Tango Fiesta Review | A tribute to action movie heroes from the 80’s that some of us grown up watching. That’s how Tango Fiesta present itself to the public. Are you an enthusiastic of classics like Rambo, Robocop or Terminator? Are you a fan of legends of the big screens like Chuck Norris, Denny Glover and Bruce Willis? Or are you just looking for a funny coop twin stick shooter to play with your friends? Let’s check what Split Milk Studios and Merge Games have brought us in this game.

THE GOOD

• Non-stop action! From the beginning of each stage to the last objective you must destroy, countless enemies will come after you, wave after wave, trying to take you down. And like in the good old games, they keep spawning indefinitely, allowing you to stack kills, gold and lots of points.
• You’re able to play all the missions in coop mode with up to 4 friends. And believe me: playing with someone by your side is always better.
• The graphic style used in the game is simple, becoming almost comic. I can see the special attention dedicated to characters’ expressions and behavior animations during cut scenes.
• The game history and characters are built almost entirely on a sense of humor perspective. There’re are various characters, weapons and lines of dialogue that will make you remember classic action movies. For instance, General Quentin in your first mission is clearly inspired on Colonel Samuel Trautman, from First Blood, the 1^st movie on Rambo saga. Trying to discover all these Easter eggs and references proved a neat challenge.

MIXED FEELINGS

• There are only two game modes, Arcade and Story Mission. They can both be played solo or with up to 3 other friends, but only local multiplayer is allowed. I love couch coop games (they’re my favorite for those weekends when you can gather up some friends at your home to play), but not everybody has people to play this way. So, an online coop mode would be great for this game.
• The game is very simple and repetitive: There are no more than 5 stage themes that are procedural generated to originate the levels you’ll play. And they are far from being different from each other, with variations only in number of objectives and structures and their position on the map.
• There’s a good number of weapons for you to unlock (they become available for buying after completing some tasks in the game), but some of them fell very much like each other, only with some different status, reducing the real number of different weapons to half of what you see on the screen. The assortment of weapons covers assault rifles, SMGs, automatic pistols, snipers, shotguns (my favorites), flamethrowers and some little surprises.

 THE BAD

• You’ll face many bugs and glitches during your gameplay: From graphics flicking, guns not pointing where you’re aiming, enemies getting stuck inside rocks and walls and much, much more. But one that really disrupts your game experience is when one of the objectives decides to move to an area of the map that you can’t access, forcing you to reload the game.
• The controls response fails constantly, especially when you need to switch your weapons during a shootout. Be prepared to get stressed frequently.
• Sometimes the AI simply turns off, making enemies that respawn in the map ignore you and not to shoot you. Simply ignore them and finish the level. Or practice your aim. It’s all up to you.
• After a few stages, you’ll notice that you can run from objective to objective, ignoring the enemies that stay on the way, just to save some time.

Score: 61% | The developers responsible for Tango Fiesta tried to deliver a simple but funny experience, based on a fast and chaotic multiplayer experience. They, indeed, created a waggish game, not afraid to make jokes about itself, but failed in simple aspects of its gameplay, making this a merely passable game. You’ll have lots of fun with this game if you have some friends to play along, aided by its comical story, a new game + and lots of weapons to unlock. But it’s hard to believe it will keep you interested in it for that long.