Fox n Forests Delivers Nostalgia to Steam,PS4,XB1, Nintendo Switch

By GeekyGamerGirl87

Developed by Bonus Level Entertainment/Independent Arts Software and published by EuroVideo Medien, Fox n Forests is a 2D 16-bit platformer that pays tribute to Super Nintendo games of old.

When I first saw the gameplay for Fox n Forests, I was immediately drawn to the retro style of the game. Therefore, I am very grateful and thankful that EuroVideo Medien was nice enough to provide me with a free copy of the Steam version of the game; so that I could write this review.

You start off the game as Rick, a fox who is getting ready to commit a crime by eating a sassy partridge. How is this a crime? I have no idea because I mean as sassy as this partridge is I would have eaten her too, but that’s just a side note.  However, this partridge asks Rick to spare her and in doing so she can promise him riches and foods. Rick agrees to not eat her; in which the partridge tells Rick he looks like he could be the hero they are looking for and tells him she will take him to the season tree who will give him the riches and foods he seeks. Rick agrees and off to the tree they go. Upon meeting the tree, he tells Rick of how the seasons are out of whack because his bark has been stolen. He asks Rick to go on a quest to retrieve his bark and in turn will give him what he wants. Rick agrees and is gifted a melee crossbow which can control the seasons and is sent on his way to retrieve the bark.

The game offers three different game modes: Easy, Normal, and Hard. I found that each mode was challenging, including easy mode. Although the enemies appeared to die quicker in easy mode, it still provided a bit of a challenge and that further brought me into the nostalgia of a time when games provided a challenge. The graphics of the game are beautiful, and although the developers said they chose to do the 16-bit look for cost reasoning; I do like that they did use the 16-bit graphics because it reminds me of the older Super Nintendo games I played as a kid. I will go on to say that the game is best enjoyed in Steam’s Big Picture mode.

For those of you who have never heard of Steam’s Big Picture mode – especially if you are new to PC gaming – it allows for you to turn your steam client into that of a game console interface. To access it you simply just click on the controller icon located in the upper right corner. If your PC is hooked up to a TV and a monitor, your games will load up on the TV. Ideally, you can also set up your existing controller be it a PS4 or Xbox controller. If you don’t own a console you could purchase a generic controller or steam does offer their own controller as well.

The reason I briefed you all about Steam’s Big Picture is because this is the only way you can exit the game, as the developers did not put an exit option in the game menu. However, if you don’t want to use big picture mode; you can also use alt and F4 to exit. For me it really did feel like the game was intended for consoles, and they decided to port it to steam which is why I can say playing it in Big Picture mode would be ideal.

As far as the controls go, you can use both controller or keyboard. One of the things that the game does tell you is to look at the games option menu under controls to see the control scheme. At first this annoyed me, but then it was brought to my attention about how back in the day, we did have to look up the controls in the manual, so I was okay with the fact that you had to use the menu options to look at the controls. Although, you are unable to change the scheme. So, what you see is what you get.

One of the things I would have love to seen with the controls is that they would have kept the arrows separate from the melee attack. Sometimes when I wanted to melee; nothing would happen because it would register as me trying to use the arrows, which Rick is unable to shoot arrows while moving, he can only shoot them when he is stationary. To do melee, you must hit the up or down button depending on which way you want to melee. However, I found this difficult to use melee because if you jump in the air and try to melee, it did not respond very well. I’m not sure if I was not executing it correctly but Rick did not want to melee.

Although I did have those slight issues; I do recommend that you play with controller over the keyboard. The game flows a little bit better with the controller than the keyboard. To me the keyboard controls were a bit over the place, and I also found out that the scheme they tell you in the controls menu is not exactly accurate and again you are unable to customize the controls of the keyboard.

If you enjoy collecting achievements; the game does offer fifteen different achievements that you can collect. It also does offer the trading cards as well, so our trading card collectors will be able to collect their trading cards.

Overall, I do recommend Fox n Forests. The game is still fun and provides a very good challenge; even with the few issues that the game had with the steam version. These can always be updated with a patch. If you would like to try out Fox N Forests for yourself you can check it out available now on Steam, Playstation 4, XBONE, Nintendo Switch for $19.99 USD.