It’s rare to see a game that’s as mindlessly fast and oozing with style as Mullet Madjack. In it, you play as a man on a gameshow. The gameshow’s premise? An influencer has been kidnapped and he has to rescue her by killing robots, which grants him precious extra seconds to stay alive. The prize for doing so? A new pair of shoes. Between the relentless, breakneck pace and 80s-style visuals, there’s much to be impressed by, even if the game isn’t the most substantive thing in the world. However, it does have some staying power all the same.
Mullet Madjack is divided into two modes – a campaign and an endless rogue-lite mode. The campaign has a story complete with voice acting and cutscenes. Despite being made by just a few people, the game is stylish and looks very decent overall. All characters are 2D vector graphics, but with strong designs. The campaign is broken up into chapters, most of which task you with climbing up 10 floors of a building. On the 10th floor waits a boss that needs to be defeated to move onto the next chapter. The story isn’t complex, but has some surprisingly strong themes, along with some satire that riffs on consumer culture.
At the start of each run, you lose everything but your gun and whatever permanent upgrades you bought at the end of your previous one. One of the permanent upgrades lets you pick a single upgrade to take into your next attempt, though. You start off with 10 seconds when you enter a floor. Killing robots gives you extra seconds, although you cannot exceed the maximum. Taking damage lowers how many seconds you have. If time runs out, you die and have to go back to the first floor of the 10 in the chapter. With that being said, some of the upgrades are so good that they seriously mitigate this.
There are multiple weapons to pick from in Mullet Madjack, although they’re doled out just like the other upgrades that are offered at the end of each floor. You can take just one of these out of three, but they can be re-rolled depending on your permanent upgrades. Weapons include a pistol, shotgun, SMG, railgun, and swords. Guns have multiple levels that you’ll unlock as you go. Levels see you moving forward as quickly as you can, as you blast enemies and move to the exit. Headshots, groin shots, and kicking foes into environmental hazards grants you extra time.
Gameplay can seem overwhelming at first, but it becomes second nature after some practice. It’s hard to explain just how fast and chaotic the game is, as you rush through levels pulling off headshots. You can also pick up soda cans and instakill weapons to one-shot any enemy. Both of these are single-use and instantly refill your health, so the latter is especially valuable when you find yourself on death’s door. Strangely, there’s only a single finisher animation for robots that awkwardly reuses the same art in a surprisingly cheap way.
On the default difficulty, the game is fairly challenging, at least until you get used to it, but harder and easier modes exist. Included is a mode that does away with the time limit that’s solely for people who just want to see the story and admire the art. But the real meat of Mullet Madjack is in the endless mode. This is a purely permadeath mode where you climb as many floors as you can. Dying means you have to start the whole climb over again. This mode has a collection of all the different chapter’s hazards and enemies mixed up. You’ll find laser traps, chained-up doors, pits to wall-run over, and more. Every 9 floors reduces the amount of seconds you have before dying by one.
Enemies are nicely varied too, from gun-toting robo goons, ones with blades, shields, and different drones as well. Unfortunately, the level segments are too few, so you’ll constantly be seeing the same chunks over and over again. Every wallrun section is pretty much the same, as is the one room that’s full of lava, acid, or water. It also doesn’t take long to get through the campaign. If you don’t die, you might be able to beat it in a couple of hours. Your mileage will vary based on how often you die. The endless mode adds a fair amount of replay value, but don’t expect the game to last you too long. The boss battles are also laughably easy, which surprised me.
Despite that, Mullet Madjack is a lot of fun for anyone looking for an extremely arcadey, lightning-fast experience. If the aesthetic and concept sold you on the game, you’ll probably find a fair amount of entertainment value. Especially if you like violently headshotting robots.
Mullet Madjack: Fast and absolutely ridiculous, Mullet Madjack delivers on its premise to offer some seriously zany action. – Andrew Farrell
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