Outfoxies - Arcade

No foxes are involved

It's every once in a while a game really surprises me as to just how inventive an arcade game can be. It's been a long time since I saw anything like this one and with Outfoxies, I can only really liken it to a sort of 2D version of the original Power Stone, or Super Smash Brothers with less in the way of items and combat.

Some large and creative areas here

Outfoxies is about over the top arenas, crazy characters and duelling spies one on one in a very action orientated game that seems like the semi-final showdowns in numerous James Bond films, especially with one particular character that seems to be a direct copy of Tee Hee from Live and Let Die (You know, the tall guy with the metal claw arm thanks to a hungry gator... or croc, I forget and I don't stop to ask when running from such things).

Dead on a dead whale... How embarassing.

Your characters in Outfoxies, range from Any Job for Cash man, Psycho Twins, Naughty Chimp, Professor Chairbound, Madame Killer, Circus nutcase, Tee Hee rip off and High Class Hit Woman. Each character brings something fairly unique to the table aside from speed and strength bonuses, the professor in a chair is able to turn aruond and negate most projectile damage with his reinforced wheelchair at the cost of mobility, the chimp is faster but takes more damage while the more generics of the group are John Smith (Great name) and Betty Doe (Missed a trick there, should have been called Jane).

Rocket, grenades, machineguns, swords and more to use.

Each character has their own level and the missions are all to kill the other spies for cash. Levels range from cargo planes while in flight, to circus tents (complete with their own human cannonball cannon), to boats on the oceans in storms, an aquarium and a train while it goes through tunnels. The levels themselves are dynamic in that things change all the time. The train will periodically go through tunnels, forcing combat inside the carriages. The ship and plane levels will tilt and sway violently with the combat that takes place, the aquarium will flood and fill with chompy little critters at the first opportunity and each level will generously spawn a variety of weapons.

Obligatory "I Win" sticker

Combat takes place in Outfoxies with a simple interface, the joystick moves you around while the attack button will generically attack and the jump button, naturally, jumps you from place to place. You can jump and down through levels and floors, climb onto things, pick up and toss barrels and crates and assault your opponent with a mixture of guns, machineguns, rocket launchers, grenades, flamethrowers, swords and weapons based around the level in which you fight. As such your own fists aren't all that powerful and as such, you'll often be scrambling for death-dealing weapons, particularly the explosives.

Hi-explosives at the Hi-Top

Each round takes about a few minutes, combat can be fast paced or get bogged down in a simple exchange of blows back and forth as one person gets floored only to rise and floor the other. If one character has higher strength/defense then it's clear who the winner is going to be at that point (usually the CPU player), otherwise it becomes an issue of who gets the explosives and who gets slapped hard with the death cannon rocket launcher.

"I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat..."

The sounds within the game are your usual set of explosions and booms with a little focus on the music but with so much going on you barely will be listening to it. However the digitised speech for every item pick up, enemy interaction and as an announcer voice, serves the game well, as does the final few speeches given by the Last Boss within their mansion (bonus points for 3 attack dogs and the more vicious fluffy, yappy dog too) really add to the overall experience of the game.

Last level, run a gauntlet into a bossfight

That said, Outfoxies has flaws. The screen gets far too small to see clearly unless the fight is very close together, which is ok if it's human vs human but against the computer, you're disadvantaged by an algorithm process that negates the need to be able to see clearly. In 1 vs 1, the game is a lot of fun and the sheer size, scale and scope is remarkable for an arcade game to the point that I'd like to see it redeveloped, though once you add more weapons etc, you're looking at games that already exist. Certainly an overlooked game and if you find one of them around, play it, you won't be disappointed in the entertainment.

C64 Desert Fox

While military simulations have not really been my interest, I thought it'd be prudent to dig up another "classic" from the C64 era. I don't tend to enjoy strategy games for the most part as I consider Chess to be one of the most perfect forms of the strategy system, one on one mental combat with specific rules and situations. Unlike more modern strategy games where it's a random number generator that determines how a single solitary individual can take on and defeat a whole army thanks to high rolls of the dice. Yep, your entire army can be Arnold Schwarzenegger’d out of existence thanks to several 6's rolling up.

Thankfully Desert Fox strictly speaking, isn't a strategy simulation. It has elements of it but most of the combat and victory is down to the player being able to play fairly well (and on Grandmaster, VERY well).

The game is a simulation of the World War 2 tank conflict in the African campaign between the Desert Rats and the Desert Fox. Or more basically, The Allies and the Axis led by Rommel. Interestingly enough, it doesn't involve Hitler in game about WW2 fighting and combat, which is certainly not the route Wolfenstein took.

Brief (and pointless) history lesson aside that could be easily disregarded thanks to any form of actual research, you're tasked with guiding the Allies into capturing key depots and either fighting or avoiding Rommel himself in his tank. Who basically serves as a boss fight and a fairly tough one, too.

The game itself is split into 2 modes, a practice and a campaign. The practice lets you run through short versions of the arcade section ranging from shooting down Stukka planes, combating Tiger tanks, traversing minefields, avoiding canyon ambushes and escorting a convoy against a series of bombers engaged in aerial combat. Most of the game is played through the eyes of the tank itself, giving it a generally first person view for such an old game and added a little extra "you're THERE" factor.

As you take on the events, you'll sustain damage from the Stukkas should you fail to shoot them down, take hits from Tiger tanks running back and forth on the horizon while they approach steadily, take mines to the treads and get hit by ambush attacks. The convoy interestingly is more about trying to get as many trucks through the bombardment by shooting down the red planes and not the green planes in a mode akin to Hyper Sports skeet shooting, two guns with left and right to fire either of them and the targets aim themselves, more a test of reflexes than anything else.

The campaign brings all this together. 5 steadily increasing challenges ranging from 3 locations to a whopping 6 locations that your tank will need to travel to in order to liberate the depots before their timers run out and the Axis win. Lose a single depot and it's game over. You can however send in one aerial support to boost that depot's timer. However... To get to the depot you'll have to travel towards it and once near enough, defeat specific events to progress. Your tank moves a set distance per "movement phase" and the radar can tell you the events leading up to the hopefully useful "Depot" in digitised speech no less. Liberating a depot quickly enough will boost your health and repair your tank while taking your sweet time will leave you with less health recovered. The other key issue in the game is Rommel who will steadily home in on you across the map symbolised by a red swastika sign. His advantage is that he'll keep moving while you're engaged in an event and come sometimes result in you winning an event to find he's there, ominous (and fucking hell it is ominous) music sounds and you're fighting the big man one on one.

He fights exactly like the Tiger tank scenario but takes 8 hits to down rather than 5, and moves like greased lightning with its arse on fire. Though you can still win the campaign without fighting him, but it's much more rewarding to take him on and go toe to toe with the toughest challenge in the game.

There's a lot of challenge within the game and even doing the shortest campaign can be either a breeze or a slaughter fest depending upon how fortunate you with Rommel. Avoiding is advised but who wants to do that when the big mean boss is there and you know you can defeat it? No wonder downfall happens a lot.

Most surprising, beyond the digitised speech, is just how nightmarish the game is when you either fight Rommel, lose the game or lose the convoy round, the music/ambience accompaniment is the virtual stuff of nightmare and the first few times you'll hear it, comes across as rather shocking to the ear. Later it just becomes sheer creepy or the stuff of nightmares.

Graphically the game is simple but effective, a lot of focus has gone into the first person tank moments and there's a lot of simplicity that allows for fairly smooth and fluid gameplay, though the Tiger Tanks switching so quickly back and forth is impossible but there's got to be some challenge in there somewhere, the particularly accurate will be shooting down the shells as they advance in a manner rather similar to Encounter's saucers shooting at the player.

The campaign mode and the game in general fall into the same situation as most arcade games, there's little random element in the game when it comes to the campaigns and the arcade sections. If you've found a way to beat the main game, you've likely found the same method will work every time unless you royally bollocks up some of the events leading to the depots. This is a shame because the game has a lot more potential if it could offer varying challenges (except in one game where Rommel turned up twice... oddly).

It's a recommended game however, though an instruction many for the campaign is SORELY needed as it's a very different set of functions to the events. Once you've gotten past this stumbling block, you've got yourself a very accessible and intriguing little entertainment for a while.