powerful and became the richest individuals in the entire world. Ruling the economy and forming gangs. Rather than solve this crisis instead, all of mankind decided to find a way to distract themselves. Creating entertainment and products for their little tiny brains to consume all the time. Dopamine became a drug, and human corporations have found a way to profit off this. Hosting game shows and live streams where you can witness skilled fighters and many more do crazy sh*t while fueling lazy folks with more dopamine. You are one such individual, Mullet Madjack. A newly hired gun by Peace Corp sent into a gigantic spire to rescue an influencer. She’s been kidnapped by Mr. Bullet, leader of one of the strongest robot factions out there. They plan to use her virgin blood to prove if there’s an afterlife or not. If there are greater beings or they are really all the universe has to offer. You want to stop all this madness from happening. Cut down every robot in your way, get the girl, and win big. They’re watching you Madjack. They’re cheering for more. Give them more. On with the show!
Gameplay
The game is split into several chapters each containing what are essentially levels. Each chapter sees you gunning your way through ten levels with the tenth level being a boss fight. Well that is if there is a boss fight, because sometimes it’s a gag joke instead. Each level shouldn’t take more than one minute to complete each, but the gimmick for Mullet Madjack is that you have around ten seconds to live each time you enter a level. When the timer runs out you die instantly and are forced to start from the first level of the chapter. Having only ten seconds to live sounds unfair and enemy attacks can make you die faster. How do you last longer when you only have just ten seconds to live? Well it turns out killing enemies will increase the timer by a few seconds. I’d say by one or two depending on the difficulty you’re playing on. Enemies are around you all the time so you want to be blasting away all the time. Same time though you have to make your way to the exit, so you have to run and shoot at the time.
This is what Mullet Madjack does best. Giving you the fantasy of playing as a 1990s anime hero. Being awesome, looking awesome, seeing the screen clutter with chaos, and rewarding you for mastering what is at play. At first you start off with a pistol, but each time you clear a floor you get to choose between one of three upgrades. These upgrades are lost upon death or entering a new chapter, but they help power Jack up so higher levels and end chapter bosses aren’t as hard or are more manageable. These choices may include different guns to swap to, bullets now being able to ricochet off walls, enemies exploding upon death, more seconds earned from killing, an extra second to your time, and much more. Each time you clear a chapter you choose between one of four permanent upgrades. Those being better weapons, a fourth upgrade slot whenever you are offered one, being able to keep one upgrade whenever you die or progress, and I forgot the other one. Playing well is the name of the game here, and Mullet Madjack sets itself up so you can do just that. Shooting enemies isn’t the only way to kill them. You can blow up glowing fire extinguishers, or kick them into electronic environmental hazards. Shred them with a fan or if you grab a melee weapon finish them off with an instant takedown. Mullet Madjack is a non stop power trip and that’s alright if you like these kinds of games. Besides that there’s nothing else for me to say. Like I said: kill robots, get the girl, and be a badass action hero.
Thoughts
I believe Mulet Madjack is a good game. It’s a fun time and for those who love chaotic FPS titles they’ll absolutely have a blast with this one. If you take Mullet Madjack for what it is I think you will not have a problem with it. Pure simplistic dopamine being injected into your veins. Just as the game mentions and makes fun of. I understand why Mullet Madjack has the extremely high review average it currently has on Steam, and why it’s the best indie shooter of the year. Aside from Post Void there is no other shooter attempting the gameplay loop Mullet Madjack has. I’ve always assumed shooters of this design were boomer shooters, but now I’ve begun to see a new style rise. This, Trepang2, and this one other one I haven’t played called Turbo Overkill have led to the rise of the “zoomer shooter.” Games not exactly trying to be like boomer shooters, but are instead focused on speed. Agility, quick reaction, precision, and much more. Think of them sort of like the new Doom games and how they played. Mullet Madjack has a dumb cathartic loop, but damn I can’t help but appreciate it. What it manages to do and how you’re driven to keep going until you roll credits.
Levels are linear and tight in design not just to propel you towards the goal, but to set up each interaction and action easily. Grouping a bunch of blokes together next to an explosive canister so you can blow them all up. Placing exposed wire right behind a guy so you can kick him easily into it. Having a slide with dozens of robots lined up on it, so you can go down at full speed and knock them all out. The game uses procedural generation so that no floor should feel the same to each other, or that you aren’t repeating the same rooms again and again. Well that’s what they’ve hoped for, and we’ll get to why it doesn’t perfectly work soon. Each of the upgrades you earn in between floors feel meaningful and by the time you reach the ninth level of a chapter you feel near unstoppable. All the guns are very fun to use and for those who are truly daring they can try to play with a katana. The sound of each gun, the feedback, and the viscera they create. Bosses aren’t too bad either. Not great, but their gimmicks are fun and they help bring epic conclusions to chapters. The chapters that don’t have bosses feel a bit anticlimactic. Like they couldn’t make something, but the game already has fantastic quality so I can honestly forgive it for not having a boss every chapter.
