Trifox is a twin stick action-adventure game with a fondness for mascot platformers from the genre’s golden age. Developer Glowfish Interactive takes lessons from the greats like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon, and Ratchet & Clank and “Frankensteins” them into a cartoonish, slapstick package. With a twist on combat that gives players more say in how they play, Trifox is a reminder that a game can still pay homage to its roots while trying something new. I enjoyed my time with Trifox, but with its short playtime and some aspects lacking variety, I found myself wanting more.
Trifox follows the titular fox on the hunt for his stolen TV remote. This takes him across multiple worlds and enemies, fighting his way back to the creature comfort of changing the station from his chair. It’s not the main focus (not that it ever has been in this genre), but Trifox does a great job of conveying its main story beats through short cutscenes and gibberish dialogue.
Booting up the game, players will find themselves in a central hub that will look familiar to anyone who has played Crash Warped (the third Crash Bandicoot.) From here players can purchase abilities, equip and test attacks, check their game stats, and select a level. It’s a great one stop shop that immediately rings the nostalgia bell. Also present is the ability to check your completion percentage for each level. Any missed extras or collectibles are communicated clearly to the player.
On the levels, each is a healthy mix of 3D platforming, puzzle solving, and twin stick shooting. Split between three worlds (four if you count the final boss area) each feels unique and plays to a specific theme. The standouts for me are easily the winter tundra levels and the pirate islands. Again, I couldn’t help but think of Crash Bandicoot as I tried to land carefully planned jumps to avoid landing in the deadly water or a bottomless pit. The levels look great, minus the camera cutting through walls when entering interior areas. It doesn’t take away from the experience, just feels like a weird design choice.
Combat is the most ambitious aspect of Trifox. You’re not hopping on enemies’ heads or spinning them off the screen. Split between three classes – Engineer, Mage, and Warrior – players can unlock different abilities and choose the best playstyle for them. Warrior focuses on melee attacks and brute force, using your hammer weapon. Mage and engineer focus on projectile weapons, with the former giving players access to defensive weapons and the latter giving players access to stationary guns. You can focus on just one, but the real fun comes in mixing and matching across the three classes.
For example, you can bunch enemies together with the mage vortex, and then cause large amounts of damage with the engineer stationary flamethrower. In another instance, I found myself dropping a mage shield and luring enemies into my mines, before finishing off stragglers with my hammer spin. The only shortcoming of the combat system is that the game isn’t that long. My playthrough of the campaign came in just under five hours. This doesn’t leave much time to experiment with combos if you don’t plan on replaying levels.
Trifox is not a difficult game. Players playing on normal will breeze through levels, no matter their build. The enemies did leave me wanting a little more variety. There are blob monsters, bipedal foxes, big and small, and a few mechs. I just felt I had seen every enemy type by the half-way point, with some variants resembling earlier enemies too closely. Mini-bosses in some levels do spice things up. The four main bosses feel like something found in the early Crash games. I do feel they dip into the trope of calling in smaller enemies to heighten the fight’s difficulty a few too many times. The game throws some puzzles at you, but this again feels like a place lacking in variety, with most puzzles taking the form of finding a battery to open a door. The platforming feels like the most diverse aspect of the level design. The perfect example of this is a later level set in a volcano base. The area is filled with collapsible platforms, electrical areas, and a trap room, that all challenge your timing and ability to move around the space. There are some special levels later on that add some variety. These are great, I again just wish there were more of them.
Trifox is a fun game with a focus on combat and giving players control of how they want to approach it. It’s a love letter to old mascot platformers that marries their style and feel with its take on combat. If you can get over the short playtime and lack of variety in enemies and puzzles, you’re in for a nostalgia kick that’s perfect for mouse-and-keyboard, or on the go with your Steam Deck.
