The fact that this was never ported in any of the like 40 god damned Namco Museum variations is a mortal sin.

mr.acme's health bar being full, then going down when his wife falls on him to sliver, to the helicopter killing them outright is ludo-visual comedy.

I know about this game because when The Force Unleashed 2 multiplayer was revealed to be a Platform fighter, the game's director made a big deal about how they werent trying to be like Smash but instead like The Outfoxies

The reason for The Outfoxes having its own t-shirt in TSA is that Suda 51 is just a big fan of the game. The cabinet with the game was even installed in an old Grasshopper Manufacturers office

This actually looks crazy! I never seen this game before.

Gotta love that the score penalty for damage taken is a "Hospital bill".

I was so bummed to see this isn't on Fightcade. This is exactly the kind of game my buddies and I could play for a whole night. I'm now a member of the "Waiting for a port" gang.

These characters look so fun and creative for its time; game too. They even seem to have stages bigger Smash stages would be until Temple AND have stage transformations too. Truly ahead of its time. Shame that it didn't become popular because from the looks of it, I think it should have and gotten a sequel. Maybe something with 4 players or more moves or items

I like the movement in this game. An indie fighting game developer should make a game that "pays homage" to Outfoxies.

Fun fact: the composer for this game, Masahiro Fukuzawa, went to compose the soundtrack for none other than Akatsuki Blitzkampf!

A lot of the magic of the late 80s and 90s gaming scene comes from that widespread free thinking or experimental approach, that existed simply because it was the infancy of modern gaming and many franchises. Everything was free form, "in the making", without guidelines or formulas to follow (which is only the result of repetition, therefore it couldnt exist so early). So there was a large room for imagination, reimagining things, and most importantly an the own incentive for creativity. Our traditional fighting game genre itself was a kind of experimental branching out the dominant beat em up genre in the 80s. We can even notice some traces of the arcade beat em up ideas in SF1 and FF1 and a little bit in AOF1 too, an interesting display itself of the transitional mindset inside the devs' heads time. Like we can easily comprehend these things in retrospect, we already got SF2 (it's already 30+ years old), but devs in the 80s and very early 90s werent sure of where they were even heading to. And even after SF2 in 91, who says that's the ultimate recipe that has to be followed? That wasnt a clear notion. And SNK, Midway and a few other important companies didnt think that way, which luckily for us created so much true diversity in the genre. And VF and TK arent a SF clone in 3d as well. And somewhere in that history this Outfoxies game could be placed, even if it was a rough experiment that sadly didnt go further. Btw experiments are bound to be rough by their nature, and only few ones are extremely effective, like SF2. To me Outfoxies can be still called a good representative of that early 90s creative developer mindset.

Competitive players today: "Can't play here, the water is covering my ankles!" Developers then: "F_you, I'm gonna throw a helicopter so you fall down in the shark tank!"

Very glad you made the Elevator Action comparison, because The Outfoxies has always struck me as the consequence of someone asking “what if Elevator Action Returns had a versus mode?”. Great video as always

This really reminds me of games like Towerfall and Duck Game. Even though I'm almost positive they had no direct inspiration from Outfoxies, I like to think that some of the game's DNA lives on in little indie side scrolling platform shooters where you and your friends use an arsenal of goofy weapons to out play each other

I'm being dead serious when I say I would LOVE to see ANY kind of tournament for this game! Don't care if they're pros or noobs, I just want to see this game in action.

Outfoxies? Absolutely yes. One of the best random MAME games I came across back in the day. So wild and out there, especially for it's time. This game exudes the same type of exuberance that the best parts of Suda 51's work and things like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure does. Over the top, violent, lightly questioning you, but always with enough of a nod to say, "This is just a game. Don't be too serious." And that soundtrack? Sign me up.

I remember seeing this on MAME, there are so many hidden treasures still to find on MAME like this, surprised it never came out on the og wii shop, as that had some obscure arcade games, it sure does look like fun.

This game sounds like so much fun; heck, the homages to 80's action flicks and the casting (heck, though I doubt twin assassins were uncommon, I kind of get reminded of Black Lagoon in a way), I'm surprised we never got this game over here. (They could even have made a licensed reskin of it for a Black Lagoon fighter even)

Ah yes, the best fg content creator out with a new video, indeed tis a moment for awakening babe

Bro you are a life saver, I was literally trying to remember this game this morning at work

I love it when games get experimental and creative with their concepts, even when sometimes they don’t fundamentally work. But still, games like these are examples of the near unlimited possibilities and inspirations that developers can possess to apply some of the most insane concepts into their own titles.

Gotta be one of the best names a game has ever had... Great video! I think you really captured how cool this game is. If not a smash precursor, this is definitely a precursor to stuff like duck game. And given that Hal labs first got connected with Nintendo making a Famicom port of joust, joust is extremely important for the history of smash!

