Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal"

Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal" is an adventure game developed and published by Humongous Entertainment, part of their "Junior Adventure" line and the first entry in the Spy Fox series of games. The game follows the heroic Spy Fox as he attempts to stop a supervillain from stealing the world's dairy milk supply. The game was released for computers in October 1997 to positive reception, and was ported to several other systems over the following decades.

Plot
On board an airplane, secret agent Spy Fox is contacted by his assistant Monkey Penny, who informs him that the world's supply of dairy milk has mysteriously vanished, with the only clue being a piece of feta cheese traced to the fictional island of Acidophilus in Greece. Spy Fox jumps from the plane and lands on the island, where he meets with Monkey Penny and scientist Professor Quack, who provides him several gadgets. Monkey Penny tasks Spy Fox with finding Mr. Howard Hugh Heifer Udderly III, the missing president and CEO of Amalgamated Moo Juice Inc., who they believe is connected to the milk disappearances.

Spy Fox finds Mr. Udderly tied up over a pool of piranhas in a feta factory and rescues him. Udderly explains that William the Kid, the CEO of the Nectar of the Goats (N.O.G.) Corporation, has kidnapped all the dairy cows in the world and gathered all the dairy milk into a giant milk carton called the Milky Weapon of Destruction, planning to flood the capital with it and frame the cows so he can take control of the dairy world with his "delicious" goat by-products. Udderly claims to have swiped the access code to the weapon's deactivator while William the Kid wasn't looking, but admits that he swallowed it to avoid being exposed. Fortunately, Fox uses Professor Quack's "X-Ray Gum" gadget to see the code inside Udderly's stomach, and he sets out to find the deactivator's missing part and a way to reach William the Kid's secret fortress.

On the dock, Spy Fox discovers a ship called the S.S. Deadweight, where a party is being hosted. After forging an invitation to get aboard the ship, Spy Fox meets Russian Blue, the boat's owner and N.O.G.'s head of public relations, who loves dancing the tango. Monkey Penny confirms that Russian Blue is indeed involved in Kid's scheme and tells Spy Fox to keep an eye on her. Using information obtained from Russian Blue and the S.S. Deadweight, Spy Fox locates Kid's fortress, infiltrating it by disguising himself using a spare N.O.G. jumpsuit.

Shortly after entering, Spy Fox witnesses William the Kid giving Russian Blue the missing deactivator part and ordering her to hide it somewhere safe. After Spy Fox finds and uses the missing piece to disarm the Milky Weapon of Destruction, William the Kid decides to drown the dairy cows in the milk. Due to Kid's carelessness, Spy Fox locates his secret passageway to the cows' holding pen and frees them. William the Kid escapes in his giant getaway blimp and declares that he will return. If the player follows after Kid's blimp, a bonus ending will be unlocked.

In the bonus ending, Spy Fox manages to sneak on Kid's blimp. Monkey Penny gives him the coordinates to a mobile jail for William the Kid to land in. After Spy Fox sets the coordinates and primes Kid's ejection seat, the blimp changes course and Kid is launched in prison, swearing revenge on Spy Fox before resigning to his fate. Later, the President awards Spy Fox with the "Big Daddy Congressional Cookie of Justice" for his heroics.

Gameplay
The game retains the easy-to-use format of the other Humongous Entertainment computer games, but unlike the others, this game introduces talk balloons, which enable Spy Fox to ask any character a specific question instead of simply having an ordinary conversation. There are also special kinds of items called "Spy Gadgets" (made and supplied by Professor Quack), which help Spy Fox solve certain puzzles. Another feature in the game is the ability to use Spy Fox's "Spy Watch", which allows players to save, load, or quit a game, call Monkey Penny, or play a minigame on the watch. The game has multiple narratives; the story branches into a small number of threads midway through the game, and which thread the story follows is randomly selected each playthrough.

Release
The game was initially released for Windows and Macintosh computers in October 1997, and featured an alternate voice cast in the game's European release. Following the purchase of Humongous by Atari, the game was ported to the Wii in 2008, using the Wii Remote for point-and-click controls. It was available for a limited time due to legal problems concerning the port's development. In 2012, Nimbus Games Inc. released a version designed for both iOS and Android. A Nintendo Switch version was released on February 10, 2022, followed by a PlayStation 4 version in November of that same year.

Reception

Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal" has sold two million copies and received 20 Awards of Excellence. Adventure Gamers gave the a 4-star rating, while Allgame gave it a 4.5-star rating. The Wii version was less well-received, with IGN giving the port a score of 5.5/10.

References

External links
 
 Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal" at Humongous Entertainment

1997 video games
Adventure games
Android (operating system) games
Atari games
Children's educational video games
Classic Mac OS games
IOS games
Linux games
Majesco Entertainment games
Mistic Software games
Nimbus Games games
Nintendo Switch games
Point-and-click adventure games
SCUMM games
ScummVM-supported games
Single-player video games
Spy Fox
Tommo games
UFO Interactive Games games
Video games about foxes
Video games developed in the United States
Video games scored by Jeremy Soule
Video games set in Greece
Wii games
Windows games