Introduction
Years ago, back when young child Dameon was just turning 11 years of age, he was begging his parents for a new game console, and for that years Christmas, that's just what he got. Luckily for my parents, I was never one to ask for much, which meant that, luckily for me, this gift came with a lovingly and creatively curated stack of games. Among the stack, this absolute gem of a game, which I surprisingly learned some years later, was picked out for me by my aunt, who to anyone who did not know her, would judge her a prude. That said, the woman also got me MechWarrior 2 for PC, so... I knew her better than that.
Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge has, for all of my many years of gaming, got to be the most diamond in the rough video game I have ever had the good fortune to own. Granted, I'd never claim it's for everyone, but I'd also never claim to know why that's likely the case. Even to this day, I've gone back to play this gem in whatever capacity I can manage, and I still, to this day, own my original physical copy:
From the Beginning
Let's get this out of the way first and foremost: Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge is little more than a touched up re-release of the Dreamcast Original, Fur Fighters. The biggest changes of note are the inclusion of a now completed, then unfinished level, new spoken word voice acting opposite the "Animal Crossing" or "Banjo Kazooie" style chopped up voice acting of the original, and many of the character, weapon, animated models, and world objects graphics now Cel-Shaded. See below for a visual comparison:
(Fur Fighters)
(Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge)
Gameplay
From the onset, Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge is all about taking you on a long and fuzzy ride; The lands of Fur Fighter Village are open to you, with the various homes of the Fur Fighters to explore, secrets to locate and tease you, and the exits to the various hub worlds to see. Frankly, this is where I was hooked at first claw, thanks to all of the odd tidbits you could locate just in this space alone. From the interactive billiards table, to the extradimensional closet, and the pool of lava hiding a living room, I accidentally spent a full hour or two just wandering around the village as a child. So enamored was I with the myriad of interesting things I found, that I even began pushing the edges of the world just to see if there was anything I had missed! I forgot that there was a whole actual game to play here! So... what exactly does that entail?
Well, head on into the Village Undermill to find out; this is where you meet with your Mentor for training, good ol' General Bristol, and his assistant, Sgt. Sternhauser. Together, they'll take you through the third person exploration, puzzle, and action training to help get you through the game. Is the Tutorial mandatory? Not exactly, no, but along the way you'll also make things a tad easier on yourself by picking up some collectables, weapons... and some babies. Fur babies, who are also probably the most shoe-horned and tedious bit to this game. Now, being that these infants are the key primary game loop to the game, that isn't to say that it's all bad, but it's a disguised key to forcing you as the player to actively switch between the available main characters throughout the game; in order to collect all of the infant fur babies of each of the Fur Fighter parents, you will have to be playing as the character matching the species of the infant you are trying to collect. Thankfully, the levels are "mostly" planned around this, with the intent that you will have an opportunity to collect the parent needed BEFORE you encounter their children, but from time to time, you will meet child first, parent second, which of course means... ugh. Backtracking.
Do not get discouraged! The game is a complete blast otherwise; the characters each have their own intended abilities, certain ones can climb designated walls, others can jump higher than the rest or glide around, one is small, one is a dirty little sexist... who can swim, and another (my personal favorite) a Scottish Bloodhound, is the best gunfighter in the village... who can also dig tunnels (thanks to his war torn history, and that he is, in fact, a dog). Thankfully, the action and exploration of this game are very well designed, the enemies around you aren't exactly an intense threat, as they're more often than not played off as harmless bumbling idiots, but their aim is still enough of a threat that should you find yourself caught in an ambush, you're very likely to lose some fluff. Luckily, that character switching concept? Each individual Fur Fighter works off of their own health pool, and while you're not using an injured Fur Fighter, they'll slowly regain health. Cans of pet food scattered around the levels will also top you up in a jiff, so keep an eye out, and during the later game, memorize where they are so you can run back in a panic.