The art direction is absolutely superb. As I said during the intro they were trying to nail the look and feeling of a 1990s anime and for the most part they achieved it. The colors, lights, shading, and animation. Even the soundtrack sounds like stuff that would’ve come out during this era of anime. It’s great and despite it not being fully evocative of 1990s anime I still appreciate what they tried to do. The game isn’t all too long and I’m fine with how short it is.I feel like it would have gotten annoyed if it had lasted more than two hours which is how long it took me, and this is a fairly replayable game. With higher difficulties possibly taking players longer to beat and the different limitations changing how a player could play. I really enjoyed Mullet Madjack and do recommend it. However, I did state that I thought this was a good game and not a great one. If I were to really critique what Mullet Madjack is I would say it’s a really good idea plastered with weird design choices that come alongside said ideas. Innovation is great, but you have to realize the problems that may arise when trying to innovate. How to work around them in case it is to happen, and if not how do you make up for it. Two years ago I reviewed Sifu and my feelings toward that game are similar to how I feel about Mullet Madjack. Two games I liked, but wish I could’ve loved more.
First thing is that while the upgrade system is pretty neat not everything you get on it is good. Everytime you complete a chapter more upgrades are unlocked, and afterwhile you realize the new upgrades decrease your chance of getting something you may actually want. There’s one upgrade for either muting the protagonist because he lays punchlines every level, or increasing how many punchlines he says. That’s funny, but what does this actually add to the gameplay? If I want to mute the protagonist I could’ve just gone into the settings, or turn down to volume. This feels like making an upgrade slot just so it can be there, and because you couldn’t think of any other thing to put down. I also don’t get the point of the end chapter upgrades. Some of them are kind of useless besides the one that gives you better guns, and the one that allows you to keep one of your upgrades kind of breaks the game when you have a really good gun on you. I did appreciate the artstyle, but trust me when I say I slap a massive epilepsy warning onto this game. This is a harsh game for the eyes with constant colors and flashing lights going on. It’s visual overload to the point I can’t tell what’s going on at times. Yet somehow I still did pretty well, but I can see the visual clutter being annoying especially for those on higher difficulty settings. The procedural generation is nice, but around the third or fourth chapter you do start to see rooms repeat too much. I noticed it when I did the slide set piece five times in the same chapter.
The story isn’t the focus of Mullet Madjack, but at certain points I can tell the writers wanted to write a narrative that critiques capitalism in the same way stories from the 1990s did. In the same way the tales from Cowboy Bebop and Bladerunner achieved so back then. Midway through the game you’re gonna learn about the cult thing with the robots and how they want to prove if there is a heaven and hell. That the world has become a greedy sh*thole that humanity does not want to make any attempt to improve. That we’re busy selling and manufacturing products to distract us from the problems. We’ve conditioned the mind to do nothing but consume media and never question what is being put behind it. Do not wonder what lies behind the curtains and if there is more to it all. The machines have somehow achieved as much if not more than the humans by becoming the richest folks in the world. They want to see if gods exist, because if not then they are technically the strongest in the world. God from the machine. Deus ex machina. Horrors that only we as a human species can conjure. As we were too busy making advancement without questioning the morality or complexity of the situation. To consume and produce without a care in the world. Consume, produce, consume, produce, and watch it lead us to our grave. Anyways, this was a five minute cutscene and at no point does the game build upon this idea well.
It does kind of through its humor. The corporation you work for sends you into the tower so you can entertain an audience on a livestream. Your reward for saving the girl is sneakers, so it’s thought that if you promise a person a commodity that normally would be expensive for free if they do a dumb act . Nice, but outside that nothing to build the narrative or story. Again it’s not a focal point, but when you look at Cowboy Bebop or Bladerunner and how they handled these topics on capitalism and futures where we managed to achieve a lot and a little at the same time you wonder why they’re held so high up. I would write an essay if I have to, but I don’t want this review to go on too long. My last complaint is that even though I enjoyed the short runtime, what determines your purchase of this game depends on what type of gamer you are. If you’re the type of gamer who likes infinitely replayable games and goes back instantly upon beating a game then the twenty dollar price tag is worth it. If you are someone who moves onto other games once he beats one or has a low chance of replaying games then this might not be for you especially since depending on what difficulty you play it's two to four hours long. Mullet Madjack is a game I liked and wished I enjoyed more. It’s worth it, but in a year full of fantastic indie games there’s more to choose. In the end I am going to give Mullet Madjack an 8/10 for being enjoyable.
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