Title: FOX n FORESTS
Platform: PC (Reviewed), Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG
Developer: Bonus Level Entertainment, Independant Arts Software
Publisher: EuroVideo Medien
Release Date: May 17, 2018
FOX n FORESTS is something of a strange beast, to me. It’s something of a melange of different games, tied up in a single package. It’ll probably trigger anyone’s retro sensibilities, too.
Story and Characters
FOX n FORESTS keeps things relatively simple. You’ve got Rick the fox, who wants to eat Patty Partridge. She, naturally, doesn’t want to be eaten, so she cooks up a scheme to get Rick to do all the dirty work in saving the forest.
To do that, he needs to get several pieces of bark from the Tree of seasons back from the jerks that stole it and threw the seasons of the forest into chaos.
It keeps things basic, true to the 8- and 16-bit era games it takes after.
Gameplay
Within the first few minutes of starting, Rick gets the Magic Melee Crossbow, which is roughly half of everything he can do in the game.
It’s got upgrades for the bayonet, it can fire magic arrows. It is your primary means of combat, and it can only be fired while stationary. If you’re jumping, you use a slashing attack, which you can only use on the ground by pressing up or down.
Because this isn’t taking after Mega Man, no; it’s taking after Ghosts ‘n Goblins as the name might have tipped you off. Granted, it’s far more forgiving difficulty-wise, but still.
You can get some new moves as well, such as an attack for your double jump (which really felt like it should’ve been there by default), ad the ability to stomp through certain blocks.
There are also potions which have a variety of effects. All of them can be bought in the hub area. Well, except the magic arrows. You earn those.
You also have the ability to change the season of the area you’re in. If you’re in a Summery area, it changes to Winter. If things are lush and green, it becomes Fall.
It’s necessary to move on and find hidden items. That said, changing the season uses up your mana bar, so there’s a finite amount of time you can leave a season changed.
Each “Season” has a total of four stages: Two normal stages, one boss, and a bonus stage. And that last one is where the contention begins. If you want to unlock the bonus stage you have to find all of the magic seeds in the two normal stages.
You can’t do that first time through; fair enough. But you’ll still have to wait a fairly long time to actually hunt down those seeds, because they all seem to require stuff from later seasons. In general, It would be best if getting everything required only what you could get in that set of levels, but that’s just my opinion.
Graphics
The graphics are as 16-bit as they can be. Just starting the game reminded me of days gone where I’d power up my Sega Genesis and play one of those Capcom Disney games or the like. The spritework does its job beautifully. The game is delightfully vibrant.
Sound
Much like with the graphics, the sound is, itself, evocative of that early 90’s era. None of it would be out of place back then. They also did an excellent job with the sound effects. And every song is just delightful enough, without carving out its own place in your skull to take residence.
Controls
The controls are, well, exactly as you’d expect for this type of game. They can, however, be little bit to tight at times. I can’t be exactly certain as to the cause, but I’ve taken a few unexpected hits over it. Still, the controls feel good overall.
In Summation
FOX n FORESTS is an excellent retro-like game, The developers achieved everything they set out to do. It can get a little back-tracky, especially early on, but that’s not really a mark against it. I feel it to be a game deserving of recommendation.
“Though there are a few nitpicks to be found, FOX n FORESTS is a solid Action-RPG Platformer that deserves a place in your library.”
Final Score:
4.5/5
*We were provided a copy of this game for review*
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