The Outfoxies – Outfoxing console no more

Year: 1995 | Publisher: Namco | Developer: Namco | Original format: Arcade | Version played: Arcade/Nintendo Switch 2

I can’t remember the first time I played The Outfoxies, but it definitely wasn’t in an arcade. In fact, I’ve never seen a single coin-op version of this game in thirty years. Anyone who says they played it on release is either very lucky or very lying. Emerging at a time when 3D fighters were all the rage, and traditional 2D fighters were about to reach their zenith, The Outfoxies probably seemed at once outdated, outmoded and, well, just too out there.

Like just about everyone else, I only discovered The Outfoxies about a decade later, via emulation. I may have played it on one of those awesome modded Xboxes loaded with Mame and hundreds of roms. I’m not sure. But I do distinctly remember playing it when I worked on gamesTM magazine in the late 2000s. The impressive sprite work of The Outfoxies, its giant scaling levels and outlandish sprites, like a massive whale in the centre of one stage, made a single screenshot a prime candidate for a full double-page-spread in the mag, showing off Namco’s incredible artistry while also showing off our obscure games knowledge.

Of course, we’d also have to play the game to get such screenshots and that always felt like a treat. By this point in history, those in the know had already identified The Outfoxies not just as a cult classic but also as an evolutionary predecessor to Smash Bros. As an arena fighter with platforming elements, tons of weapons to pick up and, on some stages, the ability to knock your opponent flying off the map, the similarities between Namco’s obscure arcade game and Nintendo’s phenomenal hit are easy to see.

But in the context of 1995, I prefer to think of The Outfoxies in lineage with some other relatively obscure 2D games of the decade. The level design, dramatic destruction and character movement strongly resemble Taito’s Elevator Action Returns which had released in arcades the year before and is somewhat better remembered due to a 1997 Saturn port and several modern re-issues. It also reminds me of Human Entertainment’s 1993 SNES platformer SOS/Septentrion, which asked the player to escape a sinking ship while the console’s “Mode 7” effects tilted the environment, creating both spectacle and dynamic challenge.

This game design evolution at the heart of The Outfoxies is what truly makes it special. As a one-on-one fighting game, its core gameplay is relatively simple. You only have one single attack button, which is context sensitive depending on your position and weapon, but it’s the level design that truly elevates the game to riotous levels of fun.

One stage sees you fight on and inside a giant warplane, flying through the air. If you fall off, helicopters will catch you and fly you back up. There’s a mounted turret you can climb into and shoot. You can even pilot the plane, causing it to tip wildly and send your opponent rolling toward the exit or an exploding grenade.

There’s a moving train stage, in which you can fight inside the carriages or run along the top, billowing clouds of steam and passing trees obscuring your view at high speed and leaving you open to unseen attacks.

The aforementioned aquarium stage with the whale at its centre is incredible. At one point the structure starts to give way. Platforms fall and smash, fish tanks burst causing water to flow and carry you with it, eventually flooding the stage and unleashing killer sharks around you. The whale itself soon drops from its holdings and is skewered on the trident of a large gold statue.

These moments aren’t just technically impressive visual flourishes. They significantly impact the flow of battle and ensure that each match remains dramatic and unpredictable. Nothing stays the same for very long, which, when you first play, makes The Outfoxies very exciting. It’s no wonder that the few people who have played it over the past three decades have fallen in love with it and been crying out for some kind, any kind, of re-release.

I daresay that until this year, The Outfoxies was the best arcade game to have never been reissued in any form. I have no idea why that is. Digital distribution, retro collections, mini consoles, scale replica arcade machines, Evercade… There are so many ways The Outfoxies could have been brought back, but it’s been repeatedly overlooked until this week when Hamster finally gave the people (or at least the people I follow in Bluesky) what they wanted, with a surprise Arcade Archives release.

Of course, I bought it the minute it was available. I wanted to send a clear signal to Hamster and Namco that The Outfoxies was very much wanted, but most of all I just wanted to play it and, to be specific, play it in multiplayer…

I took the Switch 2 round to a friend’s house. The same friend I used to play games with at school. Back then we’d spend dozens of hours playing the best multiplayer games we could get our hands on… Street Gangs, Secret Of Mana, GoldenEye… And we’re still playing multiplayer games today. Usually co-op games these days, but competitive games still get a look in now and then. We set the Switch 2 up in tabletop mode and huddled round the tiny screen for a few games and instantly the laughs came. Laughs at how silly some of the characters are – a monkey in a top hat, a woman with a pet lizard that will literally take a bullet for her, a guy in a robotic wheelchair with an arm that can pick him up and use his body as a weapon and, er, a bloke called John Smith.

More importantly the laughs came in those dynamic moments each level throws at you, which can decisively turn the table of battle, and in the desperate moments when either of us could win if only we could land a lucky shot or, indeed, outfox the other. It felt like being 13 again.

When my friend went to the bathroom, I played a little of The Outfoxies alone against the CPU. It was still fun, but nowhere near as much so. The next day at work, I roped a colleague into playing with me and confirmed for sure. The Outfoxies really does have that same quality that Smash Bros does, making it infinitely more fun to play against real people. If only the Arcade Archives release included an on online mode!

But then I discovered something I’d never realised before… There is a single stage of The Outfoxies you will never see if you only play in multiplayer mode. It’s the final stage of the game, and it’s a pretty special one. Rather than a one-on-one fight in an arena, it plays out more like a scripted platform game as you pursue the boss from the bottom to the top of the stage, overcoming the traps he sets for you every step of the way. When you reach the top, there’s a fun little twist I didn’t see coming and more great set-pieces as the boss tries to make his escape. The entire stage is yet another moment of drama from this surprising game and really makes it worth playing through on your own.

I love that a game as old as this can still surprise me, and I love that this long awaited reissue has not only revived the game for those awaiting it, has not just made itself infinitely more discoverable by being available on modern consoles, but also as a multiplayer game on a portable system it can now be easily introduced, in-person, to people who might also love it and laugh along with you as they play. Exactly like it should have done in the arcades back in 1995, if only any of us knew it existed.

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