game eater blog

Only the Japanese ROM is included, but fortunately the differences are minor (the profiles for Bernard White, Professor Ching and Danny & Demi are different, the title is displayed in Katakana on the title screen and cutscenes have Japanese subtitles on the side of the screen) and the game is otherwise entirely in English. No special Preference Settings this time.

Mr. Acme... A shadowy individual, shrouded in mystery. They have concocted a scheme, a plot... And a few killings. He's hired seven contract killers to take out seven prestigious art collectors but, curiously, he's also hired each of those killers to kill each other for a handsome fee (paid in Swiss Francs, of course). These are no ordinary assassins though- John Smith (the man who would do anything from babysitting to agitating a revolution for money), Betty Doe (a businesswoman who, among other things, is a hitwoman), Bernard White (a bio-scientist with hands made of steel), Eve (a fading starlet-turned-thief with a pet lizard), Professor Ching (a master of the Chinese martial arts in a killer wheelchair), Dweeb (a monkey) and Danny & Demi (a pair of murderous children) are all prepared to use any weapons available- guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, fruit baskets, hot soup- to survive. They don't need to just watch out for their enemy though- the arenas they fight in, from a skyscraper falling apart due to a wired explosive, a fishing boat in the choppiest waters, and even the circus, are full of hazards, traps and dangers themselves, and they might be unrecognisible by the time they're through. What is Mr. Acme's endgame? Only one of the assassins will find out, but before they get there, they have one instruction: kill your enemy by any means!  

Well, well, well. I didn't think this would happen- I, like others, figured that the violence against children would mean it'd never get rereleased- but here it is. Thirty years after its arcade release, The Outfoxies is finally at home. Probably the most requested Namco game for Arcade Archives, maybe even the most requested game full-stop, if you know about this game, then you know what the deal is. It's tempting to call it a Smash Bros. progenitor, but it plays quite a bit differently, with a much larger focus on stages that are either constantly changing or adding new hazards or just throwing you off your feet. Is it balanced? Oh hell no. Is it fun? Oh hell yes, it's a game you can pick up immediately and have fun playing whether against the CPU (who does, admittedly, start to cheat but the Acme Mansion stage is worth it) or a friend, and the presentation is immaculate. There are two issues worth pointing out though. First, the camera moves around a lot and this can induce motion sickness in some people, but there's no real way around that unfortunately (I'm lucky that it doesn't affect me even though I can't use VR for more than 5 seconds without wanting to throw up, but I know not everyone is so lucky). Second, there's no online play, which is disappointing but expected. I'm just happy we have a version of this at home at long last. If you want to know more, this Bluesky thread translates parts of the Hamster stream with the revelation that the game was partly inspired by Ghosts 'n Goblins (!) and was made after the director had to work on a string of quiz games (!!). Also, I wrote about The Outfoxies in 2008 (I got to it first, give me retro gamer cred please) and while this article is very, very old, I've updated it a little to bring it up more up to code, but it's more a playthrough than more usual long articles, so it'll be a bit different. Anyway, play The Outfoxies.