I love the stages on this game and how interactive they are. I miss that kind of stuff

Maaaaan, this was a deep cut for me! I always remembered the gameplay, but I could never remember the name for this game. I thought I just made it all up in my head. I remember growing up in the Philippines, there was a huge tournament scene for this game(at least in my province). I was too young back then but I would watch the older kids play until late in the evening. This takes me back.

Dancing Eyes was supposed to get a remake on PS3 but was canceled. That's the real tragedy here.

Those sprites are cash money. I can't believe I've never seen this game before. There is so much for people to learn about from old media; I am glad that there are channels like yours highlighting the various small details and forgotten virtues of these games.

oh my goodness! I remember this game! I was drawn to it immediately as a child. I picked John Smith, then Dweeb and then proceeded to get mauled by the CPU Amazing video!! As usual

I love The Outfoxies, still waiting for it on Arcade Archives.

Wow, I completely forgot about this game! Played it once on an emulator at a friend's house late at night and chalked it up to a weird dream. The Smash DNA is definitely present.

There could always be hope we could see this game on current-gen consoles. The game studio "Hamster" releases classic arcade games on consoles as part of Arcade Archives, and they've released several that were Japanese exclusive. I wonder if there's a way we can tell Hamster that we want a port of this for consoles.

I remember finding this game in mame ages ago. I've ran sets at my local FG casuals from time to time.

This was one of the games I remember discovering in my earlier days of MAME. So damn good. :)

Kunio should be known for being having the first round based vs. platform fighter. Outfoxies is a more obvious inspiration and a really cool game.

I actually played this at the Galloping Ghost some years back. Fun, but too crazy for me as a first play.

I don't know the rules about "western release", but I live in Italy and it was in the Arcades.

Never heard of this arcade before and...it totally blew my mind off. IMO a total hidden gem and what a genius concept, so advanced for its time. If someone told me this was an indie game for the PS4 or PS5 I would've believe it for sure. And your comparisons to other games were totally spot on.

Wow, I've been looking for this game for years after playing it on an emulator as a kid! Every time I tried searching up a platform fighting game on arcades, I never got any meaningful results. Thank you for finding this!

This game looks super fun can't wait for a port of the game

This game looks super fun And the story is like future diary but good

Talking about the first games that got ignored, you might want to look at Ragnagard, the Neo Geo game that predates Guilty Gear featuring guard cancels, air dashes and much more.

Such an interesting premise for a game, I'm kinda surprised that "rich guy sends a bunch of wacky assassins after each other" isn't a more common set-up for games' plots, or at least I can't think of any example right now. Closest thing that comes to mind is Batman Arkham Origins and how it's all about half a dozen assassins trying to murder Batman in the same night, but the tone is completely different and the story is about defending oneself instead of actively going for the kill.

I remember this being outright stated as the inspiration for a certain game but I can’t remember what it was. May have been the Metal Gear devs iirc.

Outfoxies is truly a weird game, it truly feels like a parody of 80s action movies, and while the character illustrations have a manga style, the in-game graphics have a very western look to them. Namco made a ton of interesting games when they were direct competitors to Sega jn the arcades during the 90s. As far as being the first platform fighter, I think The Outfoxies places more emphasis on actual platforming and exploration than Smash, but I can totally imagine Sakurai playing this game, alongside The King of Fighters '95 and '96, and inspiring the creation of Smash 64

I can't believe they never brought this over. It looks awesome. Another similar game is Power Stone

Reminds me a lot of "The Showdown Effect", complete with the action movie homages and tongue in cheek tone, though it seems The Outfoxies outdoes it in several ways, those stages are nuts, the amount of interactibility and the size of the stages is seriously wild.

Oh how cool is it that you talked about this game! It's so much fun although it's very unbalanced (Dweeb is ridiculous and the whip is broken)

This was such a fun game. The Twin's death animation creeped me out the first time I played though.

all the characters in this are so fun looking, I love the girl with the iguana

It's impossible for any creature in this planet to convince me that the twins didnt inspire SSB's Ice Climbers as a fg concept. There's was nothing like that in the fg world at the time.

I didn't knew this exist and I have zero idea how a game from 1994 looks THIS fluid 0_0 I'll check it out!

I have never heard of this game before this video, but I am 100% checking it out now. this looks sick

This game needs to have a tournament at EVO this year 😳

Okay the only reason why I know about this game prior to watching this video is this Tim Rogers video he did where he reviewed Pac Man. And in it he went on a tangent ranking some of the cooler names of arcade games at the time. And one of his runner ups was The Outfoxies and he said in such a dramatic movie-trailer ish way that it’s like burned in my memories forever. Anyway I’m happy there’s a video on this game I’ll probably enjoy it and learn something new! Thank you 💜

Definitely waiting for this to hit the Arcade Archives.

