''Vixen'' is a platform game published by Martech in 1988 for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

, Amstrad CPC,

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, MS-DOS, and ZX Spectrum.

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''. 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 Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

to generate the animation for the main character making it far more realistic than usual for a computer game of that era.

Reception

The various versions of ''Vixen'' received a wide range of review scores. '' ACE'' gave it a score of 452/1000 saying it had "nothing original to offer". '' Computer & Video Games'', praised the graphics, particularly on the Atari ST, but criticised the playability. '' The Games Machine'' rated the game from 42% for the "barely adequate" Amstrad version to 72% for the PC version. '' Your Sinclair'' awarded the game 6/10 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 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishing ...

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. The May 1988 issue of ''Your Sinclair'' featured a similar image on the cover which was equally controversial and attracted a number of complaints.

References

External links

*
''Vixen'' on the Amstrad CPC
* *{{WoS game, id=0005589, name=Vixen 1988 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Side-scrolling platform games Video games about foxes Video games about shapeshifting Video games featuring female protagonists Video games set on fictional planets ZX Spectrum games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Motion capture in video games Martech games Single-player video games