Felix: Tale of the Night

Beat'em Ups from the 1990's were one of my favorite genres of games. I couldn't get enough Final Fight in my life, and when Double Dragon's Billy and Jimmy came together with the Battletoads, I knew nothing else in my life would come close to that moment.

Felix: Tale of the Night (or "Felix Fox" as the game's artwork suggests), has grounded itself in the classic beat'em up style. Jump attacks, quick attacks, hard attacks, and even some blocking maneuvers are put to work in a great mixture of 2D and 3D platforming.

The game plays like your traditional left-to-right side scroller, but will have some elements where you run toward or away from the camera. These moments, unfortunately, aren't often obvious and you're left staring at wall wondering where to go next.

In the brawler classics, if you stood still for too long, a large arrow would traditionally pop up overhead, advising you to move forward! Felix Fox, meanwhile, left me to guess. No hints or arrows ever appeared. To make matters worse? Some of the level progression involved a skill you didn't know you had.

Felix can wall jump, this is made evident if you take part in the tutorial. And, unlike many games that feature such a move, Felix: Tale of the Night actually pulls of wall jumps very well. They are crisp and easy to execute. However - Felix can climb trees. Evidently we're supposed to know that, because shortly in to the first level, you're left staring at a wall too high to climb, and no other walls to jump off of. A simple sign-post in the background and a "press Y to read" prompt may have even been enough to suffice, but the frustration and embarrassment that quickly sets in as you stare at a wall is undeniable. Add to this random "quick time events" (when will they go away?) and you can see where some of the frustrations begin.

Additionally, we're evidently supposed to realize that the large stump an enemy held was able to be used as a stepping stone and that we would be climbing in to the third dimention - after clmbing trees and walls, realizing I was supposed to press "up" on my controller took me a moment.

My final complaint is due to a lack of checkpoints. The game is not overly difficult, and your health bar seems to last for quite a while, but if you make it to the boss of that first level and die? Well, you have a solid ten minute journy ahead of you - with no stim-packs, health vials, or pinecones to replenish your health along the way.

Still, despite all of that, the game is down right fun. Mashing a few buttons and flipping a bear over your head, ala Ryu's "kick" throw in Street Fighter, is a blast. Catching a baddie in a fury of punches and finishing him off with a spin kick is just as satisfying as it was in any classic street brawling game, and the classic side scrolling action at a faster more modern pace is a rush.

I don't see a reason for the setting or the characters, I think the game would be just as fun if human beings were duking it out on the mean streets of some "megalopolis." The game's score would suffer more from this 1990's cutesy animal throw back, but I genuinely see past it and enjoy the different types of enemies and beating them up as they come my way.

Worth noting: 1) skip as much dialogue as fast as possible. Not that it's poorly written, to the contrary: you may quietly chuckle to yourself just playing the tutorial. But the sound effects selected for printing dialogue on the screen was an unforgivable detractor.
2) There are some odd graphical "hitches" that seem to slow down the game for a fraction of a second when you're running too fast. It takes away from the otherwise liquid-like gameplay.