Welcome to our review of Trifox, a game on Nintendo Switch that shifts gears early in the game and becomes harder than you’d expect.
Trifox is a colourful and cartoonish action-adventure featuring a phenomenal fox with a multitude of talents! Choose from a trio of classes – Warrior, Mage, Engineer – or mix-and-match abilities to create a tailor-made hero! After his home is attacked and his TV remote stolen, Trifox sets out in pursuit of the mysterious looters in an action-packed adventure. Use magic, might, and marvelous gadgets to outfox foes across four danger-filled worlds as you fight your way to a final showdown at Villain HQ!
Three different classes: Wield a giant hammer as a Warrior! Master magic and mystery as a Mage! Use a backpack full of gadgets as an Engineer! Mix-and-match styles: Customise your Trifox by combining different class-based abilities! Want to cast spells and fire a Gatling Gun? No problem! 30 abilities to unlock: Collect and spend coins to gain new skills, such as Spike Slam, Shield Bubble, Guided Missile, and many more!
Four worlds to beat: Fight hordes of enemies, traverse platforming pitfalls, overcome environmental puzzles, and battle big angry bosses! A modern retro adventure: A new and fresh experience designed to evoke the spirit of classic 3D platformers!
Trifox on Switch is a bit of a weird one. I just feel like it was made for a much higher resolution, you can see how detailed the main character is but on the small handheld screen… Something feels off right from the start, the main character is a little too busy, from backpacks with superhero iron man style weapons to magic bullets, … Sadly this system is a little too precise in its use and you need to really accurately fire at anything that moves, more often than not miss.
Especially when the enemies get faster or more agile, the shooting system, like those magic bullets, they seem to home in on the enemies, but in reality, they just pick random targets and while being attacked, the game just decides to keep attacking a random tree on screen. Yes, you can move around to abuse that bullet trajectory to start hitting your enemies, but surely that could not have been the idea, right?
Another thing that is really weird, is when it gets to like midway through the third level, it suddenly spikes in difficulty, so much so that the game almost becomes undesirable to play. I know this sounds harsh but at first, you can live with the quirks of the game, but the longer it takes, that difficulty spike is really unforgiving. Like you start playing Super Mario but suddenly find yourself in a session of Tunic and then to go into full Elden Ring made. Your weapon doing barely any damage and you got these sneaky pests circling you from every side… Yeah, this game is for the lover of harder games and I am not its intended target.
I often play on Easy Mode, not because I can not handle it, heck, I finished more than a few tougher nuts out there, but I just enjoy the story. When I think Trifox however, I just could not get into it. Most of the time playing, I was just getting annoyed at one thing or the other, be it the background covering the character, be it constantly missing the enemies or it auto-homing in on anything BUT…. Sigh, I always felt like part of me wanted to love this game, but the part of me that was playing felt differently…
In conclusion, Trifox is a toughie, many will like it, but it was not my thing. Maybe if they fixed the jumping mechanic, and made it easier, … Too many things I can come up with that need improvements………