Now, I'm not going to do a deep dive into all of the locations that you'll be blasting your way through, but the hub worlds you will be exploring are, in order:
Fur Fighter Village - Cutesy island home of the titular Fur Fighters
New Quack City - New York City in all but... humanity
Beaver Power - A buzzing Dam construction project in the beavers woodlands
Cape Canardo - Literally NASA for flightless birds
Dinotopolis - Probably the highlight of all of the hub worlds
Anatat Tatanatat - Whip raiding frightful fun
Viggo-A-GoGo - The big bosses grand finale
Each of these hubs contain several individual levels to be completed, with various puzzles to solve, events to encounter, and lots of action set-pieces to conquer. At the time when I first played this game, one of the unfortunate factors of my reality, was that my parents were sadly unaware of the fact that a Memory Card was required to save your game (or that games needed saving at all). This meant long nights of gaming, along with leaving my PS2 on all night to save my progress. I mention this because, the length of this game is surprisingly substantial for what's presented to you on go. I wasn't anticipating the length of this game, as the levels are individually expansive, and will hold your attention well. Each exists in a varied space, and goes on from set piece to set piece, rather than each level being one whole unique event. You'll go from exploring a museum, to protecting the comically large diamonds on display, to saving the museum boiler operator from catastrophe, and finally into the museum vault, to stop a bank heist and keep them from running away with the jewels, all in the same level, and each and every level is like this.
Now, I personally am of the mind that the PS2 Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge is the ultimate way to enjoy this title. The added level, Furry Forest, was actually in development early on during the original Dreamcast release, but never made it into the finished product, before eventually being completed and added to the PS2 release. It's one of the more disjointed levels in the game, seemingly more sporadic than the rest, but luckily also serves as somewhat of a refreshing experience. There is a laundry list of other changes between the two versions that I did not touch on, besides the main few I mentioned above, but as I'm trying to not divulge too much so as to avoid spoiling the experience, I won't get into them all. That said, the added enemies, weapons, and changes/bug fixes make the PS2 release the overall better experience, personal preference for the voices not withstanding.
The Multiplayer
Another surprising element to this game, the multiplayer, has a lot more going for it than is to be expected. For a classic couch party experience, up to four players with Multitap, and 12 levels (15 with unlocks, if memory serves), and various unique characters to unlock, the experience offers a lot of hilarity and competition for a PS2 game, and was often my go-to when cousins or friends were over, as it was surprisingly always a riot. Along the road there are cheats you can discover and unlock as well, which all alter the game in various ways, and could be utilized during "Fluffmatches" to liven up the fights!
Finally, the Finale
The final note that I want to hit on here, is the sound design. This is the biggest aspect that draws me into this game every time, it's one of the few games that now, in my older years, whenever I play it I crank the music up higher than the game sounds. While there are always more phenomenal video game soundtracks, I'm hard pressed to say I've ever played any other game with a more atmospheric soundtrack than this. Here, even just this, the Undermill theme:
Or how about the first hub, New Quack City's standard theme:
Each of the areas have their own theme, and each of them are also manipulate by the present of the individual characters, adding in instrumentation and alterations based on their representation (again, part of why my favorite character is the Scottish Bloodhound). It's enough of a final tasting to the game that doesn't outlive its welcome, which ultimately keeps bringing me back in the same way that certain movies are a yearly event. I'll probably be doing all I can to carry this game with me to the end of my days, purely for the fun and joy of it.
Years ago, back when young child Dameon was just turning 11 years of age, he was begging his parents for a new game console, and for that years Christmas, that's just what he got. Luckily for my parents, I was never one to ask for much, which meant that, luckily for me, this gift came with a lovingly and creatively curated stack of games. Among the stack, this absolute gem of a game, which I surprisingly learned some years later, was picked out for me by my aunt, who to anyone who did not know her, would judge her a prude. That said, the woman also got me MechWarrior 2 for PC, so... I knew her better than that.
Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge has, for all of my many years of gaming, got to be the most diamond in the rough video game I have ever had the good fortune to own. Granted, I'd never claim it's for everyone, but I'd also never claim to know why that's likely the case. Even to this day, I've gone back to play this gem in whatever capacity I can manage, and I still, to this day, own my original physical copy:
From the Beginning
Let's get this out of the way first and foremost: Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge is little more than a touched up re-release of the Dreamcast Original, Fur Fighters. The biggest changes of note are the inclusion of a now completed, then unfinished level, new spoken word voice acting opposite the "Animal Crossing" or "Banjo Kazooie" style chopped up voice acting of the original, and many of the character, weapon, animated models, and world objects graphics now Cel-Shaded. See below for a visual comparison:
(Fur Fighters)
(Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge)
Gameplay
From the onset, Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge is all about taking you on a long and fuzzy ride; The lands of Fur Fighter Village are open to you, with the various homes of the Fur Fighters to explore, secrets to locate and tease you, and the exits to the various hub worlds to see. Frankly, this is where I was hooked at first claw, thanks to all of the odd tidbits you could locate just in this space alone. From the interactive billiards table, to the extradimensional closet, and the pool of lava hiding a living room, I accidentally spent a full hour or two just wandering around the village as a child. So enamored was I with the myriad of interesting things I found, that I even began pushing the edges of the world just to see if there was anything I had missed! I forgot that there was a whole actual game to play here! So... what exactly does that entail?
Well, head on into the Village Undermill to find out; this is where you meet with your Mentor for training, good ol' General Bristol, and his assistant, Sgt. Sternhauser. Together, they'll take you through the third person exploration, puzzle, and action training to help get you through the game. Is the Tutorial mandatory? Not exactly, no, but along the way you'll also make things a tad easier on yourself by picking up some collectables, weapons... and some babies. Fur babies, who are also probably the most shoe-horned and tedious bit to this game. Now, being that these infants are the key primary game loop to the game, that isn't to say that it's all bad, but it's a disguised key to forcing you as the player to actively switch between the available main characters throughout the game; in order to collect all of the infant fur babies of each of the Fur Fighter parents, you will have to be playing as the character matching the species of the infant you are trying to collect. Thankfully, the levels are "mostly" planned around this, with the intent that you will have an opportunity to collect the parent needed BEFORE you encounter their children, but from time to time, you will meet child first, parent second, which of course means... ugh. Backtracking.
Do not get discouraged! The game is a complete blast otherwise; the characters each have their own intended abilities, certain ones can climb designated walls, others can jump higher than the rest or glide around, one is small, one is a dirty little sexist... who can swim, and another (my personal favorite) a Scottish Bloodhound, is the best gunfighter in the village... who can also dig tunnels (thanks to his war torn history, and that he is, in fact, a dog). Thankfully, the action and exploration of this game are very well designed, the enemies around you aren't exactly an intense threat, as they're more often than not played off as harmless bumbling idiots, but their aim is still enough of a threat that should you find yourself caught in an ambush, you're very likely to lose some fluff. Luckily, that character switching concept? Each individual Fur Fighter works off of their own health pool, and while you're not using an injured Fur Fighter, they'll slowly regain health. Cans of pet food scattered around the levels will also top you up in a jiff, so keep an eye out, and during the later game, memorize where they are so you can run back in a panic.
Now, I'm not going to do a deep dive into all of the locations that you'll be blasting your way through, but the hub worlds you will be exploring are, in order:
Fur Fighter Village - Cutesy island home of the titular Fur Fighters
New Quack City - New York City in all but... humanity
Beaver Power - A buzzing Dam construction project in the beavers woodlands
Cape Canardo - Literally NASA for flightless birds
Dinotopolis - Probably the highlight of all of the hub worlds
Anatat Tatanatat - Whip raiding frightful fun
Viggo-A-GoGo - The big bosses grand finale
Each of these hubs contain several individual levels to be completed, with various puzzles to solve, events to encounter, and lots of action set-pieces to conquer. At the time when I first played this game, one of the unfortunate factors of my reality, was that my parents were sadly unaware of the fact that a Memory Card was required to save your game (or that games needed saving at all). This meant long nights of gaming, along with leaving my PS2 on all night to save my progress. I mention this because, the length of this game is surprisingly substantial for what's presented to you on go. I wasn't anticipating the length of this game, as the levels are individually expansive, and will hold your attention well. Each exists in a varied space, and goes on from set piece to set piece, rather than each level being one whole unique event. You'll go from exploring a museum, to protecting the comically large diamonds on display, to saving the museum boiler operator from catastrophe, and finally into the museum vault, to stop a bank heist and keep them from running away with the jewels, all in the same level, and each and every level is like this.
