F.V.R. Faunasapien Virtual Resistance is an action video game based on the animated television series F.U.R. and released for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and personal computers along with the Game Boy Color and Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999. Playfair Interactive published all versions of the game and co-published the Neo Geo Pocket Color version with SNK (due to Playfair's support of "systems in need") with NewKidCo handling other versions in North America and Ubisoft distributing them in PAL regions.
It is the first video game in the F.U.R. franchise to depict the characters and setting with 3D graphics (in the console/PC versions) and the second platformer game in the series following F.U.R.: Fauna Quest in 1994, also using a 3D platformer style of gameplay typical of titles during the time such as Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon and so forth.
Due to F.U.R. being not well-known in Japan, the Neo Geo Pocket Color version was reskinned as an original title in this country.
Premise[]
Modern technology takes the world by storm, including the residents of New Faunahaven and surrounding cities, prompting the still imprisoned Dr. Mendelson to conspire with a team of close contacts to devise a virtual reality game with the aim of using propaganda to brainwash players into campaigning for his release from custody. To make matters worse, Ben and Donna end up getting captured in the game, forcing Maya, Reggie and Karla to band together and enter the simulation to set things right.
Gameplay[]
GBC version[]
The game plays as a side-scrolling platformer, with the player able to choose from Maya, Reggie and Karla with basic jump and attack abilities, though collecting power-ups scattered in different areas of levels replaces the standard attacks with more powerful ones.
N64/PC/PS1 version[]
The game plays like a standard 3D platformer, with the player able to switch between Maya, Reggie or Karla (each with their unique sets of moves) via "switch-stations" in different areas of levels. The "virtual reality world" consists of areas with levels to traverse, collect keycards and enter boss stages.
NGPC version[]
Like the GBC version, it plays as a platformer with the same character options. However, it plays more like an arcade "run and gun" platformer with the occasional boss fights rather than a typical side-scroller (owing to the fact that the Neo Geo brand was more commonly associated with arcade titles).
Release[]
Marketing[]
Playfair (along with NewKidCo and SNK) extensively marketed the game (more so than other titles of theirs at the time such as Flying Rhino Junior High, their Banipal Witt games, Crashbox: Let the Games Begin! and A Little Curious: Adventures in Imagination) as their "must-have" for the holiday season of 1999, including advertisements in magazines such as Nickelodeon Magazine, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Disney Adventures and GamePro, along with television advertisements on mainstream television channels such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, YTV and Teletoon and programming blocks such as Fox Kids, Kids' WB, CBS Kidshow and Disney's One Saturday Morning.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Kellogg's promoted the game with a discount voucher and trading cards on specially marked packages of some cereals.
Also, the NGPC version was available as an optional free title (alongside four others) with the purchase of the Holiday Neo Geo Pocket Color (containing a pack-in copy of Tales of the Nutcracker) via coupon on specially-marked packages of Nabisco/Christie products.
Controversial advertising campaigns[]
Infamously, sometime during the Christmas shopping season of 1999, two commercials aired on North American television, both of which emphasized cheap shots at and disparaging comments toward Donkey Kong 64, which had just been released by then, particularly for its perceived excess difficulty in a bid to advertise F.V.R. as far easier and more enjoyable to consumers. One of the two ads, in which a thinly-veiled mockery of Donkey Kong 64 is put on a "naughty list" and buried in flaming coal, especially provoked viewer complaints.
Re-releases[]
In 2023, the PC and Neo Geo Pocket Color versions were included in the compilation Magic World Ruby Anniversary Collection, released by Magic World Digital Entertainment.
Reception[]
The game received mostly positive reception, but some considered it derivative of 3D platformers of the time in terms of gameplay. Some reviews also noted that the numbers of necessary collectables and minimum amounts necessary to access newer areas (including the final boss) were lower than that of the game's contemporaries in the genre.
The PS1 version was deemed the best of the 3D platformer version with the Neo Geo Pocket Color versions similarly getting better scores in reviews than its Game Boy Color counterpart.