Fox Hunt (video game)

{{Infobox video game

| title = Fox Hunt

| image = Fox_Hunt's_Cover,_Fox_Hunt_is_a_game_made_for_Windows_3.x_and_PSX_systems_in_1996..jpg

| developer = 3Vision Gamers

| publisher = Capcom

| director = Michael Berns

| producer = Adam Burns
Matt Pyken

| writer = Matt Pyken

| composer = Mark Mothersbaugh

| platforms = Microsoft Windows, PlayStation

| released = Microsoft Windows{{vgrelease|NA|February 1996{{Cite web |date= |title=Fox Hunt at a Glance |url=http://www.gamespot.com/intmovie/foxhunt/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970205011925/http://www.gamespot.com/intmovie/foxhunt/index.html |archive-date=February 5, 1997 |access-date=December 20, 2023 |website=GameSpot}}}}PlayStation{{vgrelease|NA|October 28, 1996{{Cite web |date=October 28, 1996 |title=News |url=http://www.escapade.com/departments/10289605.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961104061658/http://www.escapade.com/departments/10289605.htm |archive-date=November 4, 1996 |access-date=December 20, 2023 |website=Escapade}}}}

| genre = Interactive movie

| modes = 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.

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 kicked out of his house forever.

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.{{cite magazine|author=EGM staff|title=Fox Hunt: This Fox Is No Hound |magazine=Electronic Gaming Monthly|url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronicGamingMonthly_201902/Electronic%20Gaming%20Monthly%20Issue%20089%20%28December%201996%29/page/n287/|issue=89|publisher=Ziff Davis|date=December 1996 |pages=286–7|issn=1058-918X}}

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.{{cite web | author=Sheffield, Brandon | date=September 22, 2005 | title=Interview: The Glu That Binds: Greg Ballard On Mobile |

url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/interview-the-glu-that-binds-greg-ballard-on-mobile |

archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827074642/https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/interview-the-glu-that-binds-greg-ballard-on-mobile | archive-date=August 27, 2021 | publisher=Informa | work=Game Developer | accessdate=April 11, 2022}} Fox Hunt was developed on a budget of up to $2 million.{{cite magazine|author=GamePro staff | title=On the Trail of Foxhunt|magazine=GamePro|issue=77|publisher=IDG|date=December 1995|pages=38–40 |issn=1042-8658}}{{cite magazine | author=Strauss, Bob | date=August 9, 1996 | title=CD-ROM games might have wider appeal on the big screen | url=https://ew.com/article/1996/08/09/cd-rom-games-might-have-wider-appeal-big-screen/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127083852/https://ew.com/article/1996/08/09/cd-rom-games-might-have-wider-appeal-big-screen/| archive-date=January 27, 2018| publisher=Dotdash Meredith | magazine=Entertainment Weekly | accessdate=April 10, 2022}} 3Vision consisted of writer/producer Matt Pyken, producer/lawyer Adam Berns, and director Michael Berns (Adam's brother) at the helm. The trio had previously created the 1994 PC game National Lampoon's Blind Date. 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.{{cite magazine | author=Meyer, Bill | date=September 1995 | title=Is It a Movie, Or Is It a Game? | magazine=Electronic Entertainment | issue=21 | publisher=Infotainment World, Inc. | pages=42–6 | issn=1074-1356 | url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronicEntertainment21Sep1995/page/n43/}} 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.

Fox Hunt was shot on 16 mm film instead of video for improved resolution. Casting for the game was conducted in the second quarter of 1995. 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). 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. 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." 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.{{cite web|author=Saylor, Mark|date=May 9, 1997|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-05-09-fi-57000-story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410122847/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-05-09-fi-57000-story.html|archive-date=April 10, 2022|title=Cannes: Another Twist in the Path to Filmdom|work=Los Angeles Times|accessdate=April 10, 2022}}{{cite magazine | author=VideoGames staff | date=February 1996 | title=First Look: Fox Hunt| url=https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_The_Ultimate_Gaming_Magazine_Issue_85_February_1996/page/n58/ | magazine=VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine | issue=85 | pages=56–7 | publisher=Larry Flynt Publications | issn=1059-2938}}

