"Kill your enemy by any means!"
The Outfoxies is an arcade video game that came out in 1995 made by Namco. It stars 7 hitmen who have been hired by a mysterious client known as Mr. Acme to kill 7 art collectors. Unknown to the other 7 characters, Mr. Acme decides to have them fight each other to the death so he doesn't have to actually pay them.
- John Smith is a man willing to do anything for money, ranging from babysitting to starting a revolution.
- Betty Doe is an enterpreneur who needs capital for her various businesses, and is also a contract killer.
- Bernard White is a bio-engineer who has a metallic right hand after losing his real one in an accident.note
- Eve is a former actress who became a thief and has a pet iguana who helps her in her thefts.
- Professor Ching, is a scientist who rides in a wheelchair armed with gadgets and is a Chinese martial arts master.
- Dweeb is a chimpanzee who's paid in bananas and is the kidnapped son of chimp star Mr. Happy.
- Danny and Demi are former Conjoined Twins that were separated after a near-fatal train crash. They have separate bodies but share a killer instinct.note
While not very well known at the time of its release, it's notable for its unique style of gameplay, which basically plays a lot like Rolling Thunder if you turned it into a Fighting Game of sorts. The areas consist of big arenas which are basically destructible environments. Not only that, there's a variety of weapons for each of the characters to use in the levels, as well as using the environment to their advantage to kill their enemies. It's seen by many as a Spiritual Predecessor to the Super Smash Bros. series.
I offer you 1,000,000 Swiss Francs to edit and add these tropes:
- Angry Guard Dog: Encountered at Mr. Acme's mansion.
- Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: On Dweeb's plane stage, a helicopter will rescue you and drop you back on the level at the cost of some health. The handcar on Bernard's train stage works the same way.
- Bottomless Magazines: The rocket launcher you need to blow up Mr. Acme's helicopter has unlimited ammo.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Your score tally at the end of each fight works like this; You are given a preset "Reward" of money (points) by Mr. Acme, and upon defeating the opponent and receiving the reward, you are given a "Hospital Bill" (amount of health lost during the fight) that is subtracted from your net "Total" of money, and your total earnings add to your "Bank Account" (sum of points across all fights) as the game progresses.
- Cherry Tapping: It's possible to kill a nearly defeated opponent on one level with a fruit basket or a bowl of hot soup.
- Contract on the Hitman: Each of the seven assassins has a contract to kill one of the other six. Since there's no way to tell who has your contract, you're out to kill all of them, just to make sure.
- Crate Expectations: Crates can house weapons, and can be thrown on top of your enemy's head, disorienting them for a moment.
- Critical Existence Failure: They can survive getting blown up, electrocuted, and still keep attacking like normal as long as they still have health left.
- Death of a Child: Danny and Demi are child assassins, after all, and their death animation is just as bloody as anyone else's.
- Do Not Drop Your Weapon: Averted. Getting hit even once causes you to lose whatever weapon you had at the time.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Danny and Demi cannot possibly be conjoined twins because they are opposite sexes.
- Evil Laugh: Mr. Acme (actually Mrs.) if you die on the last level.
- Executive Suite Fight: Subverted. While you encounter Mr. and Mrs. Acme in their office, they try to kill you and escape, and you end up chasing them to a Rooftop Confrontation instead for the final battle.
- Fake Difficulty: On later stages, the opponent's attacks do more damage than yours.
- Falling Damage: Subverted. You'll just be stunned for a bit when you fall from a high place.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Danny and Demi's running attack has one of the twins swing the other around as an attack.
- Handicapped Badass: Professor Ching, in the overseas versions of the game.
- Hellish Copter: In the final battle, the Acmes attempt to escape on their helicopter, but you shoot it down with a rocket launcher. As the two fall, the damaged helicopter falls as well, crushing and killing them.
- High-Altitude Battle: Dweeb's stage takes place on a military plane.
- Improvised Weapon: Barrels, fruit baskets, Human Cannonballs, hot soup...
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Found all over in place in Professor Ching's weapons factory stage.
- Informed Ability: Double Subverted. Bernard's metallic right hand gives him super strength, and it's proven when he holds any throw-able crate or barrel with his just his metallic hand. However, melee attacks aren't very powerful in this game.
- Interesting Situation Duel: All of the levels are like this. Stages include a moving train, a boat on a stormy ocean, and a plane in mid-flight. Two other stages (an aquarium and a skyscraper) are relatively normal... until bombs start going off, altering your surroundings.
- Level in Boss Clothing: Mr. Acme's mansion. You chase him throughout the level, getting through the traps as best as you possibly can, and after encountering him and his wife, you chase them down to the basement and have to throw back a grenade they toss at you to knock them down. They'll retreat to the elevator, where you give chase, and must blast their helicopter out of the sky to defeat them.
- The Man Behind the Man: Mr. Acme's wife was calling the shots the whole time.
- Multiple Life Bars: Your character has three, going from green, to yellow, to red.
- Platform Fighter: An Unbuilt Trope at this point in video game history.
- Score Screen: After each stage, your score is tallied. Each score screen is predicated by the winner doing something to the television showing an image of their opponent:
- John Smith slaps a "DONE!" sticker on the screen.
- Betty Doe turns the TV off.
- Bernard White punches the screen with his metal fist.
- Eve shoots the TV 3 times with her pistol.
- Danny and Demi scribble on the screen with a green crayon.
- Prof. Ching types on his keyboard while "DISPOSED" shows up on the screen.
- Dweeb changes the channel to cartoons.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: Your hospital bill at the end of a match (see Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp" above) dramatically rises in cost the more damage you take by the end; It's not uncommon for the bill cost the player character hundreds of thousands of dollars if they've performed really badly.
- Super Wheelchair: Professor Ching rides one for no reason other than its super, at least in the Japanese version.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Many of the environments are destructible, and this also happens to Professor Ching's wheelchair if he dies.
- Swiss Bank Account: As befitting of high-profile criminals, all of Mr. Acme's bounties are paid out in Swiss francs. Later on in the game, you can receive up to 2,400,000₣ for a single bounty if you play your cards right.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: How Mr. Acme and his wife are defeated. After blowing their helicopter out of the sky with a rocket launcher, Mr. Acme falls to the ground, then his wife falls on top of him, and then the helicopter crashes on them both.
- Throw a Barrel at It: Barrels can be picked up and thrown similar to crates. If they hit your opponent, they'll take nasty damage and struggle to crawl out from under it.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Averted; you are invincible during a roll maneuver.
- Throw-Away Guns: Everywhere. Helps that they're all over the place and show up as weapon drops.
Proceed with caution!
