Fury of the Furries
Fury of the Furries is a platform/puzzle game developed by Kalisto and published by Mindscape for Amiga, Amiga CD32, Macintosh, and MS-DOS. It was later relicensed by Namco as Pac-In-Time, replacing the characters to fit the Pac-Man franchise.
| Fury of the Furries | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Kalisto |
| Publisher(s) | Mindscape |
| Designer(s) | Cyrille Fontaine |
| Composer(s) | Frédéric Motte |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, CD32, MS-DOS, Macintosh |
| Release | 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Plot
A group of Tinies return to their home planet after a voyage in space. They find out that their beautiful home has been turned into a horrid place by The Wicked One, a dark and cunning Tiny with a giant fang jutting from its mouth. The player controls a Tiny, who must defeat The Wicked One, who has captured the king and turned all the Tinies into mindless monsters by using a device simply referred to as "the machine".
Gameplay
The player guides a small furry, bouncy and fragile Tiny across eight regions of the land, Desert, Lagoon, Forest, Pyramids, Mountains, Factory, Village, and finally the Castle where one must defeat the Wicked One. The regions each have unique music, color schemes and styles. Each has 10 separate levels and a collection of secret bonus levels. The final stage of the game has the player entering the machine (which turns out to be a large industrial complex) and destroying it. Along the way the player must avoid various perils, such as monsters, spikes and acid.
The game's primary unique feature is Tiny's ability to transform itself into four different forms: yellow, green, red and blue. Different skills are required at different points, and not all forms are available in all levels. Particularly in levels which are primarily puzzlers, the player may encounter fields which activate and deactivate certain powers.
In its yellow form, it controls the element of fire, allowing it to shoot fireballs. In its red form, it controls the element of earth, allowing it to eat through some elements of the scenery. In its green form, it controls the element of air, allowing it to produce ropes from its hands to swing around the environment and it can also pull different objects with its rope. In its blue form, it controls the element of water, allowing the ability to dive underwater and shooting bubbles that damage hostiles.
Pac-In-Time
In 1994 Fury of the Furries was licensed to Namco which changed the graphics & music, and released the game as Pac-In-Time as part of the Pac-Man franchise. The DOS and Macintosh versions of the game were mostly identical to the original, but with Pac-Man as the game's protagonist.
References within the game
- One can play the game in the Fremen language.
- The game contains references to various cultural phenomena, including Shakespeare, Pac-Man, Batman, Cool Spot, Street Fighter II and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Level two of the Pyramid stage references the giant ball trap from the tomb at the start of the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Level four of the Pyramid stage is based on the ending to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with the three traps inside the temple being recreated in Furry form.
- Furry versions of the Big Bad Wolf and "Little Red Riding Hood" appear in level five of the Village stage, as well as The Three Little Pigs.
- Level nine of the Village stage includes a white balloon-like enemy that chases the tiny around the level. It is a reference to Rover, the device used to chase would-be escapees in The Village in The Prisoner.
- In the Village stage you can also see the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet of Shakespeare.
- The loading screens include parodies, too. The Desert's shows a Tiny ridding the sandworm from Dune of Frank Herbert, while Pyramid's shows a Tiny in an Indiana Jones outfit. The loading screen of Forest levels shows a Tiny in Tarzan outfit. The image shown during the Lagoon's loading shows a parody of the Jaws poster. On the loading screen of the Factory the Tiny version of the T-1000 shows up. On the Village levels' loading screen, the bicycle from E.T. is visible on the sky.
- In Mountains level appears purple cow referred to Milka chocolate.
- Dracula appears in level one of the Castle stage.
- Level two of the Castle stage, featuring a maze complete with ghosts and hundreds of coins, mimics the Pac-Man series of games.
- Level five of the Castle stage is based on the Donkey Kong series.
- One level of the Machine refers to arcade pinball game play field (includes flippers and kickers), while a Tiny is acting as a steel ball, while another features a parody of Space Invaders. This stage also features Batman, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Guile, Chun-Li and Blanka from Street Fighter, an Alien and a Lemming from the Psygnosis game Lemmings.
- The Smurfs appear in the Village stage.
Reception
Computer Gaming World in April 1994 said that Fury of the Furries "sports an awful plot and totally unoriginal gameplay, but it has good graphics and is quite addictive ... unoriginal, bland and safe".[1]
In 1994, PC Gamer UK named Fury of the Furries the 40th best computer game of all time. The editors called it "a must for anyone with a huge arcade appetite."[2]
References
- Matthews, Robin (April 1994). "Sequel Syndrome Strikes Again". Over There. Computer Gaming World. pp. 124, 126.
- Staff (April 1994). "The PC Gamer Top 50 PC Games of All Time". PC Gamer UK (5): 43–56.