Tembo The Badass Elephant - Maxi-Geek Review

Tembo the Badass Elephant was only announced a few months back, so for it to have a release already is a bit surprising, but when I learnt of its developer, I was even more shocked. Due to its recent annoucement I had though it might be a rush job, but it's a well thought out platformer that emphasis on you being a supreme badass.

The first level is just training and it's here you are given the instructions on how to use Tembo’s abilities, there is no levelling him up, once you leave the training area, you will have all the skills already. The way the game plays out is that your success will depending on how you use the skills, the most common of which is the dash move, which will see Tembo lower his head and run full pelt into whichever direction you’re facing. This move will take down enemies, smash through walls and allow you to clear large gaps, the problem is when you run, and you don’t stop on a dime, so you really do need to learn just how it works.

The story is really simple, Tembo was a member of a soldier unit in some unnamed war and with a new threat, the PHANTOMS causing trouble for the residents of Shell City, he is summoned back to help fight. The story is told through wonderfully curated cutscenes that are presented with a comic style approach, smaller panels will build onto larger ones and while there are no spoken words during these scenes, the story is easy enough to follow along. In fact the only words that are really spoken are when you are given your description of what to do and when you lose all of your lives.

Losing lives is something that will occur more often as you progress through the game, as the earlier stages are actually quite simple, the enemies are pretty basic with only a few providing a challenges here and there. In fact the biggest challenge in the earlier levels will be locating all 10 civilians to save and defeating all of the enemies on that stage, in the later levels this can fall to the way side as you attempt to defeat stronger enemies and navigate larger pitfalls as well. The boss fights are ok, the first was so easy, I wondered if I was even doing it right, the last boss fight was so tough, I lost 23 lives attempting to beat it. It was so frustrating, but at the same time, I never felt that the game was at fault, it was back to my use of Tembo’s skills, which with each passing attempt, I was able to discern patterns and use the right attack at the right time. The boss fights had a lot more going on, both on screen which did lead to seeing some of the games problems, one such instance had one of the bosses actually get stuck in the roof and required me to restart the last checkpoint in order to continue. There are also times when the game will stutter, thanks to the amount of things happening on screen and while it's not game breaking it is sad to see.

It was in those stutters though that I noticed the controls would occasionally get stuck, which resulted in Tembo running of platforms or spraying water in odd directions, a pause and unpause would fix, but it was annoying. The games length could also be called in question, but over the 18 stages, each one will take around 15 minutes to complete on your first run through and if you are a completionist, longer as some of the civilians are quite tricky to get. Sometimes it's because you did not find a secret wall, other times it's due to you dashing so fast that you will destroy the platform you needed to collect them. The length is not amazing, but the replayability, is really strong as I can see some speed runners getting their hands on it and seeing just how fast they can complete a level.

Tembo keeps the visual style from the cutscenes in game really well, with many touches, like the word Bada appearing behind Tembo as he sprints around or Doof when he bashes into a wall. The levels themselves have a theme, based upon the area they take place in and some stages look better than others, the ones outside look nicer than the ones indoors or underground. The human characters don’t fare quite so well, the General and leader of the PHANTOMS are ok, but the civilians and soldiers, on both sides, look generic and animate in a rag-doll kind of way. Thankfully the audio is better as a whole, explosions sound great, the crashing sound of Tembo destroying whatever is in his path is awesome and even Tembo himself makes great sounds, the thud of his giant feet as he runs or the blast from his trunk as he enters the battle.

Tembo the Badass Elephant is a great game that will provide some fun for an afternoon, those looking to 100% it will find quite the challenge here. If the game was able to run a tad smoother it would be better, but because it does not and it requires some pretty spot on timing for some sections it suffers.

Thanks to Sega for providing the game for review