Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge

This was one of my favorite Dreamcast games growing up. I played the PS2 version later. Tragically, it's now an obscure and largely forgotten game, but not by me. So, I decided to make a review as a dedication on just how great it was.

After defeating their arch enemy General Viggo, an elite team of animal soldiers called the Fur Fighters have settled down to living in peace in their village. But now Viggo has returned and has kidnapped the Fur Fighters to hold hostage while he pursues his goal of world domination. Now the fur fighters must fight one last battle to save their families and stop Viggo once and for all.

Basically, the game is a quirky but successful mixture of Banjo Kazooie, Tomb Raider, and a dash of James Bond: a third-person shooter with cute and cartoonish animals. But despite the high level of violence and weaponry, there's no blood, but fluff instead. This didn't mitigate the fun factor or intensity, but instead gives it an endearing feel to kids and adults alike. Plus, the gameplay was supplemented by clever and intricate puzzles the player had to solve to advance further or rescue certain babies.

Speaking of which, the main objective was to search five worlds to rescue the Fur Fighters kidnapped children and collect golden tokens to unlock new levels, defeat bosses, and obtain key items. The world and level designs were riveting and diverse with plenty of room for exploration.

The graphics and sound effects were awesome and funny. The music was catchy. There was plenty of humor and references to Star Wars, James Bond, Indiana Jones, and others that gave the game even more spirit that would attract film fans.

There were drawbacks though. As typical for early 3D platformers, the camera was frustrating at times. The multi-player mode was enjoyable but lacked certain features that kept it from achieving it's true potential. And personally, I found the actual voice acting a bit lackluster and less enjoyable than the voice blips in the Dreamcast version.

Overall, this was a criminally underrated game that I still remember fondly today.