Designer(s) Commodore 64 Initial release date 1988 Publisher Martech Mode Single-player video game | Composer(s) Jason C. Brooke Developer Intelligent Design Ltd. Genre Platform game | |
 | ||
Programmer(s) Ian McArdle
Jonathan Howell
Nick Jones Artist(s) Malcolm J. Smith
Mark Eason Platforms Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, AmigaOS, Amstrad CPC, DOS, IBM Personal Computer Similar Heavy on the Magick, Platoon, Captain Dynamo, Beach Head II: The Dicta, Elvira: The Arcade Game | ||
Vixen is a platform game developed by Intelligent Design and published by Martech in 1988 for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS and ZX Spectrum. (Since "vixen" is pronounced like wichsen, an obscene word meaning "to jerk off" in German, the game was renamed She-Fox in German-speaking countries.)
Contents
Gameplay
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 the movements of the main character were (at least in some versions of the game) captured from the moving picture, thus the making animation more realistic than usual for a computer game of that era.
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.
Reception
The various versions of Vixen received a wide range of review scores, including 452/1000 from ACE, 8/10 from Atari ST User, 7-8/10 from Computer & Video Games, 60% from Crash, between 42%-72% from The Games Machine, and 6/10 from Your Sinclair. The cover of the game box caused a lot of controversy, as it features the Page Three girl Corinne Russell in the guise of the Vixen and also includes a poster of the box cover. High street chain Boots refused to stock the game, prompting Martech to re-issue the game with a less provocative cover. The cover of the May 1988 issue of Your Sinclair, which featured the photo was equally controversial as it attracted a number of complaints, in regards to the provocative nature of Russell's pose, different from the box cover. However, that issue became the second best selling issue ever released, with 80,368 issues sold.