Rick the fox is on the hunt for a tasty dinner and spies Patty the partridge sitting on a rock in the forest. She tells him she tastes horrible and he definitely shouldn’t eat her, then asks him to fight some monsters in exchange for some treasure. Seeing the potential for riches and a partridge dinner, Rick agrees. She takes him to the Season Tree, a once powerful entity who is now old and useless. The ‘evil green-eyed horde’ has taken over the forest and is trying to bring about some sort of fifth season. The tree gives Rick a magic crossbow and asks him to find four pieces of magic bark while collecting magic seeds to open up new parts of the forest. It might sound like we’ve explained the premise really badly there, but that’s exactly how the game begins.
Fox N Forests is the first game from German developers Bonus Level Entertainment. A 16-bit-inspired platformer with a few light RPG mechanics and an emphasis on exploration, it looks and sounds incredibly authentic and could easily pass for a long lost SNES original. Rick is able to buy new attacks and upgrade existing ones, purchase items to extend his life points and mana bar, and acquire potions that enable him to perform special attacks. All items cost a combination of gold and collectables, which are found throughout the game world.
There are four levels, each based on a season, consisting of three stages including a boss fight. Levels are huge with multiple paths to take, but not every route will be accessible straight away. Weapons earned from bosses are needed to unlock alternate areas, so you’ll be revisiting each level more than once if you plan on finishing the game. A certain amount of magic seeds are needed to unlock each of the main levels, and these can be incredibly well-hidden in some cases. Almost too well-hidden at times, especially when you’ve been running around the same level looking for one final seed for much longer than you might have wanted.
FNF’s main gimmick in its season mechanic, where Rick is able to change season to alter his surroundings. Switch to winter to send angry bees to sleep, summer to make new climb branches appear, that sort of thing. Each level offers the opportunity to change between two seasons, but it feels like if all four were available there might have been potential for some inventive puzzle solving.
Revisiting the same levels multiple times does become a little repetitive, and the endless search for collectables often feels directionless. Fox N Forests is a more than serviceable platformer but doesn’t quite hit the highs of the games it was inspired by. Maybe not recommended for anyone new to retro platformers, but those looking for a throwback to keep them entertained for a few hours will likely be pleased enough to see this through to the end.
FOX N FORESTS / DEVELOPER: BONUS LEVEL ENTERTAINMENT / PUBLISHER: EUROVIDEO MEDIEN / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
