“Bio-Digital Jazz”
A review of Mullet Madjack, and my love affair with Mister Bullet.
Mullet Madjack is like jazz.
Playing it feels free-form, yet structured; breakneck, yet deliberate.
An ever-evolving symphony of bio-digital mayhem that pounds in your ears and motivates your heart to beat faster, and faster still.
Your weapons are your instruments, and combat improvisation is your sheet music.
It’s a neo-retro bullet-shaped, little pill that, when ingested, is quite unlike anything I have experienced in the rogue-lite genre.
When you get going in Mullet Madjack, you are hauling ass.
Like a freight train of kinetic murder hellbent on opening a can of neon whup-ass on robobillionaires, you sprint through the randomly changing floors of the Nakamura Tower on your quest to save the damsel in distress.
It's a thrilling ride all the way through, and I can’t stop thinking about it after finishing it.
It was a sight to behold.
I will admit, though, that this game hurt my eyes a little bit, too.
The setup for this game is quite simple.
You play as “Jack Banhammer” (one of the best main character names ever), a ‘moderator’ hired by the future corporation, “Peace Corp”, to rescue your damsel in distress, the “Influencer”.
It’s the future, so everyone is hooked on that sweet, sweet, dope. Dopamine, that is.
It’s literally like a drug, and just like the adrenaline junkie rush that motivates Jason Statham’s character in Crank, you can’t stop killing enemies or else your cyborg heart will stop.
Dopamine courses through Jack, and without it, his big, bloody heart will blow up in 10 seconds if not constantly fed good ol’ dope.
It’s a goofy premise that grabs you by the collar and drags you along with it, and for that, I love it. It gets you started with a bang and never lets you catch your breath. It's a game that firmly sticks its rainbow tongue squarely into its metallic cheek, and it was this delightful tone that carried throughout its brief, 2-3 hour playtime.
The story is silly, yet surprisingly cogent. Mullet Madjack plays the fool, whilst being remarkably cerebral at times, mulling over some relevant themes like consumerism, artificial intelligence, and desensitization, even going so far as to make assertions to people partaking in the system of capitalism as actual slaves to the goods and services they take in daily.
Some heady themes, to be sure, but Mullet Madjack deftly toes the line between being the thinking man’s shooter and being a silly comedic romp with guns.
The best part of the game, though in my opinion, is the villain: Mister Bullet. This guy suuucks, and he rocks.
He is the main person you are pursuing as you scale Nakamura Tower, and his constant belittling and badgering of you is hilarious, even as you narrowly miss him each floor. That bit of interstitial comedy you get with him is fantastic, and when you finally give him what for, the boss fight that ensues is glorious.
I am going to be honest, though, when I finally did kill him, I sort of felt bad! I mean, sure, he shot me in the brain, pursued me in a golden mech, and chased me down the interstate, but who keeps track of these things?
I came to respect the man for his dogged mentality, and despite his reprehensible moral standing, I came to love him in some small way, maybe.
Mister Bullet is alright.
He also has one of the most fun designs of any video game villain I have seen in some time, also.
A smiling golden bullet, replete with ivory metal teeth, robotic features, and deep red pixel dots for eyes, is an iconic image I will remember for a while. He is such a fun character!
Mister Bullet feels like he could’ve walked out of the game “Enter the Gungeon”, and not be out of place one bit.
The red on black suit with a red tie is stylish as hell to boot.
In short, this guy fucks and he kind of is cool as hell, actually.
The game takes place in chapters, with 10 in total.
Each part of the tower has 10 floors and one boss at its end.
If you die, you don’t start at the beginning, but you go back to the start of the chapter you are currently on. I appreciate this.
On this Substack, I have made it quite clear that I don’t like ‘rogue-style’ video games, but when tweaks are made to the formula and nature of the genre, I can get with it if they make things less punitive.
Their simple tweaks and neat additions to the game make Mullet Madjack a breeze to play.
I am going to keep this review short because this is a short game!
It’s awesome, and everyone with Game Pass should play it if they subscribe to the service, in my opinion.
Mullet Madjack is an awesome video game, and I highly recommend it to just about anyone. You’ll fall in love with it just like I did.
Again, Mister Bullet, fucks.