El Tango de la Muerte

Review

It takes two to tango, isn’t what they say! What if someone wants to tango but has two left feet? The image in my mind is that a person would have his upper body leaning toward the right in order to compensate for his/her unfortunate tendency to deviate to their left side. Joking aside, what would you do if your childhood sweetheart was a great Tango dancer, and you discovered that you actually had not two, but three left feet? You’d probably ask someone to help you out, right? That is exactly what Luciano did. He asked his best friend Julio to teach him how to find the secret of his right foot. Otherwise, it would truly become El Tango de la Muerte!  

El Tango de la Muerte is a rhythm game where you play the story of Luciano, an Argentinian man who learns the Tango to impress his childhood sweetheart, but things don’t go as planned.



The game has 6 chapters consisting of two songs each, and one song for the epilogue. Let me tell you that the music in this game is absolutely sensational, and coming from a Latin background (like all frogs), I could pick up a few words from the lyrics here and there, which was quite fun. The other standout for me is how the game is presented. I really like the collage characters and the 1920’s style scenery, which make this game quite unique.

The game play is pretty simple and fun to play. When you play for the first time, the story will progress before the song starts.  If you finish the game but don’t manage to score three golden stars in each stage, you’ll be able to select any of the 13 songs and try your luck again. Most of the dancefloors are checked tiles, with the exception of the street stages. When the music starts (and if the beat doesn’t give you the urge to stand up and start dancing in your room), a small yellow square will light up inside a tile, and grow to fill it.  It becomes bright for a split second, at which point you have to move your couple onto that tile and earn a yellow musical note. If you move your couple onto a tile that isn’t yellow, you’ll pick up a red musical note. Each time you collect a red note, you’ll be given a few seconds’ penalty; if you make ten mistakes in a row, you’ll have to start the song again. To give you an idea, if you step onto 3 consecutive incorrect tiles, your few seconds’ penalty will restart with each incorrect tile, giving you a penalty of around 10 seconds. However, if you manage to not put a wrong foot within the penalty time (ten seconds in this case), the red notes will disappear until your two left feet are back in place again. There is another way to receive red musical notes, and this one is pretty drastic!  The rhythms of some of the songs is very fast, and tiles will light up yellow very quickly. As mentioned, you have to stand on the tiles when they are bright yellow in order to score a note. However, they will start fading within a few seconds, and then disappear. If you haven’t managed to stand on them within this transition time, you’ll collect another red musical note. It is quite easy to receive 10 red musical notes in El Tango de la Muerte, and when you do, you have to restart the song! There are a few variations, too, in regards to the tiles. For example, a tile with a bomb will destroy all surrounding tiles!  You’ll control your lovely couple with the arrow or WASD keys.

I really like the collage artworks and the soundtrack. I do believe we need more content; at least more songs. The good news is that the developers are working on a classic mode, and I look forward to it.


Positives

+ Great artworks
+ Superb soundtrack
+ Easy and fun to play
+ Some of your fingers might develop muscles you’ve never seen before

Negatives

- Needs more content, which is on the way
- No achievements
- No trading cards as yet

Review Summary

What a great rhythm game with 1920’s collage style of artwork! Ladies and Gents, It’s time to Tango!

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Zeepond Rating: 7/10

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