John Fox, which is spoofing John Wick, is a very simple 2D side scrolling beat’em up. There isn’t much depth to this 40-minute campaign but the charming pixel art and breezing gameplay is perfectly acceptable for its low asking price.

Playing an anthropomorphic fox who was once a quality mercenary, it is your job to kill hundreds of humanized frogs with your 3-hit katana combo swipes. Why? Because they killed your pet bug for no good reason. Again, the John Wick references run pretty thick.

Besides walking through each stage, there are only two verbs: attack and jump. However, jumping serves no purpose as there is no platforming, it doesn’t make you travel faster/further, and there isn’t even a special jump attack. Instead, the entire game is one note – just keep mashing the attack button. There is no strategy or finesse to the combat as it is completely mindless. In fact, if you stand still, enemies will often run into your blade in packs. Bosses, however, cannot be spammed and require simple hit-and-run techniques but they still don’t pose much of a threat.

Visually, the pixel art is quite wholesome although there isn’t much interactivity or variety to the stage design. Other than smacking a vending machine to collect a health restoring item, the lack of verticality or need for positioning keeps the experience repetitive. Towards the end, handguns can be used as enemies drop them but multiple shots are still required to fell all common enemies, which is pretty funny. This, in combination of the lack of a skill tree, a block mechanic, no heavy/light attacks, or unlockable abilities, results in nothing more than a basic brawler.

John Fox actually a really strong foundation for a beat’em up but I just wish there was more. Instead of releasing this game for $5, I would have preferred a few more options/features be included and charged double. Still, what is here isn’t bad despite offering nothing more than very casual, mindless attack-attack-attack fun. Plus, cheevo hunters will want to take note as all Gamerscore can be unlocked without even finishing the quest.

SCORE: 8/10

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

X/Twitter: @ZackGaz

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