Tzompantli is a 2.5D Fighter based off of various comics involving angels, demons, and CRT cathode tubes in a massive rumble to claim a bounty. It is equal parts humorous & serious, with the tone of the game set by whichever character you choose. There are in total 18 wildly varied characters to choose from, each having there own fighting styles and an alternate costume for some added flair. You have three modes at your disposal, them being Training, Versus, and Arcade in where the story takes place. Versus allows you to face either a friend in some local multiplayer or lets you fight against the CPU. There is no form of online functionalities in any mode so you’ll just have to make due with the AI if you don’t have anyone near willing to play. Speaking of the AI, it is best to go into the options mode immediately and tone down the difficulty as it is set to max by default.
In the options menu, you will also spot the option to change the game to English but all this does is translate the menus which weren’t much of an issue to navigate in the first place. The real problem comes in the Arcade mode as there is quite a bit of text before and after your journey starts as well as when meeting a rival. It is all pretty funny or decently entertaining, though as of now is all written in Spanish. In a Fighting game rarely does one come for the story but you will be missing out on quite a bit if you can’t read Spanish in this case. Nonetheless, punching each other in the face is a universal language, and there is quite the unique cast of characters to beat the snot out of.
This is a four-button fighter in where you have both a weak and strong attack for kicks & punches. Special moves are typically pulled off via quarter circle moments with the meter at the bottom of the screen dictating how many you can pull off. Most characters pack a gun, but most of the action will take place close and personal. You will be fighting through quite a decent amount of locations ranging from arcade stores to streets and even the top of a moving plane. There is no interaction with the environments, and while the graphics are 3D, your movement is limited to a 2D plane. True to its comic book inspiration, its visuals have a cell shaded effect giving an interesting look to it.
While all the characters are definitely unique from one another, not all have received the same attention to their moveset. Some are objectively better than others and some like Ramon control so poorly it felt like he wasn’t ready to be released as a fighter yet. It is in Early Access still which hopefully means there are more plans in balancing out the roster and polishing up the animations. I am going to have to blast it for not having a form to exit the game minus forcing it to shut down via the Alt F4 command. Considering it was first brought to the market in 2016, it’s frankly shocking that such a simple thing isn’t included yet. Another issue is that once you exit the game the difficulty defaults to max again, making it pretty likely you’ll forget to change it back to your skill level and only remembering once you’re in a match.
None of its current flaws are game breaking, but it definitely needs some more work put into it to live up to its potential. The roster, the story and most certainly an excellent soundtrack are all there; it simply lacks polish to both its balancing and technical aspects. Considering the store page is written in English, I’d say it needs a translation as well, so that audience of costumers doesn’t miss out on all of the dialogue. As it stands, Tzompantli does have quite a bit of content to it and a decent amount of attention to detail in other places, but at 15 US dollars I wouldn’t jump at the chance to buy it just yet.
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