Fox Hunt (video game)

Last updated
Fox Hunt
Fox Hunt's Cover, Fox Hunt is a game made for Windows 3.x and PSX systems in 1996..jpg
Developer(s) 3Vision Gamers
Publisher(s) Capcom
Director(s) Michael Berns
Producer(s) Adam Burns
Matt Pyken
Writer(s) Matt Pyken
Composer(s) Mark Mothersbaugh
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, PlayStation
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
PlayStation
  • NA: October 28, 1996 [2]
Genre(s) Interactive movie
Mode(s) Single-player

Fox Hunt is a 1996 interactive movie video game developed by 3Vision Gamers and published by Capcom for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. It is an interactive movie title with live action visuals in the vein of a spy film.

Contents

After its release on Windows, the game's creators acquired additional funds, shot more footage, and released Fox Hunt as a direct-to-video film in several countries.

Plot

Jack Fremont is known for his knowledge of TV shows; it turns out life is rough right now. He is about to get kicked out of his house. However, when bragging about his knowledge he is confronted by CIA agents. They tell him that there is a former Soviet TV Producer on the loose who is angry that he is uncredited in the TV shows he produced in the 1970's and is threatening to wipe Los Angeles off the map with a cache of hidden Soviet nuclear missiles and now it's up to Jack to stop him.

Gameplay

The gameplay of this game is varied. In some places the player character explores rooms and finds objects, and in others he enters fighting and action sequences. There is a time limit in many of these sequences. A red box in the corner of the screen informs the player when they need to take action during a quick time event. [3]

Development and release

Fox Hunt was developed by movie studio 3Vision Gamers with funding provided by publisher Capcom. It was the first project greenlit by former Capcom USA president Greg Ballard, who had recently joined the company soon after he left the developer Digital Pictures and witnessed the production of Resident Evil in Japan. [4] Fox Hunt was developed on a budget of up to $2 million. [5] [6] 3Vision consisted of writer/producer Matt Pyken, producer/lawyer Adam Berns, and director Michael Berns (Adam's brother) at the helm. [5] The trio had previously created the 1994 PC game National Lampoon's Blind Date. [5] Michael Berns and designer/programmer Peter Marx had a singular "cinematic vision" on how Fox Hunt should play in that it was structured like a three-act feature film. Berns found that FMV games released up to that point focused more on showcasing technology in place of including good gameplay. The director wanted Fox Hunt to be considered as a full-fledged video game and not simply an interactive movie like those earlier titles. [7] The gameplay engine designed by Marx is based on the one he built for the PC game Johnny Mnemonic . However, he intended Fox Hunt to have the "compelling time component" of a motion picture that kept the story dynamic rather than the "limited action and choppy movement" found in Johnny Mnemonic. [7]

Fox Hunt was shot on 16 mm film instead of video for improved resolution. [7] Casting for the game was conducted in the second quarter of 1995. [5] Chief among the cast were newcomer Andrew Bowen as the game's protagonist, one-time James Bond star George Lazenby, and Timothy Bottoms (of The Last Picture Show ). [7] Scenes was filmed over 35 days, mostly at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, though four days were set aside for shooting skiing footage in Aspen, Colorado. [5] Lazenby commented on the shooting schedule: "Actors need a lot of flexibility since scenes are shot so quickly and you instantly go from being good to being evil. As Bond [in On Her Majesty's Secret Service ], I once waited three days while the crew prepared to film a single scene! On Fox Hunt we do a new scene every hour. It's the way movies should be made." [5] Filming ultimately consisted of about 2,200 camera setups, around 20,000 edits, over three hours of live-action footage, 735 shots, and nine different endings. [6] [8] [9]

The game's background music was composed and co-written by Mark Mothersbaugh while 3Vision partnered with Rhino Records and Tri-Tone Music to include licensed songs for the remainder of the soundtrack. [10] Tri-Tone's Jennifer Pyken, the sister of the game's producer Matt, was appointed by Capcom as music supervisor and both helped purchase licenses from various artists and sell the soundtrack to Rhino. [11] Pyken chose to include old-school hip hop, surf music, and modern rock to serve as clues within the game; additional clues would be present in the soundtrack's liner notes when it was released by Rhino on January 23, 1996. [10] [12] "Our first priority was finding songs that were appropriate for the game," Pyken stated. "In that sense were approached it like we would any film. But we also kept in mind the audience, which is relatively young but wide-ranging taste in new music and old." Among the included artists were Violent Femmes, Butthole Surfers, Dick Dale, The Sugar Hill Gang, Faith No More, and Poster Children. [12]

Fox Hunt was released exclusively in North America for Microsoft Windows on January 31, 1996 and for PlayStation on September 30, 1996. Versions of the game were in development for the Sega Saturn and Mac OS. [12] [13] Despite being officially advertised alongside the other versions, [14] these were never released. The Windows version of Fox Hunt sold 25,000 copies in its first six months on sale. [6] By mid-1997, both versions of the game had sold about 50,000 copies combined. [8] Ballard regretted the game's production, recalled a substantially higher production budget of $5 million, and exaggerated its commercial performance. He lamented, "I think we sold 132 copies. So somewhere, somebody has a copy of it, and it is a true collector's item, because it is the worst that was ever made. Ever." [4]

