It’s either feast or famine in weirdly designed boss fights that are equally simplistic, but clunky enough to cause problems. Maybe the most unbalanced part of the game is when the mechanics are applied to combat. This is all in line with the game itself, however, and works along side the quick cutscenes, straightforward title, and no-nonsense action gameplay. It’s a nice bit of encouragement for players to replay some levels to 100%, although without giving any benefit to replaying boss fights. Some strange positives to how overly tight Tembo’s controls are include changing direction off almost anything that launches him, but maybe that’s why the military brought on a physics-defying elephant.Įach level has a couple boxes to check which award a badge for completing them (rescuing ten civilians and destroying all enemies). This isn’t a dealbreaker, but the gear-shifting was much more in the front of my mind. This can make what would otherwise be a great romp feel much more binary when the jumping and puzzle bits ask for some patience. The trouble with the run-n-jump genre is that it’s so easy to screw up that players are sensitive to any imbalance. While it doesn’t completely nail the balance of the action against puzzle/platforming, levels that focus more on one side or another give a consistency that shows what the developers saw in Tembo. slow, but more of a balancing act between fluid and finesse that asks this type of game to walk a very fine line to pull it off. While the slow puzzle-oriented sections aren’t necessarily a drag, the slowness is felt, and that’s not something players want to feel after a good rush through breakable stuff.įrom all the notes that Tembo seems to pull from games like Genesis-era Sonic and Donkey Kong, it’s missing a small but important link between the fast and slow. It seems that the game’s shining moments are centered around Tembo’s momentum charging downhill through an enemy camp, bouncing off pinball bumpers through perfect arcs of peanuts, and the laser grid chase sequences come to mind. These mechanics work well, to varying degrees, but are overall oretty polished. It’s the kind of title that cuts to the chase, and that’s a call to action that we answered.Ĭomposed of a handful of regions, Tembo the Badass Elephant is a 2D action platformer centered around the kind of things an elephant can do (charging, trunk swinging, spraying water) and some special military stuff they normally can’t (whipping around as a ball, downward dashing, opening a jar of peanut butter).
It definitely suits the main character, an elephantized Rambo who wrecks up the place behind enemy lines, and maybe surprise works in favor of the game, as well.
Tembo The Badass Elephant kind of comes from nowhere.