Platform(s): PC (version reviewed)
Genre: 90s first-person shooter with 80s cyberpunk anime flair

Indie first-person shooter Mullet Madjack takes the concept of the 90s scifi cyberpunk-themed corridor shooter and amplifies it with a simple twist: thanks to the world’s livestreaming culture, you only have 10 seconds to live, entertaining viewers watching your killstreaks, and the only way to keep the timer from ticking down to your death is to commit massive robot millionaire genocide with guns & boots to the face!

You’re put in the shoes of the titular hero Mullet Madjack, whose objective is to kill robot billionaires and rescue the “princess” at the top floor while also getting some firepower support & chatter from the Peace Corp lady. You go through 10 floors per chapter filled with corridors, deathtraps, and bad guys. At each capstone of a chapter lies a boss you have to fight; you win this and you head to the next chapter. If you die at any time when climbing between each chapter’s 10 floors, you start back at the first floor. Fortunately, each floor takes you only a minute or so to complete and are very straightforward and linear in design, as you need to hurry up and kill things to stay alive. Also, getting hurt shaves off the 10-sec limit you have, so you not only have to speed through the stage and kill enemies, but also avoid getting hurt too bad.

Soda Can Crisis

The beauty of Mullet Madjack, apart from the 2D-slash-3D hybrid anime aesthetics that’s a lovechild of shows like Bubblegum Crisis/Dirty Pair/Akira and 90s BUILD engine FPS title but the saturation cranked to 11, is that you’re rewarded for killing creatively and consecutively. You can gun down foes, shoot them in the head and the robot-nuts for more points, kick them hard and push them through environments and traps, and do special melee kills if you happen to grab a special melee prop nearby.

Kicking soda machines also net you soda that heals you, which also prolongs your limited lifespan. You can upgrade Mullet with powerups -3 to pick from- at the end of each floor. Permanent upgrades can also be unlocked at the end of each chapter. Each chapter will reset your powerups to zero, but the game only escalates in mob count and stage layout difficulty beyond the 2nd floor and onward.

Yes, I’ve died countless times by falling into bottomless pits and getting shotgun buckshot in the face for overestimating my health threshold. But that’s the game’s difficulty and pressure causing me to make terrible decisions within that split second. You can get far if you pause for a second or two, assessing the situation, then go guns-ablazing. Take too long, though, and the robot drones and chainsaw millionaires will catch up to you.

All this culminates in a very addictive roguelite structure and loop that triggers my dopamine, motivating me to keep at it even after a failed run and being satisfied with the kills I can chain over and over with each boot to the robot’s face, and then blasting them in the head-and-or-nuts for massive damage. Getting that perfect powerup combo -penetrating shots, SMG level 3, and exploding barrels for me- also feels invigorating when you pull off a Redline-esque race to get many kills as quickly as possible, with the 80s cyberpunk anime visuals and fiery effects saying my jollies for cathartic explosions and mayhem in my favour. The gun sounds and kill sound effects also contribute massively to the awesome sensation you can get from a few runs in the tower.

While some stages can get cheap later on -lava tiles can blend in with the background, making me take unnecessary damage I could have dashed out of- and the game could use some powerups that can save me from a mistimed jump through a bottomless pit, this tribute to 90s shooters and anime culture is a helluva light show. Mullet Madjack comes highly recommended if you’re into replayable corridor shooters tailor-made for 2024’s sensibilities.

Final Score: 80/100