I’m going to fully spoil some aspects of pieces of art I very much enjoy, so be forewarned: If you ever plan on playing “Mouse: PI For Hire” or watching Sam Fuller’s brilliant “Shock Corridor,” then stop reading now. Thanks for the click; share with your friends.

Toward the end of the game, there’s a level that sees the protagonist Jack Pepper (the always great and talented Troy Baker) enter a movie studio. There are a few levels on sets for old timey films, but this particular one echoes a very particular movie. Maybe the most famous movie. One that also is in black and white, then turns to color suddenly…

THE MOTHER FUCKING ‘WIZARD OF OZ’ LEVEL. IN FULL COLOR. Even that grainy technocolor where it’s all washed out and degraded. A gigantic smile got plastered on my face the second I saw the golden brick road and field of flowers. I was not expecting this game to keep surprising me and delighting me hours into the campaign, and that’s before I saw the game send Jack Pepper to literal HELL and get a flaming chainsaw à la “Doom.”

This game kicks so much ass.

It has the right amount of other flavors mixed into a very fun experience. Add in a dash of “Bioshock,” whip up some “Cuphead,” sprinkle on “Epic Mickey,” and lay some “Doom” and you essentially get “Mouse: PI For Hire.” Hell, you can even see some “L.A. Noire” layered in there too. Is it greater than the sum of its parts? Maybe. Is it still a very fun shooter/platformer with a great side card game? Hell yes it is.

But really, this moment reminded me of a scene from Sam Fuller’s “Shock Corridor,” a “controversial movie about electro therapy” as the following YouTube video says. In fact, somebody just uploaded the whole thing! Take that, Criterion Closet.

The movie has one small in-full-color sequence that really messes with you, much like the main character losing his mind while stuck inside of the asylum (where nobody believes he’s a journalist investigating the case). I promise you, you have never seen anything like “Shock Corridor,” and it’s just as biting and clever today as it was back when it released. Sam Fuller movies rock and none of them should be missed, if you’re into twisty, mature, and elevated genre pulp done with the precision of a surgeon.

I wish I could say the same about “Mouse: PI For Hire,” which has its obvious flaws, but is still worth checking out. It’s a surprisingly beefy game with a lot of levels, secrets, and things to unlock deep into the campaign. But that one level will stick with me for a while.

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Image Credit: “Mouse: PI For Hire”