Just recently went through all your videos. Great work on all of them. I really admire your dedication to properly playing and sharing these obscure games with everyone. Especially enjoyed the Buriki One and Fighting Game Magazine video. Look forward to more.

This is the best game that i never knew existed. I'll have to find any way I can to play it.

Thanks for highlighting this one. Had somehow never even heard of it. Awesome. Love to see a 4 player sequel some day.

This looks so fun, what? How did we not get 1000 sequels for this?! Here's hoping like, some indie company gets hold of the rights and makes a new one, like what happened with blaster master. Also, I didn't expect to see TSA mentioned lol.

... and the Twins are the only ones who can carry two different weapons.

Great video as usual! This really is content you can't get anywhere else. Loving your output

This game looks amazing!! Reminds me of a 2D Power Stone... before Power Stone even existed :o

The Outfoxies! I used to work at an arcade when I was younger, and I recall that this was either on a Neo Geo cartridge or "multicade" machine that sat right next to N.A.R.C. It had such a unique look, and I really dug the 80s Blockbuster action movie cliche character types. Thank you for the little trip down memory lane!

I absolutely LOVE your videos, im a fan for life.

Oh, wow never heard of this its so crazy cool! It really does look like if elevator action returns was versus game, which is amazing!

One of the greatest soundtracks in all of video games.

I first knew about this game from a show called tokyo encounters. It's a hilarious show where they invite Japanese voice actors/actresses to play random games. They even played dancing eyes in an episode lol.

Where has this absolute gem been all my life?!

I just wanna say thank you for covering more obscure/niche or generally lesser known games. I never like it when people scoff at a game, or ignore the game just because of either lack of nostalgia or just because they don't know or for the fact it isn't popular. And this game here I will DEFINITELY be enjoying! This game looks SICK.

i just want to say i've been really enjoying your videos lately and thank you for making them :)

An amazing slice of history. Thanks.

Damn this is so creative, unique, intriguing, graphically impressive and exciting all together! A fever dream if I ever saw one! Port it please Namco! NEED TO PLAY! 🙌🙏💯

thanks for showcasing this game, it looks awesome

It was awesome seeing you on Matt's channel! 2 of my favorite dudes on youtube together!

Woah this looks amazing!!

Missed you, so glad to see you uploading again

good point to bring it up! the OutFoxies is like a lost genre-hybrid of it's own, one might also mention Power Stone 2

WAIT A MINUTE I'VE PLAYED THIS LIKE ONCE YEARS AND YEARS AGO

I've seen this game mentioned in other videos briefly but I never realized how actually cool it was until I saw this video. Good video man!

this looks utterly fun and amazing. I gotta get this

This game looks AWESOME. Great visuals!

A buddy sent me this video, and after seeing it in action, i've been playing all night. Such an awesomely fun game. I need this cabinet someday!

Wow this is extra epic seeing this gameplay style with sprites.

Holy crapola how have I never heard of this?! So awesome

Never heard of this game before but it looks really fun and interesting, great video!

Thanks for introducing me to this game; I had no idea it existed.

I remember discovering this game back in 2021, and it really opened up my eyes. Like many, I thought Smash Bros. was the creator of the platform fighter genre, but upon seeing this, my jaw dropped. Also, it's funny that Namco made this and then went to help develop Smash for Wii U/3DS years later.

Nice video! Fun fact by the way: In the original Japanese version, Danny and Demi were twins created in a laboratory by a mad scientist, and they were always normal twins instead of conjoined twins that had to be seperated.

WOOOOOOOW thank you so much for this treasure!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will run this game hard!!!!!! LOVE IT

I been trying to remember the name of this game for over 10 years! Thank you for making this video! I played it randomly with a friend one day. Had us dying laughing in multiplayer!

thank you for showing this game!!

This game looks so crazy! Never heard of it. Thanks for sharing info about it.

Cool video and super interesting to learn about, not just its gameplay but the story and themes too are dark and interesting. Reminds me of the flash game I used to play a lot chaos faction 2, and the story tone and its 80s movie vibes remind me of the anime black lagoon (all the pirates/criminials competing for the same job for rich clients etc) but also the ultra violence and the twins especially, the ending card is a very similiar visual to one in the show what a strong visual for 94

I love your channel dude

That game looks HILARIOUS and like a lot of fun to play! Damn! ^^

I feel wiser now. Thank you, good Sir.

Great Stuff, as always.

One of my all time favorite Arcade games!

The goat just uploaded. Gotta tune in.

I love The Outfoxies, It always reminded me of Smash Bros meets Smokin’ Aces.

Oh my god, thank you for this video! I found out about this game ages ago and tried to search for it online one or two years ago, but I couldn't find it because I forgot it's name.