"A tasty mixture"

So, what exactly is the first thing that pops in your mind when you think about games that combine two or more genres? Chances are that it is something about being necessarily mediocre. We all know this – something tries too much to be successful and ends up being laughable effort. So, when I saw Solar Fox for the first time and I realized that it is a combination of Pac-Man and a typical space shooter I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. After all it sounds like a marketing department dream – the game with elements of the hottest games found in 1981 arcade saloons. But if you put away all the prejudices and just start playing you are going to be surprised. Not only didn't this game fall into a trap of being mediocre copy of its base of inspiration but it appears to be one of the most original game concepts of the year it was released. Let me say something about the graphics and sound first because these are less important aspects of this gem.

The graphics is simple yet effective – it is not the best looking game of 1981 but it certainly doesn't look ugly or funny even today because of one important factor – it doesn't try to be very realistic. In fact if you tried to ask anyone about what is presented here on the screen you probably would get an answer with the word ‘something' serving as the main noun. The game maintains this simplistic, abstract charm – the play field is a very dark, almost unnoticeable grid you move on and everything look rather original. On a side note, the cabinet graphics (which is pretty nice) depicts a very good looking feminine character as the main protagonist – it might be considered as a revolutionary in a sense – the woman as a space pilot, even before Samus Aran!

The sound isn't terrific but has got pretty nice stereo effects of shooting and explosions, nothing sampled though. There is no music in the background but I think it only adds to this specific, abstract setting.

Now, to the game-play. The screen is a rectangular board with a grid. On every border there are turrets which move and shoot arrow looking objects, the arrows move in a straight line, horizontally or vertically, depending on the turret they where shot from. Your ship also moves only horizontally or vertically, and like in Pac-Man you can't stop. Your main task is to collect every fuzor on the screen. What's a fuzor? It is the thing you collect, there is no more info about it (it's a nice nonsense word by the way). When you manage to do that you proceed to the next level (or a ‘rack' as it is called in the game). So, what's the challenge? The difficult part is that the four turrets shoot simultaneously and it is sometimes hard to dodge every arrow. The cool part is that you can shoot it. In fact you can also shoot the turrets itself, immobilizing them for a couple of seconds. So there goes the other part of the game-play – the shooter inspired part. It is pretty unorthodox though because the shooting is there only to help you, you don't have to do it at all – the main task is to collect fuzors. In the later levels the game throws more obstacles (or baits) on you – you might be tempted to collect other objects for the points or be forced to avoid whirlpools which whirl you for a while, making you an easy target for the turrets. The time also plays a certain role. If you manage to collect all the fuzors in a given time you can skip a level – there is no penalty for playing slow and methodically, only a reward for being fast. There are two modes of difficulty – a rather rare sight in arcade games – you can choose between slow movement with an option of speeding with the button or a fast movement in which case the button serves as the brake.

I have to say that I highly recommend this game. It is a great arcade, reflex game that hasn't been remade thousands times so it is really fresh even after so many years. The graphics and sound are simple but it shouldn't pose a problem even for aesthetically inclined because of the not realistic approach of the designers. Great game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/05