Psycho Fox

Here's a rather obscure game for the Master System, one that has quite a cult following under its belt. The status of this title depends primarily on your love or hatred of the Master System. I love that little system to death, but I'm not particularly a fan of this game. Let's discuss, shall we?

Psycho Fox is yet another platformer that doesn't really know which direction it wanted to go. It could have been a solid platformer if Sega didn't try to include the fast paced speed which to can travel, or it could have been a fast paced action game had it omitted the meticulously placed enemies which require a slower pace to kill. The two problems I had with this character were the way he moved through the levels, and his action animations. The speed factor I mentioned doesn't play out very well, as you usually accidentally get going very fast and cannot time platform jumping at all. Aside from the jumping, you almost always land on or run right into an enemy and lose health as a result.

The animations here are also a little half-assed. Psycho Fox punches his enemies, but instead of having the character change stances to throw a punch, you simply see an arm suddenly protrude from his left side. It looks more like a third arm suddenly appears from his side rather than seeing his left arm actually do anything. It is a rather short arm too, so you have to get pretty close to an enemy to execute your attack.

Along your travels, you can meet up with a parasitic bird ally you can use as a projectile. The bird attaches itself to you until you press the action button that throws him, and he eventually flies back to you.

You also posses the ability to transform into other animals such as hippos, monkeys, and tigers, which give you various advantages like higher jumps and even faster speed. When the speed itself is an issue to begin with, having even greater speed is no real picnic.

This game had some interesting and innovative ideas, especially considering when it came out. Overall, sadly, it just doesn't feel like a completely cohesive game. This title is a little hard to find unless you go the route of the emulator. It is also interesting to see how many hacked versions of this thing are floating around out there. I've seen the fox represented by character models ranging from Sonic, to Pikachu, to Link. They're neat to see, but don't give the game any more of a fun-factor.