What? Ah ok, wrong Vixen...
Welcome to the Planet Granath, where the people live in fear, FEAR I tell you, of the dinosaurs that dominate the land. I imagine they were there first, honestly bloody human immigrants; I’m phoning the Daily Mail.
But stop, don’t pack up and leave just yet, as a powerful lone female dressed only in a bikini with big 80s blonde hair will save us. She was abandoned as a child and raised by a pack of foxes. No come back, this was no ordinary bunch of mangy old hounds, they were magical foxes and The Vixen (let’s call her Vicky) is bestowed with mystic powers! You know, that old story.
You may remember this game for the box art and included poster of Page 3 Stunnah Corinne Russell. She was sort of the Sophie Howard of her time, kids. I had the Spectrum version of it originally and seeing it again has brought back memories of hormone charged adolescence. However, I really couldn’t recall the game at all.
It’s not hard to work out why; it’s pretty much a slow Rygar clone with you as the titular character running along whipping baddies and collecting stuff. Vicky can also pick up fox head tokens concealed within hanging pendulous orbs and if you grab enough of them by the end of the level, she will transform into a fox (ah… hence the name Vixen!). This gets you behind the velvet rope into an underground section where there are no enemies and Vicky can collect more bling and trinkets which act as multipliers: increasing scores above ground and makes her whip more powerful. Whip it. Whip it good!
We are once again in the land of Atari ST ports I reckon, so the scrolling is a bit arthritic and graphics whilst far from super shiny, just about get away with it. Vicky herself is nicely animated if a bit of a dog to play with, with some fairly unresponsive controls. This is not helped by the Amiga's single fire button meaning as per usual, pressing up on the stick to jump. Also annoyingly when you fall into the water (which happens a lot) the game plonks you right on the edge of the platform from which you fell, which usually ends up with Vicky accidently taking another bath of death and losing another of her ten lives.
Oddly the leopard skin outfit and high-heels so nicely modeled by Ms. Russell on the box must have been in the wash when it came to the game as Vicky flounces around in a loud blue number with bright red boots. Honestly, she wouldn’t last two minutes in the jungle with that wardrobe: Ray Mears she isn’t. The sound is basic and repetitive but just about bearable with some nice bongos.
It was a fairly uninspiring play back in ’88 and it very much still is. It’s a simple 8-bit game with ideas well above its station. A similar game, 'Shadow of the Beast' released only a year later, is such a huge quantum leap ahead in all aspects making this look like a cave painting. However, it is playable for a short while, nice to pass some time with but far from anything special.
In fact, much like when I 15, I enjoyed looking at the box than playing the game...
Just spotted these... do more!
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