Psyco Fox (SMS) vs DecapAttack (GEN)

[mdk]

Now I'm not sure if I am the only person to notice this but has anyone else noticed that these 2 games seem to use the same game engine? The controls and gameplay are identicle. Load up copies of each and see for yourself. They are the same game.

[blue lander]

Those guys essentially made the same game three times. There's another one on the NES, Kid Kool I think? It plays the same as well.

[mdk]

Yeah I just remeber playing Psyco Fox like crazy as a lad. You start out as a fox and have a small crow on your shoulder that you through out to do your dirty work. In DecapAttack you play as a mummy and you use your head the same way. The controls and feel is exactly the same. I've never tried that NES title tho..may have to track it down.

[blue lander]

I hear the NES one is the worst of the bunch. I love Psycho Fox, but I never liked all the blind jumps you had to make in the game. Sometimes I'd have jump off a platform with no idea if there was something dangerous below me. Decap Attack solved a lot of those problems, but I didn't like the style as much as Psycho Fox. Plus I liked choosing different animals, although I didn't like having to use buttons on the console to do it.

[CosmicMonkey]

Anyone ever wondered why they changed Megical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure into DecapAttack for it's Western release?

Anyone know the actual reason?

[NeoZeedeater]

They probably felt the theme would go over better with Western players. Also, the Japanese release was based on an anime so maybe there were licensing issues.

As for the main question, I would go with Decapattack by a small margin because of the level design and control. I agree with blue lander about Psycho Fox's style being more appealing though. Kid Kool is nearly unplayable to me because the controls are so bad.

[blue lander]

I agree. Decap Attack is really a refinement over Psycho Fox, but suffers from its own problems. Had they made one more Psycho Fox style game, maybe on the Saturn or Playstation, I bet they really would have gotten it right.

[segagamer4life]

ah psycho fox,, what a tough but great game on the sms, I still have a blast playing that, any of you guys beat it?

[CRV]

All of these games were done by VIC TOKAI. And if it wasn't VIC TOKAI, it was whatever team VIC TOKAI outsourced their games to. I've checked and compared the credits of a bunch of games.

Bock of SMS Power posted an interesting screenshot of the Psycho Fox title screen from a magazine, featuring a copyright to Aimo. We don't know if that's a real company or if that's a pseudonym for VIC TOKAI (to avoid the Nintendo Gestapo).

http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7110

[Xexyz]

Avoid Kid Kool like the plague. The momentum style controls really ruin it when it comes to jumping gaps carefully. It's like playing Mario, with all the enemies and pits around at a semi-Sonic speed. Not a good mix.

[mdk]

ah psycho fox,, what a tough but great game on the sms, I still have a blast playing that, any of you guys beat it?

If I remembed correctly there is a warp on the first lvl that'll take you right to the end stage...man I'll have to break it out to verify. I know I beat it many times as a lad.

[Ed Oscuro]

I agree. Decap Attack is really a refinement over Psycho Fox, but suffers from its own problems. Had they made one more Psycho Fox style game, maybe on the Saturn or Playstation, I bet they really would have gotten it right.
Isn't that pretty much the history of 2D gaming, in a nutshell?