While The Outfoxies may be obscure to some, it was a part of my childhood. Back in '95 or '96, when the Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 3 machines had lines that stretched seemingly to eternity, salvation came to fighting game fans in the form of The Outfoxies. It was fun and different, whereas in those early days of versus fighters, the "other stuff" (sadly, including some of SNK's best) were known as "Street Fighter ripoffs".
Word of mouth brought The Outfoxies to the forefront, and even though it never reached the popularity of the Big Two that resided around the corner, one never had to look far for an opponent in Namco's balls-to-the-wall shoot 'em up fighter.
So what's to love about The Outfoxies? The cast, for one. Although there are your run-of-the-mill characters like John Smith and Betty Doe, but it gets zanier from there. Others in the cast include evil ex-conjoined twins, Chinese professor in a pimped-out wheelchair, an actress-cum-thief with a lizard on her shoulder, a chimp in a tux and top hat, and my personal favorite, a tall bald cyborg in a posh blue suit.
Gameplay is where most of the fun is at, though. Battles take place in gigantic, Smash Bros.-esque levels, with dozens of death traps, weapons, and destructible environments. With so much chaos going on, the tide can turn at any moment. The only complaint about this is the fact that when two characters get far enough apart, the camera zooms way far out, making the action hard to see.
Other than that and an unforgivably tough final level, The Outfoxies is all aces in my book.