Mullet Madjack is a diamond in the rough of a boomer shooter, perfect for anyone wanting an arcade like experience within a stylishly artistic neon setting. One year after its original release on PC, it remains a must-have for any Nintendo Switch owner wanting the cartoonish violence of a boomer shooter without a need for arbitrary precision. It’s a bloody fantastic time.
Mullet Madjack is a product of the best bits of the boomer shooter genre. It’s built around the idea that the player should be undiscerning with their aiming, instead opting to kick or shoot at anything in their way. Its simplicity contains just enough roguelike iteration to change things up every 10 minutes (at most), preserving its high octane and bloody violent gameplay loop. All of this is wrapped up within an eye-catching first-person shooter that is nearly impossible to put down.
I was jealous of fellow Chump Andrew last year when he was able to review Mullet Madjack on the PC. I read his review and his immense praise of Hammer95’s roguelike boomer shooter and thought to myself, “Dang, I missed out on playing a rad boomer shooter!” Fast forward to today, and I’m thrilled to say that it was worth the wait for Mullet Madjack to make its way to the Nintendo Switch. Some typical Switch frustrations persist, but it’s still a bloody good time.
At first glance, Mullet Madjack looks like a standard boomer shooter where a silent protagonist shoots his way through narrow passageways of enemies, blowing them up with anything in his hands, and pummeling baddies to a bloody pulp. It’s not DOOM, though. Here, the gist is far more creative. Mullet Madjack places the player in the confines of a protagonist whose existence is limited to 10 seconds before he dies. Killing an enemy refunds a few precious seconds. This is happening while the protagonist is racing against the clock to get to an elevator at the end of a procedurally-generated level.
It sounds like the premise of GTTOD (Get to the Orange Door), but with less parkour. The chaos is reminiscent as ANGER FOOT, but Mullet Madjack’s protagonist is far less fragile. The bloody silliness reminds me of TURBO OVERKILL, except this protagonist has an actual leg instead of a chainsaw leg. What I’m getting at here is that Mullet Madjack takes from some fantastic existing modern boomer shooters, but does so with a focus on speedrunning.
Each level, be it one in the maybe-2-hour-long story or in the Endless post-game mode, lasts all of 45 seconds. The longest time I spent on a level was a minute and five seconds. The constant race against the clock pushed me to get to the end as quickly as possible with little regard to anything else on my screen. There’s little need for exploration through the endless neon rooms. Instead, shortcuts reward players with bursts of speed and mayhem that pushes unsuspecting enemies. Picking up melee weapons lying around result in a quick cutscene where I jammed the weapon into an enemy’s face. This game made me feel like I was a stunt performer doing outrageous s***.
What about the roguelike parts? I know I mentioned that Mullet Madjack functions as a roguelike, but there’s very little frustrating dying to be had that takes me back to the start of a run (Endless Mode being the only exception). Completing a level results in me obtaining a new weapon or a small-ish upgrade. After completing 10 floors, all the upgrades sans the weapon are deleted from my inventory and then I start anew.
It’s not a true roguelike in the sense that there’s a Sisyphean task of completing as many levels as possible, dying, and then starting from scratch. The story mode is light on artificially inflating difficulty for the sake of punishing the player’s mistakes and building them up over multiple runs of varying lengths. It’s refreshing in that one can enjoy the mayhem and bloody fun without the brutal roguelike experience.
It’s an experience like none other.
Maybe I’ve been burnt out by the current game development meta of everything being a roguelike but in different fonts. Maybe I’ve seen too much of the same roguelike gameplay loop that Mullet Madjack feels like a step in the right direction in terms of novelty and dumb fun. Regardless of what it is, I loved playing it and did not want to put it down.
Beyond the engaging gameplay loop, I’m enamored by Mullet Madjack’s 90s anime fantasy blended together with some cyberpunk and synthwave influences. Color schemes are restricted to reds, greens, and yellows, keeping the design language consistent despite changes in a level’s verticality. Characters are drawn with 90s anime tropes like detailed eyes, sharp linework, and high-contrast cel-shading. Even on the Nintendo Switch’s smallish screen, environments are vibrant and detailed enough for me to find my way through the labyrinthine buildings.
Mullet Madjack is perhaps one of the only, if not the only, first-person shooter I would play on any version of the Nintendo Switch. I have said time and time again about how inaccurate, uncomfortable, and imprecise the Joy-Con controllers’ joysticks are at delivering on aiming and supporting those playing in the first person. They’re an outright pain to use if you’re attempting to secure headshots or long-ranged sniper kills in games like Fallout 4, DOOM Eternal, and Borderlands. God forbid I attempt to play Apex Legends with a Joy-Con and hope for some accuracy – it’s a subpar experience compared to playing with the Switch’s PRO controller or any other console controller.
Mullet Madjack is the perfect addition for a Nintendo Switch player who wants a taste of first-person shooter fun without the need for precision. Mullet Madjack rewards those who align with the ideas of “haste makes waste” and “shoot now, think later.” The constant 10-second countdown forces the player to shoot wildly at anything that moves. For most weapons, shooting in a robotic enemy’s general direction results in an instant kill and a boost of energy. Mowing down robot after robot feels satisfying as all get out especially in instances where enemy density is at its peak.
The sole exception to this lack of required precision emerges during boss battles, but for every one boss room there are 10 floors of enemies teeming with enemies. The bosses themselves don’t interrupt the gameplay too much.
Not all of the Mullet Madjack Switch experience is perfect, however. On one night during my review period, my Wifi had been knocked out by a thunderstorm and causing the game to crash. At least, I assumed the lack of WiFi caused the came to crash, This wiped my progress and sent me back to the nearest floor checkpoint (e.g., floor 10, 20, 30, etc.). The Nintendo Switch doesn’t seem best equipped for always-online single-player games that apparently upload data to servers. Additionally, in between floors, there was some choppiness and light freezing from the game loading the next procedurally-generated level. This only impacted the mid-level cutscene and didn’t prevent progression, but it was still unfortunate nonetheless.
I loved playing Mullet Madjack for many reasons, chief of which is how it surprised me with how much I played in so little time. In his original review, Andrew described this as “your reaction time is hijacked and the only thing that matters is obliterating whatever stands in front of you.” By the end of the story, I was stunned by the fact that I had beaten 80 levels and killed countless robots within the confines of two hours. I did so much in so little time. I was kept on my toes every single second I was playing the game.
Mullet Madjack is a diamond in the rough of a boomer shooter, perfect for anyone wanting an arcade like experience within a stylishly artistic neon setting. One year after its original release on PC, it remains a must-have for any Nintendo Switch owner wanting the cartoonish violence of a boomer shooter without a need for arbitrary precision. It’s a bloody fantastic time.
