Namco‘s brilliant arcade fighting game, The Outfoxies, is a precursor to the Super Smash Bros. series and mixes a kind of Charlie’s Angels type presentation style, with a spy-themed storyline.

The Outfoxies of the title are a group of assassins, who have all had contracts put out on them, and must therefore fight to the death in a variety of different arenas. You can choose to play as any of the seven characters (actually there are eight, but a pair of twins counts as one), and you must fight your way through the others.

The action is mostly a mix of finding weapons to use against your opponent, and throwing kicks and rabbit punches when you are in close enough.

The screen zooms in and out as you get closer to, or further away, from your opponent, and The Outfoxies was one of the first games to use this particular mechanic in that way.

The Outfoxies has fairly limited gameplay, but it is still fun fighting your way through the field and experiencing the absurdity of the gameplay. Some of the levels are spectacular too – changing as the battle wears on. The helicopter-falling-through-the-building level is very imaginative.

More: The Outfoxies on Wikipedia