- Site: Neon Tango
- Publisher: Freeverse
- Developer: Freeverse
- Genre: Action
Game Media
By Brad Cook
Imagine the offspring of Tron and Tempest, a love-child of an 80s arcade game lost weekend. It carries the verve of its parents, but it dances to its own beat — in this case, the techno tracks laid down by Digital Droo. Neon Tango, however, bears its own digital identity, one that pays homage to the past while showing us what to expect from a 21st century shoot-‘em-up.
Neon Tango takes you through 50 levels of kinetic mayhem, challenging you to inflict maximum damage on brightly-colored bad guys — who sport such names as Batx, Penta-Fighter, and Triangle Trooper — while collecting power-ups. Look for the best angles for bouncing your shots off walls, and don’t forget to activate your secondary weapon with the Option key, dealing out target-seeking destruction in your wake.
Cruise through levels that may not be as simple as they seem. One-way walls, warp points, and diabolical layouts may confound and befuddle you, so rely on the radar screen in the top right corner if you’re unsure where to find the bad guys. Just make sure you don’t take your eye off the end-of-level boss when he arrives to stop you from completing your journey.
So Many Options
Create up to eight pilots to use in the game, each one represented by a different photo of you, if you’re using a Mac with a built-in iSight or a Mac with an attached camera. When you pull off a high score, you can also associate a photo with your achievement. Show off your high scores online and let others know who they’re up against on the leader board.
The high score boards are broken down by difficulty level — there are five, from trivial to diabolical — and by game mode. Choose from survival (rack up the highest score possible, with just one life), fast score (set the highest score on one level, with three lives), or fast level (finish one level as fast as possible, with three lives) mode, or simply start with level one and work your way through increasingly-difficult scenarios. You can also head directly to one of the levels, if you’d rather skip straight to the intense stuff.
Yes, we know the inner twitch shooter in you is itching for some old school bad guy blasting, and Neon Tango is here to serve up a healthy portion of smackdown. Get ready to rumble.
If you liked this game, check out:
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
Trying to Echolocate You. Taking on a batty boss.
Attack From All Sides. Remember: Use those walls to your advantage.
Big Boss. This bad guy boasts some heavy weaponry.
System Requirements:
- Mac OS X version 10.4
- 800MHz PowerPC G4 or Intel processor
- 512MB of RAM
- 32MB video RAM
- 500MB hard disk space
Add a Power-Up to Your Tango
You’ll find these delicious treats randomly floating around the levels. Look for the arrows that tell you where they’re located. If you see “(X)” at the end of a description, it means you can press the “X” key any time to receive the benefit, as opposed to gaining it right away. After you grab multiple power-ups that can be used any time, press the “Z” and “C” keys to cycle through them.
Tips & Tricks:
- Use the walls to your advantage. Bounce shots off them whenever possible; remember what you learned about angles in high school geometry class.
- Your enemies, however, can shoot through the walls, so fly around to destroy them.
- On some levels, you can pass through a wall on one side (and so can your shots), but you can’t pass through on the other side. You’ll often find a warp point there, however, so you can travel to another part of the map if you can’t get back out.
- Press the down arrow key to activate strafe mode, which allows you to move side to side and spray your enemies with shots.
- Press the up arrow key to accelerate. You can’t turn very quickly while flying at turbocharged speed, however.
- Hold down the Option key to charge up your secondary weapon and make it more powerful.