Overview

Mullet Madjack, man what an absolute treat of an experience to play. I loaded this one up during the tail-end of 2024, to unwind and kick back after a big year of playing the different lengthy Triple-A releases that have filled out the year, and left feeling like, shit, why did it take me so long to get around to this.

Mullet Madjack is such a vibe of an experience, it taps into this 80's vaporwave action hero aesthetic and perfectly oozes it with the the retro-future anime settings, and stylistic choices, on its gameplay front it is Post Void, meets a rogue-like and it provides an exhilarating gameplay loop that'll keep you hooked and have you losing track of time. But is easy to pick back up if life calls you away from the keyboard. Seriously, whether it is during the next sale or outright picking this one up, it is my opinion that especially if you're an FPS fan looking to kill some hours this one will not disappoint, and I'm here to tell you why, so let's talk about it, what makes Mullet Madjack so good?

The Gameplay Loop

So I'll start with the core gameplay loop Mullet Madjack which will see you stepping in the shoes of Jack climbing through sets of 10 floors to rescue a streamer who has been captured. You'll be working alongside and organization called Peace Corp who're streaming this whole ordeal, so naturally in turn for item enhancements you'll be living on a 10 second timer, which thrusts the core gameplay loop of Mullet Madjack into play.

See, you'll be jump floor to floor, killing enemies, in a plethora of unique ways, which will in-turn increase the seconds on your 10 second life-span. This creates a rhythm of gliding through each leveling trying to shoot, kick, and cleverly kill and enemy that gets in your way to increase your life-span and complete each floor as soon as possible. There is a level of building out Jack's arsenel too like with any rogue-like as you progress between each floor you'll be provided a perk or skill that work at increasing the time you have, or the types of weapons you can equip. Some notable examples being "get an extra second of time when shooting an enemy in the balls". Mullet Madjack divides these floors into sets of 10 with each 10th floor having a boss encounter of sorts, which are mostly quite satisfying and fun to engage with, and generally close off a chapter, which is a rest point for the player and the next path of progression forward with the games story.

Overall the amount of time to complete Mullet Madjack's story shouldn't run you more than 3-5 hours depending on the difficulty that you're playing on, and overall it feels like it is well paced, and has enough content to stay it's runtime and not feel like it ever wears out its welcome. The campaign moments and boss encounters are entertaining, and varied too in there mechanics and structure. Speaking of variation, each floor that you progress through sequentially becomes more tricky for you to navigate with many new enemies that make an appearance, but also a strong variety of traps and environmental hazards that will catch you out, as I soon discovered. It allows you to breeze fast and attack early on, but slowly ramps up the difficulty requiring you to move with haste but think on your feet.

The Vibes of Mullet Madjack

I feel at the core really does make this experience for me, and that is the overall vibes of Mullet Madjack. This game is oozing with style, but more so is charming in the way it handles its sense of atmosphere and stylistic choices. The game also has a satirical lens to it, with you the protagonist Jack climbing the floors of a building rescuing a captured streamer, and at the same time living off a 10 second timer because that brings in the views, but more on that in the next part.

But if the feeling of living as a character in the film Crank, trying to stay alive and mull your way through hordes of robots wasn't cool enough, there is this synth vaporwave soundtrack that is an absolute bop, and that main menu screen every time you boot the game up, man...

The overall visual and sound presentation of the game is something that never fails to deliver, making the plethora of enemies that you face all look pretty crazy, and fitting within the 80s action era bad guys. I think what makes Mullet Mad jack such an exhilarating and entertaining ride is how committed the game is to its aesthetes and its influences, but also in how it is able to mesh this all into one package that you'll want to play endlessly, which you can.

Endless and Other Modes

There is an endless mode of Mullet Mad Jack which will take all the mechanics, hazards and enemies from different levels and select them at random and have you complete a level to acquire points per floor you complete. There's a leaderboard where you can compete for the highest score, hone in on the core mechanics of the campaign and improve, and I gotta say this is one of those game modes where if I'm wanting to kill 10 minutes before needing to do something, I'll load this up and see how far I can make it, spoiler alert, I suck ass. But if you're not into the whole endless mode thing, Mullet Mad Jack also has a boss rush mode too which will have you facing off against all the different bosses of the main campaign, and even has crossovers with characters like V1 from Ultrakill too. It's a pretty cool mode, and it is great to see Hammer95 are still adding additional content to this game.

Conclusion

Mullet Madjack is a great experience and this review hasn't been an overly long one because I don't feel it needs to be, if you like what you see chance are you will enjoy what you get. There is a fast paced shooter, that leans into some light rouge-like elements, but ultimately feels like a particular flow or rhythm that it gets you hooked into once you start playing. There is an artstyle and soundtrack that go so hard, and absolutely elevate the already satisfying gameplay, making this game feel so distinctive in what it sets out to be, and achieve. Mullet Mad Jack is one worth checking out if you're looking for a satisfying shooter and a unique aesthetic and a fun variety of side modes to keep you entertained, and if you're starved waiting for the next Triple A shooter to drop, then Mullet Mad Jack will satisfy that hunger and keep you satisfied in the meantime.