MULLET MADJACK

I put the controller down after my first run and just sat there for a moment. Not because it was over, but because my hands were still twitching. MULLET MADJACK is a roguelite first-person shooter built around a single, borderline absurd premise: you have ten seconds to live, and the only way to earn more is to keep killing. Every enemy dropped adds precious ticks back to the clock, and soda cans smashed out of vending machines or environmental finishers buy you a few more. Stop moving, stop killing, and that timer zeros out with zero mercy. The game is set in a near-future dystopia run by Robobillionaires, where a superbeing AI feeds on human dopamine and a kidnapped social media personality sits at the top of Nakamura Plaza waiting to be rescued. The story is exactly as sincere as it needs to be. Jack Banhammer, your mulleted hero, is propelled by the desire for a fresh pair of sneakers, and somehow that tracks perfectly with the energy. Developer HAMMER95 is a Brazilian studio, and there is a specific flavor of loving, almost punk-affectionate chaos to the whole thing that feels handcrafted in the best way. The presentation, all neon-drenched 2.5D corridors and over-the-top anime cutscenes, holds together with remarkable visual discipline. The synthwave soundtrack does not let up. It is the kind of score that earns its keep not just as background music but as a structural element, keeping the pace from ever feeling random. The weapons are the real conversation starter. You pick one at the start of a run: pistol, shotgun, SMG, railgun, plasma rifle, rifle, or one of the elemental katanas (fire and ice). Between floors you choose roguelite-style upgrades, some tied to your current weapon, others affecting the timer or environmental kills. The katana builds are the most skill-intensive, trading away all ranged safety for a throwable blade that returns like a boomerang and rewards players willing to close every distance fast. The SMG feels spectacular at low accuracy. The railgun asks for patience that the 10-second clock actively punishes, which makes landing one feel like a small miracle. Some community players have noted the upgrade pool feels slightly uneven, and a handful of boss encounters share enough design DNA to feel familiar rather than fresh, but these are minor friction points in an otherwise compulsively tuned system. Each of the eight chapters introduces new environmental hazards, acid pits, laser grids, wall-run segments that echo Ghostrunner, fan traps that can be turned into instant kills with a well-timed slide kick. Chapters cap at a Robobillionaire boss fight, and then upgrades reset, which initially sounds punishing but in practice keeps each chapter feeling like a fresh sprint. There is an Endless mode and a Boss Rush mode with leaderboards for players who complete the story and still want to chase numbers. The main run clocks in around three to four hours, which is short, but the game knows it. Nothing here drags. Every floor is 60 to 90 seconds of concentrated action, and the randomized stage layouts and upgrade offerings give replays enough variance to justify multiple evenings. Something about MULLET MADJACK feels like it was made by people who genuinely love fast things and decided to build the fastest possible container for that love. The Metacritic score of 88 and the overwhelmingly positive Steam reception are not accidental. If you have any patience for score-chasing, time-attack structure, or just want a game that treats stopping as a moral failing, this one delivers with unusual confidence.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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