Vixen (video game)

Vixen is a platform game published by Martech in 1988 for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and ZX Spectrum.

Vixen
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Publisher(s)Martech
Programmer(s)Ian McArdle
Jonathan Howell
Nick Jones
Artist(s)Malcolm J. Smith
Mark Eason
Composer(s)Jason C. Brooke
Platform(s)Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum
ReleaseAugust 1988
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

Vixen is the last human on the planet Granath, which is now ruled by a race of dinosaurs. Abandoned as a child and raised by magical foxes, she intends to follow through on a promise she made to her elders to wipe the dinosaurs out and restore the planet to humanity.

Gameplay

Vixen was based unofficially on the Tecmo arcade game Rygar.[1] Each level must be completed within a time limit, by progressing from left to right. The player's character is armed only with a whip, used to defeat enemies and to collect bonus items such as gems (for points), extra lives and time. The player's character can also collect fox head tokens. If enough are collected by the end of the level, she will transform into a fox, allowing the player to enter a special underground lair. Here she can collect gems, mega gems (which increase scoring potential above ground) and weapon upgrades (to increase the power of her whip). A notable feature in the game was that it used an early form of motion capture to generate the animation for the main character[1] making it far more realistic than usual for a computer game of that era.[2]

Reception

The various versions of Vixen received a wide range of review scores. ACE[3] gave it a score of 452/1000 saying it had "nothing original to offer". Computer & Video Games,[4] praised the graphics, particularly on the Atari ST, but criticised the playability. The Games Machine[5][6] rated the game from 42% for the "barely adequate" Amstrad version to 72% for the PC version. Your Sinclair awarded the game 6/10[7] stating that while the animation of the main character was superb, "the rest of the graphics suck".

The cover of the game, featuring Page Three girl Corinne Russell in the guise of the Vixen, caused controversy and high street chain Boots refused to stock the game until Martech reissued the game with a less provocative cover.[8] The May 1988 issue of Your Sinclair, featured a similar image on the cover which was equally controversial and attracted a number of complaints.[9]

References
  1. Graeme Mason. "Martech Games - The Personality People". Retro Gamer. No. 133. p. 51.
  2. Mason, Graeme (2016-05-15). "Nine ways the the[sic] 8-bit era made gaming what it is today". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  3. "ACE Magazine Issue 11". Archive.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  4. "CVG Magazine Issue 081". Archive.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  5. "The Games Machine Magazine Issue 11". Archive.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  6. "The Games Machine Magazine Issue 08". Archive.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  7. "Vixen". Your Sinclair. No. 32. Dennis Publishing. August 1988. p. 70.
  8. "Censor Nonsense". Crash. No. 55. Newsfield Publishing. August 1988. p. 92.
  9. "Dark Side : Your sinclair Magazine : Issues 31". Archive.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
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