Information

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Reviewed On: DS

Available On: DS

Players: 1-2

Rating: G

Genre: Action


Developer: THQ

Distributor: THQ


Release: 13 March 2008


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In Short...

"It’s as mind-numbing as a bottle of tequila and as unsatisfying as reheated nachos. Still, at least it’s better than Dora Saves the Mermaids."



































































Now, while I have never seen the show, I did do some research (the things I do for you people), and apparently it goes like this: Manny Rivera is a completely average, normal, 13 year old boy, which of course means he is completely not average and totally awesome in some way. Why is he not average? Because unlike most cartoon boys, who live in America and are American, Manny lives in Mexico and is Mexican! Sorry, what I meant to say was that Manny is a superhero known as El Tigre. His father is a superhero himself known as White Pantera (White Panther, or Coolest Superhero Name Ever), but his Grandpapi is a retired supervillian named Puma Loco (as if I need to tell you what that means). This creates some conflict, as while White Pantera wants his son to grow up as a heroic, do-gooding hero, Manny finds it is much more fun to be bad, like his Grandpapi. Fortunately, this is the basic premise of the game, so people who don’t watch the show can jump right in.

In the game, El Tigre’s arch rival Sartana has stolen a valuable treasure - a golden mule it would seem - and it is up to El Tigre and his friend Frida to stop her and her minions (as an interesting side-note, even though the box and game cartridge display the title as “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera”, the DS startup window and the game title screen suggest that the game is actually called “El Tigre: Make My Mule!”). Thus begins the game, which involves traversing the various locales of Miracle City, beating up various minions and occasional bosses (who are characters from the show, naturally), and collecting gems which grant new powers. The idea is that whoever gathers all the gems and brings them to Sartana will be richly rewarded, because the gems can be combined with the mule to unlock some great power; hence, every boss you meet has already collected one of the gems in their quest for the reward.

While the storyline doesn’t go any further than that, the presentation of this game is something that impresses straight off the bat. The game opens with a fully animated intro that is lifted straight from the TV show, and the in-game graphics are big, bright, colourful, and remain true to the graphical style of the show (and Nick cartoons in general). The game also contains some good dialogue and funny jokes, but unfortunately there are no voice overs beyond the opening video (which is a shame because the game dialogue would have been a riot with voice overs). The music is also pretty good, if a little repetitive, and the sound effects, while decent in quality, are very limited. They seem to be almost exclusive to battle sounds, which leads to a game world that doesn’t sound as alive as the graphics suggest. While a smashed parking meter will make the standard cash register sound, a smashed fire hydrant will make no sound even though you can see water rushing out.





























While the graphics and presentation are impressive, the gameplay is, unfortunately, not so impressive. I was initially confused as to which genre of game this was supposed to be, because while the combat is basic enough to suggest that this is a platformer, the platforming is so nonexistent you would think it was a fighting game (or ‘action adventure’ if you’re really anal about game genres). Then again, as you progress through the game you gain new attacks and combos, so we’ll have to assume it’s a fighting game of sorts. What this results in is a game where you move left to right, pressing B to jump, X to block, and A to execute all of your combos and attacks. That’s right, this is literally a fighting game where you win by mashing one button. Maybe that’s a bit harsh - after all, you have to block occasionally, and you can jump before attacking to do a flying kick. The only other attacks are known as Super Moves - special attacks where you press L or R to freeze the action for a few seconds, giving you time to use your stylus to activate a move. That’s right, this is one of those games that, despite using the standard button layout, occasionally asks you to switch to the stylus to perform some small task. And yes, switching from buttons to stylus and back again is still as awkward and frustrating as it ever was. Haven’t game developers gotten over tacked-on touch screen gimmicks yet?

As far as platforming goes, El Tigre takes a standard left-to-right approach (you have to occasionally double back though), with various platforms to reach higher parts of the stage. Some stages are vertically oriented, and it is interesting to see that this game borrows Yoshi’s Island DS’s idea of stretching the action over two screens (though unlike YI DS, at least one of the screens will be devoid of life at any given time). The platforming isn’t taxing by any means, since most of the focus is on fighting, and while the backgrounds look great, it is not always clear which parts of the background are platforms, which can be annoying.

One of the most interesting things about this game is that it contains a very basic morality system, which affects the special moves you get and the ending of the game. If you kill bad guys, you’re good. If you smash stuff, you’re bad. Naturally, I smashed everything in sight, but for the sake of this review, I decided to be good and see what happened. It seems that the only difference caused by being good or bad is the special moves you get, but the good moves and bad moves aren’t different enough from each other to significantly alter the gameplay. The dialogue and levels remain exactly the same, because no matter whether you’re good or bad, White Pantera and Grandpapi will both justify everything you do according to their own values (ie. Grandpapi will tell you to recover the mule so he and Manny can become rich and powerful, while WP will tell you to recover it because it’s a priceless artefact that needs to be returned to the museum). I’ve never before seen a superhero and supervillian agree on so many things so often, but maybe that’s part of the humour.

Then again, maybe the reason the morality system makes such little difference to the gameplay is due to the fact that it is very difficult to stay on either path for very long. Sure, if you smash every single object you’ll be bad to the bone from beginning to end, but if you’re trying to be good you will inadvertently smash stuff while killing enemies, which totally screws things up. When I was trying to be good and not smashing anything on purpose, I ended up switching between good and bad 5 times in one stage. There was also one particular point where I’d earned a new move and wanted to try it on a group of bad guys. This move, known as The Sensational Bowler, not only killed all the bad guys but also smashed a food cart and six parking meters. This meant that, by performing one single move that I had earned for being good and was using for the purposes of good, I ended up reaching the absolute highest point of bad-ness. It’s enough to make even the purest superhero a bit disillusioned.

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (or El Tigre: Make My Mule! depending on who you believe) is a really basic game. It will no doubt appeal to young fans of the show, but on its own merits, it just isn’t that challenging or deep. It is essentially a fighting game where you walk left to right hammering the A button, and that does get boring as quickly as you’d imagine. I’d say if you’re a young fan of the show or some obsessed collector who must have every piece of El Tigre merchandise ever made, you might want to check out this game. Otherwise, if you’re a DS owner who wants a fighting game with a Hispanic flavour, you’d probably be better off cooking a plate of nachos before playing Ninja Gaiden.

By Mr_M



The Verdict

 Graphics: B+ The opening cinematic is excellent, and the 2D graphics have a great cartoony style that works well. The character close-ups are pretty funny too.

Sound: C+ Besides the excellent intro, the game has decent music and sound effects. SFX are limited though, making the game sound bare and lifeless at times.

Gameplay: E- Mash one button repeatedly to pull off combos that would put Jackie Chan to shame. Unless you’re a young kid, you’ll either sleepwalk through the game or get bored of it in 5 minutes.


Overall: E+

It’s as mind-numbing as a bottle of tequila and as unsatisfying as reheated nachos. Still, at least it’s better than Dora Saves the Mermaids.




























































































































































































































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