Trifox Review: "Throwback Platformer Misses The Mark"

The PS2 era of gaming is nostalgic for many people, and a lot of that is down to the mascots that moulded our childhood gaming experience. From Ratchet & Clank to Jak & Daxter - most of us dipped our toes in the platforming genre and found it to be a birthplace for our love of gaming. Fast-forward 20-or-so years and here we are in an age where live service titles and multiplayer shooters dominate the market. Amidst all the noise and destruction, it can be hard to remember those early years when we were all hunched around a tiny TV with our friends, attempting to beat a particularly challenging level. Trifox hopes to bring back that magic, with its own modern take on the 3D platformer genre.

It All Starts With A TV Remote...

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In order to understand the perilous journey you’re tasked to undertake in Trifox, you must ask yourself one important question - have you ever lost your TV remote? If the answer is yes, you most likely understand how thoroughly frustrating and angering it can be, and this brings us to Trifox. Your adventure begins in Trifox’s home, where mysterious bandits attack and steal his TV remote, forcing them to undertake a narrative to not only retrieve it, but stop a bigger plan at play.

From here, you’ll run, jump, and smash your way through a variety of levels, each set in some colourful locales that beg to be explored. The usual platformer tropes are all here, with each level containing multiple gems to find, enemies to destroy, and perilous traps and obstacles to jump your way through. It’s pretty standard stuff but is a reminder of yesteryear in all the best ways. There are even a few puzzles to block your progress and have you scratching your head as you figure out their solution.

All of this is separated by a hub area, that anyone who has played Crash Bandicoot will feel right at home in. There are three distinct worlds to visit, each with a couple of levels and a boss that makes up the gameplay loop for the roughly 4-5 hour adventure. You can strive to beat your high scores on levels or attempt no death runs, but after finishing the main campaign, there’s very little incentive to return outside of those options.

Customisation Is Key

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However, Trifox has one big trick up its sleeve to separate itself from the competition, which ultimately is the best thing going for it and its biggest weakness all in one. You are able to flip between three distinct classes: Warrior, Mage, and Engineer. Instead of being tied to one specific class, Trifox allows you to mix and match how you please by giving you the option to tie different abilities to various buttons on your controller.

As you progress through the multiple stages, you'll find coins scattered across the level. Whether they're discovered hidden in boxes, chests, or even by defeating enemies, you'll be incentivised to explore every nook and cranny. Back in the hub, you can visit the store and turn these in for new abilities to equip, with a handy dojo to test them out before diving back into the action. The sheer amount of options is great to see, and allows a degree of tinkering that we can only imagine Ratchet & Clank would dream of.

For example, if you wanted to use the Mage’s teleport ability but also wanted to drop some destructive turrets from the Engineer class, Trifox allows you to do so. The outcome means now two play styles will be the same, and players can experiment to find what works for them. Using your hammer to disrupt enemies, before firing rockets to finish them off feels fantastic when you pull it off, but as mentioned, this creativity is also Trifox’s downfall.

The Big But

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The key factor for any platformer is that it has to feel great to play. Moment-to-moment gameplay requires a certain flow that only the best in the genre achieve. If you’ve played games such as Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time or even more recent indie titles such as Tinykin, everything just clicks immediately. Unfortunately, Trifox fails to replicate this feeling, which ends up being a huge detriment to the game.

As you progress through the multiple stages, the physicality of your character just feels more and more sluggish. Your movement speed is slow, weapons don’t quite pack the punch you’d hope, and the fixed camera angle can often do you a disservice. It never quite comes together the way you’d hoped, and while there are moments where the light shines through thanks to its customisation, the finished product feels undercooked.

There’s also a weird sense of difficulty in Trifox. Enemies range from complete pushovers to bullet sponges. Of course, the method behind this madness is to push players to experiment with how they approach situations, but after trying out most of the configurations, the best results always seemed to be from spamming as many turrets as possible to help alleviate some of the pressure. Even on the easiest difficulty, Trifox can be deceptively challenging, pushing you back to the previous checkpoint if you’re not careful.

A Missed Opportunity

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While developer Glowfish Interactive clearly has a huge love for the genre, it ultimately all comes together as one missed opportunity. From a technical standpoint, Trifox runs flawlessly, but its sluggish control scheme and lacklustre combat don’t make this an experience worth recommending. It may be a short and breezy affair, but Trifox may test your patience just a few mere worlds in. A platformer lives or dies on how it controls, and unfortunately, Trifox leans into the latter camp.

However, the freedom of customisation is fantastic and the art style of Trifox makes it a world you want to be in. Mixed in with some decent level design and a few fun set pieces to sink your teeth into, there is enough here to grab your attention. If you can look past Trifox's shortcomings and accept it's not on the same pedestal as other titles in the genre - even in the indie scene - you may just find some fun to have throughout the adventure.

6/10

Reviewed on Xbox. Code provided by the publisher.