Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge

"You've avoided this title every time you've been in the game store. Next time, just buy it."

Fur Fighters has been a bargain bin game for a long time now. In fact, it's likely that by the time you read this review, Fur Fighters will only be available from second-hand game stores. This would truly be a shame. For the money, Fur Fighters is an excellent buy, and here's why:

Story
The Fur Fighters are six stuffed animals who live in Fur Fighter Village. One day, they discover all of their babies had been kidnapped. The six animals form a posse to recover their children from the evil General Viggo, who has sworn to take over the planet with his army of stupid and very persistent henchbears. And so the game begins.

The quest will take you through many crazy, intricate and large worlds as you slowly tear down Viggo's empire. You are led by the ghost Bristol, a walrus who met an untimely at the hands of our villain. You will occasionally run into Sgt. Sternhouser, a rather annoying personal trainer (think Arnold Schwarzenegger) who will load you up on supplies so long as you successfully complete his training exercises.

Sound stupid? It would be, except the various story elements are so well scripted that you may just find yourself getting into the story. It is perfectly appropriate for the type of game Acclaim was trying to create. 8/10

Game Play
The premise behind Fur Fighters is simple. Shoot, snipe, bomb, blast, deep freeze and incinerate every creature on the screen who is trying to do the same to you. During the course of the game, your characters will have acess to an arsenal of weapons. Along the way, you pick up gold tokens, which will eventually unlock a cheat if you collect them all (a very difficult feat!).

Your objective is to save all of the babies that were kidnapped from Fur Fighter Village. The babies are very loyal to their parents, and only a specific Fur Fighter can complete an individual rescue. This brings me to another feature of game play involving teleporters. Any time you see a teleporter, you can summon the character waiting in it. It is necessary to do this in order to solve the myriad of puzzles.

Fur Fughters blends first-person action with problem-solving scenarios. When I first purchased this game, I thought perhaps it was geared toward a younger demographic, but now, I'm not so sure. This game is challenging, even for the experienced gamer. It is also very original, which makes an already addictive game that much better.

Beware of glitches, however! I encountered a bug in the last world that prevented me from finishing the game. Find an FAQ on this game, and it will talk about the death/token bug. There is one board you can only get past by collecting all of the tokens (tokens are optional everywhere else). In the very unlikely event you get caught by this bug, you may as well start from the beginning. (Hint: when you get to this board - and you'll know it - copy your game) 8/10

Controls
Though most of the controller buttons are used, Acclaim programmers did a good job of not making the controls too complicated. Occasionally I found myself using the wrong weapon, and it's no fun being sniped by hidden bad guys. But I guess the sniping adds an element of reality to a very surreal game, and most single hits don't hurt that much anyway.

Strafing and performing various acrobatics are easy once you get the hang of the game. The obstacle course in the beginning is perfect to get you up to speed. All in all, this is a definite strength of Fur Fighters. 10/10

Visuals
I don't much care for cel-shading, but it was appropriate considering the cartoon-like nature of this game. The scenery was Ok. Textures did the trick, but generally I wasn't blown away. Fur Fighter's graphics certainly didn't take anything away from the game play. Not bad - not great - but not bad. 6/10

Sound
Again, looking at the cartoony nature of this game, I would have to say the sound elements were outstanding! The music was very fitting for the game, and well-orchestrated at that. I loved the sound effects and character voices. The accents of the six characters were hilarious! Don't mute this game! 9/10

Replay
I'm a bit soured by my glitch experience. Had it occurred during the first couple of worlds, I might have started over, but in the final stage, after many hours of game play, I just couldn't bring myself to go through it again.

This is a shame, for I think it would be a lot of fun to play through the game a second time testing the cheats and searching for the elusive final tokens.

I ended up selling the game about four months ago. Now, I find myself wishing I still had it. I would probably consider playing it from the beginning if I had the chance. Instead, I think I'll wait for the sequel. Here's hoping... 7/10

Overall

Good entertainment, great price. Add this one to your collection. 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/03, Updated 02/06/03