Mullet Mad Jack is a fast paced fps shooter from the people over at Hammer95. It’s takes the cyperpunk and retro anime aesthetics and combines them with gameplay that is extremely fast paced. Packaged together with a great soundtrack, refined controls, and tons of extras, Mullet Mad Jack has already cemented itself as a staple in the fps genre.
The gameplay revolves around your need for dopamine: you are on a ten second timer, when you hit zero you die, you add seconds by getting kills in a variety of ways and drinking soda: this games holy corn syrup potion. Combat is this game is tied perfectly to this mechanic, you are given a variety of weapons so take down robotic billionaires and waves of lesser robots, each weapon also receiving upgrades. Each weapon has its purpose and upgrading them makes each weapon a tool of destruction. Infinite ammo on the revolver, a sub machine gun that is laser accurate, an overloaded shotgun, and a few more. Each weapon doesn’t feel tacked on, one of the limited options will fit your play style. Another plus to this game is that melee is a viable option which is not common in the genre: the swords provide high damage and status effects, and melee dashing is downright a necessity to thrive in the dystopian neon hell. Melee dashing refills your timer fully, so scouring the hallways and corridors for melee weapons is a free 10 seconds of life. These ideas paired with some of the best movement in gaming create a homogenous spearhead that leads the rest of the game.
A very refreshing aspect of the game is the level design. Each floor is procedurally generated from a pool of premade rooms and hallways. This on its own would just make the game a memorization puzzle, but the game constantly twists this puzzle as you go up the tower: new enemies and obstacles are added each 10 floors. There are enemies that require melee to defeat, floating bombs, laser walls, parkour sections, the game never runs out of fresh ideas to throw at the player.
Boss fights in this game serve more of a thematic purpose than challenge, which is acceptable, they do have great designs and it does still feeling rewarding defeating them to reach the next set of floors. The only boss I would say is underwhelming is the final boss, it is a long fight but it’s not too difficult and with it being it’s own chapter I would’ve liked an increase in difficulty.
The aesthetics of this game have so much care put into them; the old anime aesthetics mixed with the cyperpunk setting feel retro and refreshing at the same time, you can feel the passion behind all this. The cyperpunk setting helps reinforce the gameplay mechanics and give a sense of purpose to pursuing the next objective. This game also shares the philosophical sentiments of said genre: capitalism ultimately drives 99% of the population obsolete, only billionaires and robots have a foothold in society. Rapid consumerism and the presence of online social status equate humans to just being consumers, which ties to doing all the actions you take in game being over a pair of shoes. Shoes are also given for playing different modes which ties back what the game is saying to how players will try to get every pair, like a good consumer. The anime aesthetics fit in quite well, bringing an aura of cheesy fun that works quite well. The music also does a good job to match the intensity of the gameplay.
Mullet Mad Jack has become a game that should be one of the first recommendations when someone asks “what FPS game should I try to get into the genre?”. The game has such a polish to it, rarely do you find games that fully realize themselves and deliver a truly full and dense experience.
The gameplay revolves around your need for dopamine: you are on a ten second timer, when you hit zero you die, you add seconds by getting kills in a variety of ways and drinking soda: this games holy corn syrup potion. Combat is this game is tied perfectly to this mechanic, you are given a variety of weapons so take down robotic billionaires and waves of lesser robots, each weapon also receiving upgrades. Each weapon has its purpose and upgrading them makes each weapon a tool of destruction. Infinite ammo on the revolver, a sub machine gun that is laser accurate, an overloaded shotgun, and a few more. Each weapon doesn’t feel tacked on, one of the limited options will fit your play style. Another plus to this game is that melee is a viable option which is not common in the genre: the swords provide high damage and status effects, and melee dashing is downright a necessity to thrive in the dystopian neon hell. Melee dashing refills your timer fully, so scouring the hallways and corridors for melee weapons is a free 10 seconds of life. These ideas paired with some of the best movement in gaming create a homogenous spearhead that leads the rest of the game.
A very refreshing aspect of the game is the level design. Each floor is procedurally generated from a pool of premade rooms and hallways. This on its own would just make the game a memorization puzzle, but the game constantly twists this puzzle as you go up the tower: new enemies and obstacles are added each 10 floors. There are enemies that require melee to defeat, floating bombs, laser walls, parkour sections, the game never runs out of fresh ideas to throw at the player.
Boss fights in this game serve more of a thematic purpose than challenge, which is acceptable, they do have great designs and it does still feeling rewarding defeating them to reach the next set of floors. The only boss I would say is underwhelming is the final boss, it is a long fight but it’s not too difficult and with it being it’s own chapter I would’ve liked an increase in difficulty.
The aesthetics of this game have so much care put into them; the old anime aesthetics mixed with the cyperpunk setting feel retro and refreshing at the same time, you can feel the passion behind all this. The cyperpunk setting helps reinforce the gameplay mechanics and give a sense of purpose to pursuing the next objective. This game also shares the philosophical sentiments of said genre: capitalism ultimately drives 99% of the population obsolete, only billionaires and robots have a foothold in society. Rapid consumerism and the presence of online social status equate humans to just being consumers, which ties to doing all the actions you take in game being over a pair of shoes. Shoes are also given for playing different modes which ties back what the game is saying to how players will try to get every pair, like a good consumer. The anime aesthetics fit in quite well, bringing an aura of cheesy fun that works quite well. The music also does a good job to match the intensity of the gameplay.
Mullet Mad Jack has become a game that should be one of the first recommendations when someone asks “what FPS game should I try to get into the genre?”. The game has such a polish to it, rarely do you find games that fully realize themselves and deliver a truly full and dense experience.