Fuzzical Fighter is an odd case. Presenting itself at first as a Dragon Quest-esque fantasy RPG and even starting you in a town with a castle and a few shops and an inn, it's actually mostly a side-scrolling shmup. The shops mostly serve as a means to upgrade your ship, powering up its weapons, HP, MP (which fuels special attacks) and even allowing something called "Fuzzy Mode" which is effectively an autopilot. I suggest never actually purchasing or using Fuzzy Mode, however, since it's much more of a hindrance than a help. The inn also serves as your means to actually access the shooting segments of the game, which is an odd decision. In the shmup segments defeating enemies earns you gold that you can spend on future upgrades, albeit very slowly - every enemy defeated gives a tiny pittance of gold, and purchasing upgrades and access to new levels can cost hundreds or even thousands. That of course means replaying stages many, many times to grind money, which isn't particularly fun; especially as the levels are quite long, lacking in challenge and very monotonous. The visuals and music are decent (if nothing remarkable), but it's not particularly good in either facet - a rather bland and monotonous shmup and a tedious old-school RPG experience combine to make a game that's just not much of anything. Maybe worth a quick look for fans of quirky 8-bit games, but only a quick look - it's not interesting or fun enough to be worth spending any great degree of time on.
Developer: Make Software
Publisher: Sigma Enterprises
Released: 1991
Platform: Famicom