Film version

After its debut as a video game, the Berns brothers decided to rework Fox Hunt into a feature-length film for television and home video. A foreign distributor encouraged 3Vision to cut a trailer after the company showed the game at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. [8] [15] Backed by Los Angeles-based sales agent Redwood Communications, 3Vision managed to sell the rights to the film to several foreign distributors and secure several hundred thousand dollars in funds to hire more talent and shoot additional footage. [6] [8] Adam Berns explained that the company had to negotiate with the Screen Actors Guild to use the game footage (created under an interactive contract) for a motion picture. [8] Three quarters of the film's footage consisted of the game's cutscenes while new scenes were shot over an eight day period, would include actor Gary Coleman, and required about 900 additional edits. [6] [15] "Essentially what we did is took our best footage from the game and wrote a story around it, using the general plot of the CD-ROM script,” Adam Berns stated. [15] As of mid-1997, the game had not acquired a US distributor. [8] [16]

Reception

Critical reception for Fox Hunt ranged from poor to average. Computer Game Review gave the game a negative review, calling it "just another example of how unplayable interactive movies can be." [18] GameSpot said this about the game: "Overlooking some of the childish antics of its hero, Capcom's Fox Hunt is an interactive movie that merits more than a showing or two. It's silly and amusing but surprisingly well developed and fun to play." and gave it a 6.8. [17]

Ann Kwinn of Boxoffice gave the film version of Fox Hunt three out of five stars. [16]

Related Research Articles

<i>Independence Day</i> (1996 film) Film by Roland Emmerich

Independence Day is a 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and the film's producer Dean Devlin, and stars an ensemble cast that consists of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, and Harvey Fierstein. The film focuses on disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by a powerful extraterrestrial race. With the other people of the world, they launch a counterattack on July 4—Independence Day in the United States.

Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information during cutscenes, games that are primarily presented through FMVs are referred to as full-motion video games or interactive movies.

<i>Mega Man 4</i> 1991 video game

Mega Man 4 is a 1991 action-platform game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the fourth game in the original Mega Man series and was originally released in Japan on December 6, 1991. The game was localized in North America the following January, and in Europe in 1993.

<i>Blade Runner</i> (1997 video game) 1997 video game

Blade Runner is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive for Microsoft Windows, released in November 1997. The game is not a direct adaptation of the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner but is instead a "sidequel", telling an original story, which runs parallel to the film's plot, occasionally intersecting with it.

<i>The Wizard</i> (1989 film) 1989 film by Todd Holland

The Wizard is a 1989 American family film directed by Todd Holland, written by David Chisholm, and starring Fred Savage, Jenny Lewis, Beau Bridges, Christian Slater, and Luke Edwards. It was also Tobey Maguire's uncredited film debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Interactive Entertainment</span> Former British video game publisher

Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd. was a British video game distributor based within Europe that formerly traded as the video game publishing and distributing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Interactive Studios</span> Defunct American video game developer and publisher

Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interactive entertainment worldwide.

<i>Street Fighter</i> (1994 film) 1994 film by Steven E. de Souza

Street Fighter is a 1994 action film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza, based on the video game series of the same name produced by Capcom. It was one of two films released in 1994 specifically adapting Street Fighter II, following Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Distributed by Universal Pictures in the United States and Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International internationally, the film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia along with supporting performances by Byron Mann, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen and Wes Studi. The adaptation focuses on the efforts by Colonel Guile to bring down General M. Bison (Julia), the military dictator and drug kingpin of Shadaloo City who aspires to conquer the world with an army of genetic supersoldiers, while enlisting the aid of street fighters Ryu (Mann) and Ken (Chapa) to infiltrate Bison's empire and help destroy it from within.

An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.

<i>Resident Evil</i> (1996 video game) Survival horror game

Resident Evil is a 1996 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation. It is the first game in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Players control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, members of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S., who must escape a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters.

<i>Die Hard Trilogy</i> 1996 video game

Die Hard Trilogy is an action video game developed by Probe Entertainment, published by Fox Interactive and distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in North America and Electronic Arts in Europe for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows. The game is based on the first three installments of the Die Hard series of action movies, with each film entry being represented through a different gameplay genre.

<i>Psychic Detective</i> (video game) 1995 video game

Psychic Detective is a 1995 interactive movie video game that uses extensive amounts of live-action footage and features dozens of professional character actors. It was written by Michael Kaplan and directed by John Sanborn.

<i>Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm</i> 1994 video game

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm is a rail shooter video game made by Rocket Science Games based on the comic book Xenozoic Tales. The game was originally released in 1994 for Sega CD and later IBM PC compatibles.

