This is an absolute last-minute upload because I could not for the life of me find a demo that I wanted to play. That was until the 11th hour when I found a game that apparently had already been released, but there was still a demo up for it. This week is dedicated to killing billionaires in search of an Instagram model or something. This week is Mullet Mad Jack.

Mullet Mad Jack is a rogue-lite first-person shooter from HAMMER95 and published by Epopeia Games and HAMMER95. The game was released for all modern consoles in May 2024. The game retails for $15.

You play as Mad Jack, an assassin who logs into the Peace Corp Justice app, which aims at dispensing justice in the form of killing loads of robot millionaires or “robillionaires.” The first person to save the model from her doom wins free shoes or something and the catch is that the event must be live-streamed. The point of this is to climb 60 floors to save the princess and walk away with new sneakers.

It is obvious from the look of the game that HAMMER95 was hinged on making a video game that was inspired by 80-90’s anime. When I first booted up Mullet Mad Jack the synth-wave was bumping my desk and the neon colors were pushing my monitor to the max. The cutscenes and character models remind me of any 90s anime that I ever watched. I understand the warning at the game’s opening about the bright flashing lights because Mullet Mad Jack goes crazy on the robot gore, flashing lights, and bright colors.

I don’t think I ever enjoyed visuals more in a demo.

In Mullet Mad Jack, there is a catch to the live streaming of murder, the people’s reactions fuel your life. Each level is short, but your life is shorter, ten seconds to be exact. Murdering machines in thoughtful and exotic ways gives you more time on the clock, but it never exceeds ten seconds. When the phone timer hits zero then it is curtains for Jack and you have to start all the way back at the previous starting floor.

There are tons of ways to kill these baddies, so kicking them into fans, glory kills and just plain shooting does the job to keep you alive for the next set of floors, but as Mad Jack climbs floors so does the difficulty. At the end of each ten floors is a boss baddie that would like to stand in your way and hopefully the choices the player made at the end of each level or you will be back at the beginning in no time.

Roguelite elements are pretty standard. At the end of each level, Mad Jack is given the choice of three perks to bring on until they are reset after the boss fight. These include a weapon (shotgun, AR, katana, etc), and things like increased timer, ammo, health on kill, and even explosive bullets. The power trip is real in this game and it is fantastic.

Mullet Mad Jack‘s demo perfectly encapsulates the love and drive that the devs have for this game. The game is fast-paced, fun, and goofy as all hell. I really appreciate how Mullet Mad Jack knows to not take itself seriously with all the fun little quips it gives the player like the announcer woman screaming “DO A BARREL ROLL” or the big baddie telling you at an arcade machine that “the princess is on another floor.” It is all very fun and I think that I wish-listed it immediately after playing the demo and I am hyped to play it.