Now, I personally am of the mind that the PS2 Fur Fighters Viggo's Revenge is the ultimate way to enjoy this title. The added level, Furry Forest, was actually in development early on during the original Dreamcast release, but never made it into the finished product, before eventually being completed and added to the PS2 release. It's one of the more disjointed levels in the game, seemingly more sporadic than the rest, but luckily also serves as somewhat of a refreshing experience. There is a laundry list of other changes between the two versions that I did not touch on, besides the main few I mentioned above, but as I'm trying to not divulge too much so as to avoid spoiling the experience, I won't get into them all. That said, the added enemies, weapons, and changes/bug fixes make the PS2 release the overall better experience, personal preference for the voices not withstanding.
The Multiplayer
Another surprising element to this game, the multiplayer, has a lot more going for it than is to be expected. For a classic couch party experience, up to four players with Multitap, and 12 levels (15 with unlocks, if memory serves), and various unique characters to unlock, the experience offers a lot of hilarity and competition for a PS2 game, and was often my go-to when cousins or friends were over, as it was surprisingly always a riot. Along the road there are cheats you can discover and unlock as well, which all alter the game in various ways, and could be utilized during "Fluffmatches" to liven up the fights!
Finally, the Finale
The final note that I want to hit on here, is the sound design. This is the biggest aspect that draws me into this game every time, it's one of the few games that now, in my older years, whenever I play it I crank the music up higher than the game sounds. While there are always more phenomenal video game soundtracks, I'm hard pressed to say I've ever played any other game with a more atmospheric soundtrack than this. Here, even just this, the Undermill theme:
Or how about the first hub, New Quack City's standard theme:
Each of the areas have their own theme, and each of them are also manipulate by the present of the individual characters, adding in instrumentation and alterations based on their representation (again, part of why my favorite character is the Scottish Bloodhound). It's enough of a final tasting to the game that doesn't outlive its welcome, which ultimately keeps bringing me back in the same way that certain movies are a yearly event. I'll probably be doing all I can to carry this game with me to the end of my days, purely for the fun and joy of it.
Pros
- + Heavily stylized design
- + Intriguingly creative gameplay
- + Enjoyable sound design and soundtrack
- + Multiplayer filled with hilarity and action
- + Campy story filled with loveable characters
Cons
- - Minor foul language
- - Semi-tedious "puzzle" elements
- - Out-dated control scheme (manageable)
- - Lengthier than it looks
9
Gameplay
Third Person Action combat interspersed with puzzle solving, a collect-a-thon core game loop, and lots of exploration, the game is a fully stuffed ride from start to finish.
7
Graphics
While my personal preference is for the Cel-Shaded graphics of this version of the game, I'm aware that it's not everyone's cup of tea, and many prefer the original stylings of the Dreamcast release.
8
Story
No, it's not a great story, but anyone looking for show stopper writing is missing the forest for the trees; It's an action adventure genre-mixer, coated in campy hilarity and with a touch of spunk.
10
Sound
Sorry ya'll, but I've gotta give it full marks here, the atmospheric soundtrack is the highlight of this one, and is one of the biggest reasons I've come back to this title again and again!
6
Replayability
Now, here's where I've gotta be honest. For most people, if you complete the game, you're probably not going to return to this one the way I do, but there's a solid community who still holds out hope.
8
out of 10
Overall
A rowdy, campy action filled collect-a-thon romp that's well worth a playthrough, and if you're anything like me, worth coming back to regularly.
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, certainly appreciate the pun on Foo Fighters, the 2000s were a heyday for music references.
