Mullet Madjack (PC)

Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll recently got a tiny theatrical re-release for its 30th (Christ…) Anniversary, and much as I hate becoming that person who says, “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” real talk: they kinda don’t. I like me a good complex narrative much as the next guy, but sometimes, I just like seeing fucked up mutants get graphically sliced in half while I bark and clap like the happiest homicidal seal. Look, we all have our thing.

With that in mind, Hammer95 Studios had mine and every other weeb-of-a-certain-age’s best interests at heart with Mullet Madjack. It would have won hearts and minds as it is, being deliberately stylized to look and sound right at home playing at one-thirty in the morning after a showing of Dominion Tank Police on the Sci-Fi Channel, except all the grisly, squishy violence is kept intact. But the old-school anime vibes are mixing it up with Hotline Miami-style flow state mechanics, as our intrepid mulleted hero Jack is forced to murder cyborg scumbags up every floor of a skyscraper, done for a live television audience of millions who will lose interest and cost you sponsorship dollars if you don’t keep it varied, violent, and fast enough.

It’s kind of a perfect, short-burst type of FPS experience that ratchets up the complexity and trickiness without ever tipping over into a game where you have to put more than three seconds thought into your next move. Move forward till you find something else on two legs, figure out if something in your hands or the environment can kill him, all while your bloodthirsty handler cackles her sick fucking ass off. Mullet Madjack’s a gem.