The Outfoxies

The Outfoxies is a fighting game released by Namco for arcades in 1994. Players choose from seven assassins—including a mercenary, a businesswoman, a scientist in a wheelchair, a cyborg/former soldier with a prosthetic arm, twin children, a chimpanzee, and a former film star turned criminal—and battle one-on-one in arenas. The goal is to kill the opponent using weapons scattered around the stage, ranging from pistols, machine guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and swords to more absurd items like hot soup and pie. Crates and barrels can also be thrown. Each character has a special ability, and close-quarters attacks deal light damage, but most harm comes from weapons; if a player is hit while holding a weapon, they drop it. Stages are large, with multiple platforms and obstacles, and feature dynamic environmental events: an aquarium stage floods when water tanks rupture, releasing sharks; a skyscraper stage starts at the top and slowly explodes as players scale down; other stages on planes or boats shake and sway.

The game was designed by Masateru Umeda, who later created the arcade game *Dancing Eyes* (1996). It ran on the Namco NB-2 arcade system and debuted in Japanese arcades in March 1994. At the time, 3D fighting games were overshadowing 2D ones, and the market was dominated by Capcom and SNK, so *The Outfoxies* received little attention. Original arcade boards are now rare and collectible. In December 2025, Hamster Corporation brought the game to modern platforms via its Arcade Archives series for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, and its Arcade Archives 2 series for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Despite its initial obscurity, *The Outfoxies* has gained critical acclaim in retrospect. Critics have praised its outlandish, over-the-top action, comparing it to action films and the work of Goichi Suda. Hardcore Gaming 101 called it a "ridiculously over-the-top" action film; Game*Spark likened it to a disaster film or B-class action movie; Destructoid highlighted its bizarre cast and noted it had more "weirdness and non-stop violence" than Suda’s games. Coincidentally, Suda is a fan and owns a copy displayed at Grasshopper Manufacture’s office, though he says he learned of the game after developing *Killer7* (2005), and any similarities are coincidental.