FOX n FORESTS Reviews
The reality is not many games are going to capture that nostalgic magic like Shovel Knight did, and this is a decent if unexceptional attempt at doing so.
FOX n FORESTS is a game with a few really great things going for it - including its charming story and mostly clever level design that puts its clever season-changing mechanic to good use. Unfortunately, a few aggressive flaws quickly sap the fun out of the entire experience, including forced backtracking; annoying one-hit-kill autoscrollers out of nowhere; and its overall short playtime. It's difficult to recommend the game overall, but it might be worth it for hardcore retro platformer fans.
All in all, Fox n Forests is a competent platformer that holds plenty of potential. Unfortunately, the game’s over-reliance on the season gimmick and heavy influence from the past makes it fall short of being anything more than average.
The frustration with Fox n Forests comes from boring repetition and a lazy approach to progression. It’s a shame – there are unique mechanics at play and some pretty fun platforming. The game just doesn’t hold up to keep players around for long.
Another love letter to 16-bit era is enjoyable thanks to the changing of seasons, but that's all.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
FOX n FORESTS has plenty of creative platforming and interesting mechanics.
Fox n Forests isn't for everyone – it feels more like a game development experiment that resulted in a nice bite-size nostalgia trip and was released just for fun.
FOX n FORESTS brings a classic 16-bit platformer environment to the Nintendo Switch with a very good audiovisual environment and an interesting gameplay mechanic when it comes to changing weather seasons. The experience ends up getting harmed by controls that feel too heavy at times and the repetitiveness that is imposed on the player to finish the level goes too far, making this a too short adventure for its own good.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Fox n Forests can't be faulted for its fantastically accurate portrayal of 16-bit platforming; very few indie games have managed to nail the look and sound of the SNES so well. Its season-changing gimmick also makes for some inventive moments. Where it lets itself down is in its fiddly controls and its short length, which combine to make a game that's merely good when it could have been great.
Fox n Forests delivers a religious hommage to the 16-bit era platformers, with satisfying big sprites, pixelart backgrounds, but also loose collisions and a mad respawn system. Its numerous upgrades add a nice touch to the adventure, but serves as a weak excuse to revisit the same stages over and over. This is particularly infortunate, because Fox n Forests still has nice aces up its sleeve, like specific controls and shoot'em up stages.
Review in French | Read full review
Fox n Forests is impressive in its authentic SNES visuals, sound, and gameplay.
Fox n Forests has some issues but I can’t say the game isn’t enjoyable. The two flying stages in the game are pretty annoying since you die in one hit, but at least they give a good amount of checkpoints. You do have to spend gold to use them throughout the game, but its not enough to make it annoying. The melee combat is a bit finicky. It seems to kinda work when it wants to at times, when you get the spread arrows it pretty much fixes this issues but its annoying at the start of the game. I think the most glaring issue with this title is its length. You can beat the entire game in around 5 hours and collect everything in around 7. This makes the $19.99 price tag a bit hard to digest, but if you love 16 bit adventures and Metroidvania style titles, you’d likely find a lot to enjoy here.
The justification for badgercide aside, Fox ‘n’ Forests is another of those indie titles that, while a faithful and enjoyable homage to their subject material, also isn’t going to blow anyone away or change anyone’s mind. Whereas Shovel Knight kept what worked from retro games and threw out what didn’t, Fox brings over slightly too much in the name of nostalgia and ends up with a few rough edges
Fox N Forests isn't going to be an instant classic. The constant need for backtracking for little level deviation can sometimes turn the game into a slog, the restricted move set can be bewildering, and the finicky controls can be infuriating. The game nails the look and feel of an old 16-bit game quite well, while the platforming is solid and the boss fights are enjoyable. It's fun enough that retro fans should give it a chance.
The somewhat restrictive nature of the controls of FOX n FORESTS, coupled with the lengthy stages where death means sitting multiple times through the same section, keep it from being the glowing homage to the 16-bit era and the SNES, in particular, that its fantastic soundtrack and awesome graphical design would have otherwise allowed it to be. Nevertheless, what is on offer here is still well worth checking out, if only for one heck of a nostalgia trip to the first half of the 1990s.
Although the gameplay starts out far stiffer than it should and the upgrade system feels more like a grind than anything else, FOX n FORESTS manages to carry itself with particularly strong level design and a unique season shifting mechanic. Being able to switch the season of each stage on the fly leads to dynamic platforming scenarios and Rick's move-set later on turns him into a fluid and enjoyable character to play as. With several secrets to uncover in each stage and a risk versus reward checkpoint system, FOX n FORESTS comes off a creative action platformer with a strong identity of its own.
A lovingly crafted 16-bit platformer for fans of Wonderboy and Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, Fox n Forests has enough style and addictive side-scrolling gameplay to ultimately outweigh its structural flaws.
Any initial excitement is washed away within the first hour or two, giving way to repetition, boredom and often complete frustration. Extinction had great potential but sadly comes up way short.
Fox n Forests is still a fun platformer in the end, even if it does hold itself well short of greatness.
With old-school design comes both nostalgia and frustration. It knows that and it's surprisingly proud of that. It's clearly made with a lot of love for the genre. If you're nostalgic for such games too, there's really not much to dislike, but neither is there anything new to behold.