Balls out entertainment
However, do you really want to play the game for that long? The disjointed nature of the levels means that there is no real logic to them. You open up one door thinking you will be zipped further down the screen, only to be transported somewhere completely different. The developer’s excuse is that you are in the mind of a drunken sailor; for me it just smacks of lazy level design.
The graphics are also an extremely mixed bag. The game itself is a solid 2D platformer, but no more impressive than a dozen download games and nowhere near the joy of Rayman Origins. The cutscenes are a different bag altogether; each character looks like they have been involved in a hideous threshing accident, only to be glued together again by a group of hyperactive chimpanzees. The voice acting also grates with the same 5 or 6 quips being repeated over and over again by actors impersonating those from the film.
Does the co-op itself make up for these shortcomings? Only to a small extent, as the co-op can be subverted if players choose to. If one player is too far ahead of the other, the player lagging behind will be kicked from the game and made to float around in bubble New Super Mario Brothers Wii style. They then press A and jump straight back into the fray. Add this to the fact that as long as one of the two players remains alive you can complete the game easily by constant respawning. It ends up with the co-op being a lot less challenging than the solo experience. Want to defeat the boss? One player hides out of the way and allows the other player to take the enemy on.
To completely write off Tintin would be a mistake. As a $10 download game it would have been perfectly passable. The unique abilities of the various different characters lead to some good challenges. Cooperation is needed if players want to get every hidden item, although many of the levels themselves can be completed by lazy drag-along physics. There is a decent amount of gameplay for a co-op mode that is an addition to a solo experience. However, the chances are that most people will grow tired of the dull voice acting and samey gameplay before they complete every level 100%. With a little more innovation this could have been one of the best modern 2D platformers. As it is, Tintin is a distraction at best, an eyesore at worst.
Editor's Note: The Co-Optimus Co-Op Review of The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn The Game was based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Share the fun in 2-player co-op mode as you play together with your friends to help solve the mysteries, experiment with your characters' new skills, collect treasures, earn disguises and unlock new maps
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.