Mullet MadJack [PC] | REVIEW

Some games are just really f*****g cool, and you know what? Mullet MadJack might be the coolest game of them all.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Mullet MadJack takes place in the year 2090, where the world is run by filthy rich robots known only as the Robillionaires and badass folk known as Moderators go on live-streamed murderous rampages against them all for a hit of dopamine (and for the admiration of social media viewers), The catch? The Moderators are only given ten seconds to dispose of any Robillionaires in their path, otherwise they’ll die. That might not seem like a lot, but with more seconds awarded based upon how exciting your kills are, those that murder in style earn all the plaudits.

Oh, and the hero has a mullet, delivers a lot of one-liners during his rampage, there’s an enigmatic gold-headed Robobillionaire goading you along the way, and there’s an influencer babe you save… what more could you want? Mullet MadJack is just oozing with coolness in almost everything it does, with the narrative giving an immediate idea of the sort of manic ride players are in for.

That anarchic narrative spins into the gameplay perfectly, with Mullet MadJack having a fast-paced and frantic buzz to its first-person shooting action that makes each run exciting from start to end. Ultimately, it’s all about killing as many robots as you can in a swift and stylish manner, with the player constantly holding a phone in their hand that shows how much time they have left on the clock. For every ten floors of the Nakamura Plaza that you unleash hell through, you’ll face off against a boss – these encounters stop the clock in favour of a traditional health bar, but still keep players on their toes as they deal with chaotic action where one wrong move can end their life. And if you do fail? You’re taken back to the start of the current ten floors you’re working through, with each felled boss essentially acting as a checkpoint.

“The hero has a mullet, delivers a lot of one-liners during his rampage, and there’s an influencer babe you save along the way… what more could you want?”

On paper, it sounds like your typical first-person shooter, but it’s that ten-second time limit that adds to the tension of each run of Mullet MadJack. You have next to no time to stop and think your actions through, with players instead having to rampage through levels and keep the bullets spraying in order to keep their timer extended. You’d think that it’d be stressful, but with plenty of enemies to kill, unlimited ammo, and powerful weapons to use, it’s not too hard to keep on top of things. Players unlock new upgrades after clearing a floor too, with new weapons, stat boosts, and so forth ensuring they’re well-equipped for the evolving challenge they face in the higher floors of Nakamura Plaza. You do lose these upgrades if you die though, with Mullet MadJack embracing a rogue-lite twist to its action that adds a bit more consequence to each failure.

It all comes together to make for a really fun experience, with the moment-to-moment action of Mullet MadJack constantly keeping a big smile on my face, whether that’s when unloading bullets on an enemy, getting up-close and personal for a brutal melee kill, or even when suffering a death because one of the bosses unleashed a surprise attack on me from out of nowhere. Getting stylish kills always feels good thanks to how creative you can be in-game, whilst the ever-evolving threat found with the enemies you face and environments you traverse through keeps the game interesting.

Things start off fairly straight-forward, but it doesn’t take long before you’re facing deadly hazards and enemies that’ll wipe you out with ease if you don’t keep on top of things. The only downside is that the randomly-generated levels can get a little repetitive as you progress, and whilst they do introduce different dynamics to keep things interesting, they start to look and feel samey fast – especially if you’re dying regularly and re-treading through some floors over and over (which will happen, believe me). Levels are short enough that it never becomes too much of a problem, but a bit more variety wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Still, Mullet MadJack gets a lot more right than it does wrong across it’s manic action-packed gameplay loop to keep players wholly invested right until they reach the top of the Nakamura Plaza, whilst the jaw-dropping anime-stylised visuals just make everything feel that bit more… well… awesome. Mullet MadJack is simply gorgeous to look at, with its outrageous premise complemented by just how damn good it looks.

Oh, and if you want a more easy-going experience? You can ditch the ten-seconds time limit for a traditional health bar across all of gameplay if you prefer, whilst there are multiple difficulty settings if you need a tamer ride. Mullet MadJack might be fast-paced and demand perfection if you want to succeed, but it’s also one of the more accessible first-person shooting rogue-likes that I’ve played.

Developer: HAMMER95
Publisher: HAMMER95, Epopeia Games
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111190/MULLET_MADJACK/