Spy Fox 2: "Some Assembly Required"

Following the success of Spy Fox in: “Dry Cereal”, Humongous Entertainment began releasing follow-up games on a mostly-annual basis, as they have done with some of their other popular titles. After a spin-off arcade-style game called Spy Fox in: ”Cheese Chase”, the next true follow-up to the original Spy Fox would come two years later in the form of Spy Fox 2: “Some Assembly Required”. Though I wasn’t sure what to expect from Spy Fox’s second outing, I overall found it had greatly improved on some things over the previous main game and still made for an enjoyable experience.

On a ski lift, Spy Fox receives a tip about an organization called S.M.E.L.L.Y. (Society of Meaningless Evil, Larceny, Lying and Yelling), particularly about an evil scheme orchestrated by its leader, Napoleon LeRoach. At the World’s Fair, LeRoach has a plan to unleash his weapon, The Giant Evil Dogbot, on the city. Though Spy Fox is initially held captive by LeRoach inside the Dogbot, he quickly makes his escape and must figure out how to shut down the Dogbot before it’s too late.

As with the original Spy Fox game, the story is pretty easy to follow, which works well for its intended audience. As with “Dry Cereal”, there is some branching in the story, however, while I only played the game once for review, I know that there’s just one other story path that affects an important item needed to stop the Dogbot, which seems underwhelming compared to the previous entry and makes the experience seem a bit more linear. That said, there are still some parts with evident RNG elements, such as a fruit-based code you need to use at the end or what type of food you need to make to access another area. There is, however, still a moment at the end where you need to perform a certain action to actually be able to capture LeRoach, though making this decision seemed quicker than in “Dry Cereal”; not making this decision gets you an alternate ending where you almost capture LeRoach, though I didn’t actually see whether this affected anything in the credits.

Spy Fox (center) has to stop the Giant Evil Dogbot (back)
before LeRoach can activate it.

The game retains similar point-and-click gameplay from the previous installment, including the ability to see small animations when clicking around the environment. That said, something introduced in this game is that a couple items will explode after the story decides you are done with them, such as a fake ID machine you have to use to get into Chateau LeRoach (which Spy Fox himself stresses to the player is something he’s only using because he’s on a case, otherwise forging IDs is bad). Though there are fewer environmental puzzles, a lot of them still require paying close attention to some of the surroundings and certain bits of information given by the characters. Solving these puzzle may require some back-and-forth in the area, though the World’s Fair is fairly well-designed and offers plenty of things to explore. The animations retain the general Humongous art style, however the graphical quality is greatly improved over “Dry Cereal” and some characters, including Spy Fox himself, have a much wider range of facial expressions and body language.

The voice acting is largely the same for recurring characters, with some improvements in their delivery, however a major item of note is the change in Spy Fox’s voice actor; after reprising his role in “Cheese Chase”, Bob Zenk is replaced by Mike Madeoy beginning in this game. While it was jarring at first since I went directly from Spy Fox to Spy Fox 2, plus Madeoy’s delivery is noticeably different from Zenk’s, I did eventually get used to it as I kept playing. David Scully, who would later go on to voice Dimitri in the Sly Cooper series, also did good as LeRoach, making him more of a “jokey” villain compared to William the Kid in “Dry Cereal” while still making it clear that he is both intelligent and a serious threat.

The music, composed by Tom McGurk and Geoff Kirk, also captures the general tone of the Spy Fox series, offering some memorable tunes that are sure to stick with me for at least a while. While the game’s tone allows for more cartoonish sound effects, some were oddly pleasant to hear, such as the sound of the electronic walkway that leads to the Dogbot.

Spy Fox 2: “Some Assembly Required” is a great follow-up to the first Spy Fox game and a good spy adventure game in general. The story is very straight-forward and carries a consistent tone while still offering some interesting puzzle design. While playing it can be easy as an adult (with some occasional aid from a walkthrough), the challenge is definitely still there for its target 5-10 demographic, and so this is still a game a would still recommend for both age groups, including both old and new Humongous Entertainment fans.