El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera – NDS – Review

It’s rare that
a game license means anything to me. Unless the story revolves around characters
I’m already interested in, I usually skip it. El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny
Rivera broke the mold. Its characters and visuals were so strange and different
that I just had to know what was going on.

Having never
seen the Nickelodeon series, I was surprised to learn about the difficult
relationship he has with his father and grandfather. His dad fights crime – his
grandpa creates it. The game focuses on Sartana of the Dead, a super villain
that wants to rule the land of Miracle City. She discovers a hidden power: the
Jeweled Mule of Maya. It strengthens her guitar, which she then uses as a weapon
to summon the dead. Next thing you know, Sombrero-wearing skeletons are flooding
the streets, and El Tigre is the only one who can stop them from turning Miracle
City into the land of hopelessness.

The gameplay
based on this story could have gone anywhere. The most likely candidates were a
mini-game compilation and a weak action/adventure that replaced combat with an
hours’ worth of item collecting. Fortunately for myself, the reviewer of El
Tigre, and all the kids that will find it in their stockings on Christmas
morning, this game took neither path. What you get inside the typical-looking DS
game card is a 2D action title that borrows most of its content from Devil May
Cry. It’s perfectly kid-safe and comes chock full of repetition. But at least
you’ll be having fun until the game starts to air reruns.

The Claw of
Life

I had titled
this subhead “The Claw of Death” until I remembered that I’m reviewing a kid’s
title and should probably be more positive. And what’s more positive than
living? Unless you’re the enemy, in which case it’s back to the graveyard for
you. Players will spend the entire game re-terminating the walking dead. Every
stage is jam-packed with skeletons, but they’re not the only enemies you’ll have
to put back into the ground.

Sartana of the
Dead appears as a boss battle, and you’ll battle a couple different types of
big-armed ex cons. That’s one way to describe them – the striped shirt, tattoos
and oversized arms are practically an advertisement for prison. Their arms work
to shield themselves from attack, but they’re no match for El Tigre’s pummeling
arsenal. His single claw attack doesn’t lead into the expected array of combos.
But it can be used repeatedly, so much that it performs like a combo. His
special moves are executable as soon as the charge meter has been filled. And
how do you fill it, you ask? That’s simple: enemies leave glowing orbs behind
their disappearing corpses. You know the rest. You’ve seen this before in a
zillion games following Devil May Cry’s success.

But when it
works, there’s not much to complain about outside of the lack of originality. El
Tigre is most successful for its way-above-average speed. The game moves very
fast, and if you love to run and jump through a level as much as I do, it can
move even faster. That’s because he never walks, El Tigre can only run, and if
you add jumping to the mix, his speed doubles. There are no agonizingly painful
stops in between the jumps – he lands smoothly and continues running, just like
a tiger.

I’m frequently
turned off by the way action games use the Nintendo DS’ touch screen. El Tigre
doesn’t merely throw it in for the sake of advertisements. “Check out our
game kids! We support the touch screen!” Nope, it isn’t like that. El Tigre
uses this feature to separate each special attack. You start the process (and
drain a full charge meter) by pressing one of the shoulder buttons. The picture
receives a green tint, showing that the power has been activated. This feature
doesn’t last forever – quickly draw a line, circle or squiggle on the bottom
screen to unleash one of El Tigre’s strongest attacks. The type of attack
performed will be based on what you draw/scratch. Ex: draw a line upward to
uppercut three times. Best of all, these attacks aren’t limited to just one
enemy. If several enemies are within range, several of them will be re-buried*
in the process.

*Re-buried: the act of burying an enemy for the second
time. Also see re-berry’d: the resurrected pie ingredient on Pushing
Daisies.

El Tigre’s only
major downfall is the same thing that’s plagued every Devil May Cry-inspired
title (including DMC’s own sequels): every stage follows the same path. You go
in, defeat enemies, fight a boss and… Go in, defeat more enemies, and
fight another boss. The game is also fairly short, another concern no
beat’-em-up can escape.

Does this kill
El Tigre’s enjoyment level? Not at all. Fans of the show will be highly
satisfied with this one, more so than they have likely been with other licensed
games.

Review Scoring Details for El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera

Gameplay: 7.2
El Tigre’s
developers know what it means to create a game that controls well. It isn’t just
a fun action/beat-‘em-up – this game is also one of the smoothest titles on the
DS. The gameplay fits perfectly with the target market. But if by some chance
you don’t like the game, it definitely won’t be caused by a lack of speed.

Graphics:
6.9
The graphics are
clear and consistent, the frame rate is high, and the villains are inventive.
Frame rate and touch controls excluded, however, El Tigre could’ve been made for
the Game Boy Advance.

Sound: 7.0
El Tigre’s has a
good score, but its music doesn’t change much between stages. The sound effects
are, in the tradition of almost every licensed game, annoying at best.

Difficulty: Easy
Easy, but not
cakewalk easy.

Concept: 7.0
This may not be a
new concept, but El Tigre plays better than most licensed games.

Multiplayer: 6.0
Multi-card co-op for
two; the second player controls Frida.

Overall: 7.0
A great title for
anyone that’s a fan of El Tigre. Unlike most repetitive action games, you won’t
want to leave this adventure behind (permanently) when it gets boring. Its
boredom subsides quickly, and after that you’ll have the urge to return.

*****
Here are a couple of cheats to help you play the game: