EDITOR'S NOTE:
Excuse our dust. The original article on The Outfoxies on this site was written in 2008, back when this site was full of longplay-style articles, Angry Video Game Nerd-style humour and poor research practices. For God's sake, one of the original links here was just to a picture of a Daruma on Wikipedia! Like, not even an article about Darumas! How did we last long enough to get good at this?! Ahem. What we have here is a slight compromise for the Arcade Archives release of the game, to strike while the iron's hot- we've gone back and cleaned up a lot of this article (in particular removing a claim from Tim Rogers' Action Button Dot Net site that the game was made by Namco's Rolling Thunder team, which is of couse completely untrue and absolute bullshit), added a little info on the Arcade Archives release and brought it up to code as best we can. However, at the time of writing this, we're catsitting so we don't have access to all our normal equipment. This page will be updated soon to further fix it up and add more animated GIFs, so please look forward to it. I guess.

In the savage time of the mid-to-late 1990s, before we had Hamster's Arcade Archives series to bring otherwise-unported arcade games to home consoles, arcade rats had to just hope that the game they liked playing at the local chip shop would somehow find its way home. In particular, around this timeframe there was a big clutch of arcade titles that would've been a bit too much for the 16-bit systems to bring home accurately, but not really 'next-gen' enough to justify a full release on the 32-bit consoles. Some games would get 16-bit ports anyway just because the name recognition would mitigate any downgrades in the porting process (look at the Lethal Enforcers ports to SNES and Mega Drive) but games like Metamorphic Force and Armored Warriors weren't so lucky, doomed to remain arcade-exclusive until many, many years and console generations later. Namco is a particularly interesting study in this regard, as their '80s output is basically always 'in-print' (although let's not talk about Ms. Pac-Man) and was being rereleased on Playstation via the Namco Museum series, but once you started getting into the '90s, you weren't so lucky. Sure, many of their 3D titles were bound to hit Sony's console (especially the ones on System 11 given how close it was to the Playstation hardware) but their 2D titles that the SNES and Mega Drive couldn't quite get, well, they weren't so lucky. Genuine classics like Tinkle Pit and Numan Athletics & Mach Breakers as well as cool oddities like Knuckle Heads and Emeraldia were too contemporary to be put in a museum, but too 2D to be seen as 'cutting edge' or worth the effort of a stand-alone port. At least, that's my educated guess, with me choosing to ignore the "other games in development" list seen in GameFan Vol. 3 Issue 8 since aside from the 'compilation disc' mentioned, none of the games in that paragraph got PS1 ports. Including the game we're looking at today... THE OUTFOXIES.



Released in arcades in 1995 (despite the copyright date, happens a lot with arcade games), The Outfoxies is an all-out slugfest in the form of a platform arena fighting game. Two people enter an volatile arena, you hear the cry of, "KILL YOUR ENEMY BY ANY MEANS!" and then only one leaves. Each player has a life bar with multiple colours- starting at green, then down to yellow, and finally to red, which leads to death when emptied. Last man / woman / monkey standing wins. Since each stage can be pretty big, the camera scales out where appropriate, using that funky scaling technology that was all the rage back in the 90s, although this does make screenshots sometimes difficult to discern afterwards... Still, whether you're up close or at opposite ends of the arena, it's all about the killin', because for these guys, killin' is their business... And business is good.

The story is presented in the attract mode, and goes a little something like this...

A mystery man called Mr. Acme contracted seven killers to assassinate seven world famous art collectors.
Oddly enough, each killer was also hired to eliminate the other six killers...
What is Mr. Acme's motive? What is in store for the survivor? Is it a large reward and the reputation as being the number one killer?

Seven deadly killers, seven deadly, uh, art collectors (this part of the plot never comes up again) and only one person pulling the strings behind the scene... Or is it? Now there's a set-up for a fight to the death! In the one-player mode, you take on each assassin in turn, with each being displayed on a TV screen before Mr. Acme gives you his instructions, telling you (in distorted speech) the location, the reward (in Swiss Francs) and that, of course, you should "PROCEED WITH CAUTION!". As a nice touch, each character has a different way of indicating victory- Betty switches the TV off, Dweeb changes the channel, and Bernard smashes the screen with his fist. Sweet.



The actual game itself feels like Rolling Thunder in terms of basic controls and mechanics but it's more sophisticated, even if it shares the same two-button layout, Shoot and Jump. Each killer can walk, run, jump, grab ledges, roll out of harm's way, swim and do some basic physical attacks including ones aimed upwards. The crux of the whole thing lies in two areas; first, the levels themselves, which we'll address on the next page, and second, the weapons. My stars, the weapons! Each stage is littered with them, and you pick them up by pressing Down, and you can switch out a weapon by just picking up another. Honestly, there's too many to cover individually- in fact, I probably didn't even pick up all of them while I played- but some of the things you can arm yourself with include pistols, machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades with a 7-second fuse, flame throwers, and weird stuff like lumps of coal, fruit baskets, hot soup... Yes, really. Even better, they can sometimes affect the stages- you can destroy certain barriers with grenades and the flame thrower can set fire to boxes and the floor, which results in your opponent having to stop, drop and roll to fan the flames out. Awesome.



Even before you actually start playing The Outfoxies, you know that something's a bit different about this particular game; the cast gives it away. They certainly seem to be a colourful bunch, definitely a step away from the standard fighting game roster of the time. The differences between the characters aren't really that pronounced at first glance- attack and defense strength, as well as the animations for their attacks are what stand out at first- but as explained in the ACA rerelease's manual, there's other things like running speed, the accuracy of their shots and other little details, so I've included them in the descriptions. Besides, you can't say they're an overly-generic bunch, they run the gamut from Guy Literally Called John Smith to Monke. Time for a rundown.