<i>Mega Man X</i> Video game series

Mega Man X is a series of action platform games released by Capcom. It is a sub-series of the Mega Man franchise previously developed by the same group with Keiji Inafune acting as one of the main staff members. The first game was released on December 17, 1993 in Japan on the Super Famicom and the following month on the Super NES in North America. Most of the sequels were ported to Microsoft Windows. The gameplay introduces new elements to the Mega Man franchise in the form of Mega Man's successor X including his new skills and power-ups in the form of armors while retaining the ability to decide which boss to fight first.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Interactive</span> Defunct American video game publisher

Fox Interactive was an American video game publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company published games based on 20th Century Fox properties, yet also published several original titles, such as Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.

<i>Street Fighter</i> Japanese media franchise

Street Fighter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six other main series games, various spin-offs and crossovers, and numerous appearances in other media. Its best-selling 1991 release Street Fighter II established many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre.

<i>Disneys Animated Storybook</i> Interactive storybook video game series

Disney's Animated Storybook is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar films that were released throughout the 1990s. They were published by Disney Interactive for personal computers for children ages four to eight years old. Starting from 1994, most of the entries in the series were developed by Media Station. They have the same plots as their respective films, though abridged due to the limited medium.

<i>Disneys Activity Center</i> Video game series

Disney's Activity Center is a series of PC and PlayStation games released by Disney Interactive with each title consisting of various activities and minigames to be completed, using aspects of their licensed property.

<i>Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine</i> 1994 video game

Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine is a video game developed and published by Rocket Science Games for the Sega CD in 1994 and MS-DOS compatible operating systems in 1995.

<i>Johnny Mnemonic</i> (video game) 1995 video game

Johnny Mnemonic: The Interactive Action Movie is a 1995 point-and-click adventure game published by Sony Imagesoft for Macintosh and Windows. It was released as a tie-in to the film of the same name and developed by Propaganda Code, the gaming division of Propaganda Films. Filming took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California for fifteen days.

References

  1. "Fox Hunt at a Glance". GameSpot . Archived from the original on February 5, 1997. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  2. "News". Escapade. October 28, 1996. Archived from the original on November 4, 1996. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  3. EGM staff (December 1996). "Fox Hunt: This Fox Is No Hound". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 89. Ziff Davis. pp. 286–7. ISSN   1058-918X.
  4. 1 2 Sheffield, Brandon (September 22, 2005). "Interview: The Glu That Binds: Greg Ballard On Mobile". Game Developer . Informa. Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 GamePro staff (December 1995). "On the Trail of Foxhunt". GamePro . No. 77. IDG. pp. 38–40. ISSN   1042-8658.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Strauss, Bob (August 9, 1996). "CD-ROM games might have wider appeal on the big screen". Entertainment Weekly . Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Meyer, Bill (September 1995). "Is It a Movie, Or Is It a Game?". Electronic Entertainment. No. 21. Infotainment World, Inc. pp. 42–6. ISSN   1074-1356.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Saylor, Mark (May 9, 1997). "Cannes: Another Twist in the Path to Filmdom". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  9. VideoGames staff (February 1996). "First Look: Fox Hunt". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine . No. 85. Larry Flynt Publications. pp. 56–7. ISSN   1059-2938.
  10. 1 2 D'Angelo, Julie (September 7, 1997). "Screen Synergy". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  11. Rollo & Grady (January 22, 2012). "Music Supervisor Profile :: Michelle Kuznetsky". Rollo & Grady. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 Gillen, Marilyn A. (December 2, 1995). "CD-ROM Pack-Ins Move Soundtracks". Billboard . Vol. 107, no. 48. Eldridge Industries. p. 72. ISSN   0006-2510.
  13. GamePro staff (September 1995). "Short ProShots: Fox Hunt". GamePro . No. 77. IDG. p. 130. ISSN   1042-8658.
  14. Capcom staff (May 1996). "Fox Hunt print advertisement". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 82. Ziff Davis. p. 93. ISSN   1058-918X.
  15. 1 2 3 Boone, Christian (August 31, 1997). "No, but We've Played the CD-ROM Version". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  16. 1 2 Kwinn, Ann (April 1997). "Special Formats: Fox Hunt". Boxoffice . Vol. 133, no. 4. Associated Publications. p. 192. ISSN   0006-8527.
  17. 1 2 Anderson, Rebecca (May 1, 2000). "Fox Hunt Review". GameSpot . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  18. 1 2 Snyder, Frank; Chapman, Ted; Gehrs, Scott (April 1996). "Royale with Cheese". Computer Game Review . Archived from the original on December 21, 1996.
  19. Burr, Ty (January 19, 1996). "Fox Hunt". Entertainment Weekly . Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on March 4, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  20. Meyer, Bill (April 1996). "Action Adventure: Fox Hunt". PC Entertainment. No. 26. International Data Group. p. 56. ISSN   1093-295X.
  21. Albers, Ole (May–June 1996). "Explorer — Games Für Abenteurer: Fox Hunt". PC Joker . No. 42. Joker Verlag. p. 40.