Side-scrolling platformer The Adventures of Tacheman (out now, $1.99) stars four mustached, blocky heroes who shoot their best weapon: mustaches.
If you’re used to platformers, the gameplay is immediately recognizable, with separate left-right directional controls plus shoot and jump buttons. You can kill most enemies by either jumping on them or shooting them (and some require multiple shots). The shoot button, btw, is a mustache. Pretty fun! The goals for each level include collecting as many gold coins as you can, as well as bowler hats (red and black), and of course, making it to the end of the level. Along the way, you can collect ammo (mustaches) and extra health by jumping up to hit special boxes. Your scores for each level will be tallied, including the number of times your Tacheman dies.
The first Tacheman has limited abilities. There are heights you won’t be able to jump and walls you can’t blast through with his mustaches. As such, there are some places in a level you simply can’t go, as well as coins and hats you won’t be able to collect. I didn’t know this when I first started playing. The game doesn’t have any kind of introduction or info page. To play with the remaining three Tachemen, you’ll have to first complete the basic Tacheman stage, which is a long series of levels. One major downside to this game is you can’t quit and come back to choose a level to play, but only resume from where you last left off or start again from zero. This means, if you miss collecting a few coins, you won’t be able to return to the same individual level to try to better your score.
I like that there are different routes you can take to complete a level. The underwater areas, to me, are the best part of the game. They offer a very different feel to the gameplay and pose extra challenges. The Tacheman has a limited breath, so if you let him stay down too long, he’ll poof out of existence, and you’ll have to start again from the last checkpoint or the beginning of a level if you didn’t pass a checkpoint. It’s quite frustrating to have to repeat areas you already passed though. More checkpoints might be preferable. For this reason, new players unused to platformers may find it tough to get through this game. There are plenty of ways to die, and some, such as razor traps and bottomless pits, spell instant death regardless of how much health your Tacheman has.
Despite some downsides, The Adventures of Tacheman has cute graphics, and shooting with mustaches is pretty unique! Overall, it’s a fun, challenging platformer.
Verdict
The Adventures of Tacheman may not be the best platformer available, but it is fun and challenging, with moving platforms and a good variety of enemies and obstacles. It is probably more suited to gamers experienced with platformers. Not everyone will have the patience to slog through the multiple deaths. It’s also unfortunate individual level selection (for levels you’ve completed) isn’t allowed.