John Smith

Age: 38
Height: 5'11''
Weight: 177 lbs

 The man who would do anything from babysitting to agitating a revolution to get money.

Arena: Skyscraper

 The man who doesn't so much give an example of 'normal' but practically defines it, John Smith has a name so common it's often used as a placeholder pretty normal attire, and he looks like Harrison Ford. I think Namco were going for the 'All American hero' vibe here, but hilariously failed, as Johnny Boy here is wearing a daruma doll on his shirt (that you can buy a replica of nowadays). Unusual Japanese folklore aside, John Smith is a pretty standard character, willing to do anything- even babysitting- for money.

FUN BONUS FACT: His running attack looks like a Dragon Punch. Shoryuken!


Betty Doe


Age: 33
Height: 5'02''
Weight: 55 lbs

 A successful international business-woman who desperately needs capital to fund her several businesses.
Her diverse background includes being a former high paid hitwoman.

Arena: Seaside Aquarium

 Betty Doe is close enough to the placeholder name Jane Doe to count as being the lady equivalet of John Smith here. She's just a normal assassin, the 2P-Bob to John Smith's 1P-Bub but she's a bit more professional than ol' John Boy, meaning she has a much better aim when on stable ground, so shoot to kill!

FUN BONUS FACT: To make up for being generic enough to have a placeholder-ish name, she has one of the coolest stages in the game.


Bernard White


Age: 36
Height: 7'01''
Weight: 298 lbs

 A bio-tech engineer with super human strength.
An experiment resulted in him losing his hand.
He now has an artificial hand made of steel.

Arena: Rocky Mountain Train

 One of the only characters where you can definitely see a difference in power, probably because of that steel hand, Bernard is a very imposing adversary. As well has having very good range, his physical attacks hit a little harder than the other characters and he can take a bit more punishment too... But to be honest, is that really going to help you here when the enemy is packing weapons like rocket launchers and hot soup?!He's also a much larger target, so he can be hit a lot easier.

FUN BONUS FACT: He has some of the funniest animations in the game, including his run. Especially his run.


Eve


Age: 29
Height: 5'05''
Weight: 111 lbs

 A "has been" film starlet.
Now a thief to support her lavish lifestyle.
She has the skill to break into Nox Fortress with the aid of her well-trained lizard.

Arena: The Greatest Circus

 Uh, I think they were trying to say 'Fort Knox' with that description, but the rest is pretty accurate. It's at this point that the characters start to get a little more eccentric as that eye tattoo makes her stand out, as does her athleticism, she has better jumps than the rest of the cast. Her lizard does indeed join in the fight, and while it'll try to stay on her shoulder for most of it, it can take a bullet for Eve and wander around on its own.

FUN BONUS FACT: If they're separated, you can attack her pet lizard! He can't be killed, though.


Professor Ching


Age: 82
Height (No Wheelchair): 5'02''
Height with Wheelchair: 7'01''
Weight (No Wheelchair): 100 lbs
Weight with Wheelchair: 550 lbs

 The mysterious oriental scientist who rides on a killer wheel-chair he designed.
Though partially handicapped, he is a famous master of Chinese martial arts.

Arena: Weapons Factory

 That's a high-tech wheelchair he's got there, huh? He is a genius scientist after all, and he'll be throwing kicks left and right from that chair as well as using weapons and using the turbo boosters to get around quickly. The crane on the back of his killer chair gets used a lot too, from throwing himself into his enemies, grabbing weapons and ropes (plus, as pointed out by vigilant reader Jake, that wheelchair can also block bullets from behind, use this to your advantage).

FUN BONUS FACT: When he dies, his wheelchair explodes and takes him with it!


Dweeb


Age: 10
Height: 2'09''
Weight: 62 lbs

 The only known professional killer who works for bananas.
He is the kidnapped son of the famous TV star, world's most intelligent chimpanzee "Mr. Happy".

Arena: Airplane

 It's a chimp wearing a top-hat.

FUN BONUS FACT: He's also wearing a bow-tie.
He's a lousy shot though.


Danny & Demi


Age: 11
Danny's Height: 4'03''
Demi's Height: 4'04''
Danny's Weight: 77 lbs
Demi's Weight: 78 lbs


 The ex-Siamese twins, seperated by a train crush.
Besides being extremely intelligent, they both possess a sinister and criminal mind.

Arena: Fishing Boat

 Easily the stand-out characters in this game if you ask me, Danny and Demi are really quite worrying. In case you're thinking there's going to be some Ice Climber-esque shenanigans going on here, you'll be disappointed, as the two can't be separated (aside from, apparently, a train crush- their spelling not mine) and do everything together- when one's got the gun, the other's got their finger on the trigger (and they can carry two weapons at once), they both carry the rocket launcher, they even die together with one jumping on top of the other as their faces explode with blood. Ew!

FUN BONUS FACT: When you pick them as your character, Demi brings out what appears to be a huge whip. Oo-err!

With the cast out of the way, it's best to look at the levels now. There isn't any strict level order aside from the final boss, so I'm going to be dealing with each one in order of relative complexity, starting with the simpler stages, and ending with the more elaborate and intricate settings. Time for the instructions to come in from Mr. Acme... Let's play The Outfoxies!

I OFFER YOU 120,000 SWISS FRANCS TO GO TO THE NEXT PAGE