Written by Tanner Banks, July 26, 2016, at 1:19 p.m.
The seasons change in a cycle of winter, spring, summer, and fall. One after the other, leading and following, ad infinitum. In the 2D action-platformer Fox n Forests, you have the chance to take that cycle into your hands.
Filled with adventure and puzzles, the team behind the game, Bonus Level Entertainment, is committed to offering “pixel perfect Retrotainment.”
Fox n Forests is Retrotainment
Inspired by 16 bit classics like Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts, Wonder Boy in Monster World, and ActRaiser 2 as well as the Castlevania and Zelda series, Fox n Forests plans to blend the greatness of the past with the convenience of the present.
Retro games are a tricky business. If a game is only retro in art style, or name, it is seen as a lazy marketing gimmick. If it goes too retro, it will alienate a large portion of potential players.
The trailer indicates that Bonus Level Entertainment is gearing up to hit that sweet spot. Keeping lost icons of gaming yore like cheat codes, parallax scrolling, and catchy chip tunes, while eliminating the need to blow into your cartridge.
Detailed Visuals
For the art style, the game has a Saturday morning cartoon feeling. The character designs have a consistent look and the magical setting lends itself well to the forestry shown in the trailer.
The backgrounds are beautiful to look at, and really stole the show. The colors all pop off the screen, and the fact that the environment changes with the game as you change the seasons really adds to it all. The music is a catchy take on chip tunes that add to the game without distracting from the gameplay.
The main character, Rick the Fox, has a sweet design that reminds me of the Playstation 2 mascot, Sly Cooper. With a bayonet-equipped crossbow, Rick’s design is one badass pixelated fox.
Intriguing Gameplay
Gameplay is where this game really looks to shine. The best games from the SNES and Genesis era were always chock full of stuff besides the core gameplay. Fox n Forests promises to be filled to capacity for its September 2017 launch. The team is advertising the game to contain”platforming, screen filling bosses, rich bonus levels, powerful potions, bags of loot, stuffed shops, clever backtracking, challenging skill tests, a magic melee crossbow to shoot and slash enemies, upgradeable shots, not 4 but 5 seasons to explore”
The thing that interests me the most is the seasonal mechanic. It looks like there is a base season for each level, and the bar at the top of the screen shows the two seasons you can change to, and for how long. As you maintain your place in the original season, the bar will fill back up.
The mention of a fifth season is extremely intriguing. What would that fifth season look like? Maybe it will be a mix of the four seasons. Maybe it will involve gold raining from the sky. Probably not, but the foreign concept of a fifth season is exciting.
Final Thoughts
Because of the fantasy setting, the game will have a difficult task of differentiating itself. There have been dozens, maybe hundreds of generic fantasy platforming games in the past. While that danger exists for Fox n Forests, I doubt it will fall into such a pitfall.
Next Level Entertainment is an indie studio with big name experience. With big developer experience including Deep Silver, Midway, THQ, Gameforge, and more these developers have tasted big time success and are ready to bring that to Fox n Forests.
Get ready to out-fox the enemy next September when Fox n Forests rolls around.