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.{{cite web | author=D'Angelo, Julie | date=September 7, 1997 | title=Screen Synergy | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-07-ca-29615-story.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410171542/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-07-ca-29615-story.html | archive-date=April 10, 2022 | work=Los Angeles Times | accessdate=April 11, 2022}} 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.{{cite web | author=Rollo & Grady | date=January 22, 2012 | title=Music Supervisor Profile :: Michelle Kuznetsky | url=http://www.rollogrady.com/music-supervisor-profile-michelle-kuznetsky/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508013815/http://www.rollogrady.com/music-supervisor-profile-michelle-kuznetsky/ | archive-date=May 8, 2021 | publisher= Rollo & Grady | accessdate=April 16, 2022}} 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.{{cite magazine | author=Gillen, Marilyn A. | date=December 2, 1995 | title=CD-ROM Pack-Ins Move Soundtracks | magazine=Billboard | publisher=Eldridge Industries | volume=107 | number=48 |page=72 | issn=0006-2510}} "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.

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.{{cite magazine | author=GamePro staff | date=September 1995 | title=Short ProShots: Fox Hunt | magazine=GamePro | publisher=IDG |issue=77 | page=130 | issn=1042-8658}} Despite being officially advertised alongside the other versions,{{cite magazine | author=Capcom staff | date=May 1996| title=Fox Hunt print advertisement| magazine=Electronic Gaming Monthly | publisher=Ziff Davis |issue=82 | page=93 | issn=1058-918X}} these were never released. The Windows version of Fox Hunt sold 25,000 copies in its first six months on sale. By mid-1997, both versions of the game had sold about 50,000 copies combined. 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."

=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.{{cite web | author=Boone, Christian | date=August 31, 1997 | title=No, but We've Played the CD-ROM Version | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-31-ca-27451-story.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417150029/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-31-ca-27451-story.html | archive-date=April 17, 2022 | work=Los Angeles Times | accessdate=April 17, 2022}} 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. 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. 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. "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. As of mid-1997, the game had not acquired a US distributor.{{cite magazine | author=Kwinn, Ann | date=April 1997 | title=Special Formats: Fox Hunt| url=https://archive.org/details/jandecboxoffice1997boxorich_201403/page/n439/ | magazine=Boxoffice | publisher=Associated Publications |page=192 | volume=133 | number=4 |issn=0006-8527}}

Reception

{{Video game reviews

| GSpot=6.8/10{{Cite web|url=http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/fox-hunt-review/1900-2536089/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208182205/https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/fox-hunt-review/1900-2536089/ |archive-date=February 8, 2021|title=Fox Hunt Review|publisher=CBS Interactive| author=Anderson, Rebecca | date=May 1, 2000 | work=GameSpot|access-date=April 10, 2022}}

| rev1= Computer Game Review

| rev1Score = 116/300{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961221184917/http://www.nuke.com/cgr/reviews/9604/foxhunt/foxhunt.htm | url=http://www.nuke.com/cgr/reviews/9604/foxhunt/foxhunt.htm | title=Royale with Cheese | date=April 1996 | author1=Snyder, Frank | author2=Chapman, Ted | author3=Gehrs, Scott | work=Computer Game Review | archive-date=December 21, 1996 | url-status=dead }}

| rev2=Entertainment Weekly

| rev2Score = B−{{cite magazine | author=Burr, Ty | date=January 19, 1996 | title=Fox Hunt | url=https://ew.com/article/1996/01/19/fox-hunt/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304221718/https://ew.com/article/1996/01/19/fox-hunt/ | archive-date=March 4, 2021 | publisher=Dotdash Meredith | magazine=Entertainment Weekly | accessdate=April 10, 2022}}

|rev3=PC Entertainment

|rev3Score={{rating|2.8|6}}{{cite magazine | author=Meyer, Bill | date=April 1996 | title=Action Adventure: Fox Hunt | url=https://archive.org/details/PCEntertainment28Apr1996/page/n57/mode/ | magazine=PC Entertainment | publisher=International Data Group| issue=26 | page=56 |issn=1093-295X}}

|rev4=PC Joker

|rev4Score=62%{{cite magazine | author=Albers, Ole | date=May–June 1996 | title=Explorer — Games Für Abenteurer: Fox Hunt | url=https://archive.org/details/pcjokermai1996images/page/n38/ | magazine=PC Joker|publisher=Joker Verlag| issue=42 | page=40}}

}}

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." 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.

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