Sneakers

Sneakers, released in Japan as , is a video game developed by Media.Vision and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox in 2002. Sneakers is an action-puzzle game in which the player leads a group of mice to explore a house and its surroundings to detect enemy rats and protect their group in beat 'em up fights. Marketed as making use of 'fur shading' graphics, the design of the mice in Sneakers was intended to showcase the technical capabilities of the Xbox. The game was developed as one of two Japan-exclusive launch titles for the Xbox, and was later released in North America in an exclusive distribution with Toys R Us retail stores. Upon release in Japan, Nezmix sold poorly, with critics attributing the release to contributing to the poor launch of the console in the country. The North American version of Sneakers received generally unfavorable reviews, with criticism directed at the game's linear and repetitive gameplay. Gameplay In Sneakers, the player leads a group of mice to locate and battle with four squads of enemies in a stage. Gameplay in Sneakers takes place across two phases. In the 'search phase', the player moves in a linear direction around various areas to hunt for enemies within a time limit. Players are able to choose a direction at certain points where their path splits, and can climb and jump across certain gaps. Navigation is assisted by the game's stage map, which allows players to identify visited and unvisited areas and the location and number of enemy squads. When the player identifies an enemy scout is nearby, the player can press a button to enter the 'check mode' to move a cursor with the thumbstick to select a scout or interact with items a scout is hiding in to reveal them. The player may encounter obstacles that prevent them from moving, requiring them to interact with items or solve puzzles to progress. Once the player has located all the scouts from an enemy squad in an area, the player can navigate to a battlefield area to enter the 'battle phase'. In this phase, the player leads a squad of mice to defeat the enemy squad in beat 'em up combat, using a series of skills including punches, kicks and blocks. Players have a limited amount of lives and health that can be replenished by food. Players can issue commands to friendly mice using 'command mode' to task them to collect food or other items. When a player defeats the squad in a stage, they then face a boss.