Ten seconds is three more than Albert Wesker has to play with you, but it is all you have between you and your next thrill. MULLET MADJACK is hitting the Switch after a successful sprint on Steam and Xbox, and we have been given the task to see if we are badass enough. Are our mullets on point? Are we jacked enough to take on the legions of robots wanting us dead, just to save the princess and pick up some likes along the way? You ready, Jack?
Ready. Set. Stream!
MULLET MADJACK is set in a cyberpunk anime future where the world has been taken over by Robillionaires, and somehow ’80s fashion and media have become king again. Jack Banhammer works for the Peace Corps and is tasked with saving an influencer princess from a high-ranking Robillionaire, all for the tasty payment of a pair of brand new trainers.
Jack Banhammer happens to also be a live streamer, giving people the chance to view his campaign of chaos through his glasses and award him likes and comments. He has a team behind him helping him to successfully run the stream. While it is more of an aesthetic choice, it fits in well with the game and gives it that unique spin that games need to be noticed.
Outside of the over-the-top ’80s anime style and seemingly daft story premise, MULLET MADJACK is not afraid to go hard with the concept. The game lures you in with the first few sections and then hits you with some rather tough subjects. It goes from being practically a game show to something akin to Ghost In The Shell, in frankly one of the more whiplash-inducing tone shifts I have ever seen in a game.
Personally, I was already sold on the game when I saw how it looked and what it initially painted itself to be. Once the story changed gears, my heavy interest turned into love. Yes, I absolutely fell in love with the whole world of MULLET MADJACK and the themes it was leaning into. I do not wish to spoil it for anyone, as I believe not knowing about it was part of the impact. I had a slight feeling that there may have been more than meets the eye with the narrative, and I was still caught off guard. Bravo!
Gotta Go Fast!
MULLET MADJACK is a first-person shooter with what feels initially like a heavy focus on speed. The premise is that you need to release dopamine every 10 seconds, otherwise your heart will explode. Fortunately, our titular character is the star of a live-action stream (confusingly described in-game as being a moderator) and viewers can award dopamine whenever he makes a kill. Alternatively, he can also get some from drinks found in vending machines. Think of the movie Crank if it was set in a cyberpunk anime future and you are on the right track.
The game is set in one giant tower that you have to navigate one floor at a time. These levels are procedurally generated, and the level of randomness is determined by the difficulty you pick at the start. MULLET MADJACK is quite generous in terms of difficulty and how it tailors your playthrough. The lower difficulty strips the more roguelite elements in favor of making it more of a “boomer shooter”. The higher difficulties, on the other hand, flip this in the other direction. They rely more on the “luck of the dice” aspects of the roguelite genre, giving little room for memorization.
The gameplay in MULLET MADJACK is, for want of a better word, hectic. It is brutally fast, as you have that ever-looming 10-second timer constantly ticking down alongside some rather aggressive robots that would love nothing more than to end your run and send you home in pieces. Controls are very easy to pick up. You have a dash button which also doubles as your kick and even triples up when you pick up an instant kill melee weapon. You have the ability to jump, wallrun, and slide, and of course you can shoot. That is really all you need, and the controls have that level of feeling natural that ensures you will sink into your flow state very quickly.
You’re Like A Rogue
At the end of every floor is an elevator to the next floor. Here you will be able to buy a new weapon or upgrade. While you start with a basic but badass revolver, you will soon be able to buy other tools such as shotguns, katanas, and abilities like extra time, a higher chance for your bullets to ricochet, and other stat-changing abilities to help you save the day.
Sadly, while there isn’t too much in the way of loadout building in comparison to other games in the roguelite genre, there is just enough in my opinion. While you have the options to mix it up, there is more of a focus on skill and adapting to the threats standing in your way. One of the major “eureka!” moments came from a note on a loading screen that pointed out that it is not really about the speed; it is about creating a flow. MULLET MADJACK wants you to pick your targets rather than just picking anyone and keep moving forward in the most efficient way.
After you have done 10 floors, you will come across a “Robillionaire”. These are not random and act as the boss fights of the game. Here, the timer stops counting down and puts you in a more traditional boss fight, at least for the most part. One of them actually starts to play out like a turn-based battle before it becomes a battle of dodging and using melee weapons. These are real standout moments in the game, especially the example I just gave, which felt so wildly out of left field that I could not help but smile.
Outside of the main “story” (as minimal as it is), MULLET MADJACK also has an endless mode which dials up the roguelite’s random nature. Here you go for as long as you can, building points and being the best “moderator” you can to try and reach the top of the leaderboard and prove you have the strongest mullet in town. It is likely here you will spend the bulk of your time once you have blown through the campaign, which in all honesty only lasts a couple of hours tops.
Looking Good Jack
MULLET MADJACK looks like a lost anime from the ’80s or ’90s, published by MANGA Entertainment in the 2000s. You know the type. It has a very distinct look to it. It is very colorful and prides itself on being vibrant. It is absolutely my vibe, and I could not get enough of how it looked and the level of nostalgia that it took me through.
The stage design is not the most varied due to the procedural generation, and the enemy types, sadly, are not as varied as I would have liked. More often than not, you are just running through the same few enemies over and over again with a palette swap or a different attack coming from them.
Cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous, voice acting is over the top and loud, and the whole visual and audio presentation of the game just oozes 80s and 90s cheese. Heck, there is even an upgrade you can unlock to make Jack talk more in the vein of a certain Mr. Nukem. It is going to resonate with a certain crowd of people, and if you are one of them, MULLET MADJACK is going to be a home run for you.
Performance was beautiful during my review time. I played the game on the Nintendo Switch 2 with a mixture of docked and boosted handheld, and not a single frame was dropped, nor was a color ever dulled. Controls were responsive and, in my whole campaign run, I only had one moment where the game locked up. This pushed me back 10 floors, but with how fast the game is, I had caught up within minutes.
Verdict
I love boomer shooters, and I love ’80s/’90s media and manga/anime. MULLET MADJACK is just an amalgamation of those things in a larger-than-life product with some loud presentation and an addictive gameplay loop. It manages to combine the random world of roguelites with the moment-to-moment gameplay of the classic first-person shooter.
Jack Banhammer is the man, and MULLET MADJACK is an absolute treasure of a game. If you are within its target audience, there is not much this game does wrong outside of only having a very short campaign. If you happen to be on the outside looking in, this is going to look like an absolute smack to the senses, which, in terms of this game, is not the worst thing!
MULLET MADJACK IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for a more roguelike experience, you might want to check out Shinonome Abyss: The Maiden Exorcist.
Many thanks go to Epopeia Games for a Nintendo Switch review code for MULLET MADJACK.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
