At the beginning of the year, a friend of mine and I were discussing our favorite games of 2014. His was Far Cry 4, citing how his favorite part was riding elephants, while mine was Dragon Age: Inquisition noting how much fun the dragon hunts were. We reached the conclusion that if a game could let you fight dragons with elephants, it would be the game of forever. I bring this up because the first boss of Tembo: The Badass Elephant is a robot dragon. That’s right, the coolest thing I have ever thought of and this game outdid that idea. While not quite the greatest game ever I imagined, what Tembo offers is pretty damn fun.
The premise is very simple: The military needs help and calls in an elephant to single handedly win the war on terror. Because this universe is much cooler than the one we live in. Yet its importance to the gameplay is very slightly above the various 8 and 16 bit platformers which inspired Tembo, only offering anything to people who really love elephants.
The core mechanics behind Tembo are some of the most fun I have seen from a 2D platformer in years. There are three main actions in the game: jumping, charging, and shooting water. Jumping needs no introduction while shooting water is a very situational mechanic used against various fires in the path, often as a part of a puzzle. The puzzles are mostly optional in the game, yet land rewards in rescuing various hostages scattered across each level.
Charging is what separates Tembo from the pack, offering a gameplay experience akin to Sonic the Hedgehog meets The Incredible Hulk. While charging, Tembo feels like an unstoppable force, crushing all kinds of barriers in his way while smashing through various enemy forces and crates full of collectables. This creates an absurdly fun core mechanic, as I would grin with delight every time a long stretch of charging was in my immediate future. Not only is it ridiculously fun, but it helps Tembo feel unique, as very few games I have played offered this kind of rush and none have achieved it the same way.
Though Tembo feels like an unstoppable force, however, the game still manages to present a strong challenge throughout its run. Tembo can only take five hits before losing a life while health pickups are few and far between. Earlier on, this feels impressive, as a steep challenge and feeling invincible seldom go together, yet work well here. It is only until you reach the later levels that this becomes an annoyance.
As the game progresses, enemies start taking more hits to the point where fighting them feels tedious. The enemy placement does not fare much better either, as Tembo is well equipped to dodge attacks from a few enemies, yet moves either too slow or offers too little control over his movements (depending on whether you are charging or not) and is too bulky to make taking on many enemies at once fun and satisfying. To make matters worse, the charging sections which make you feel so powerful become scarcer during these later bits.
This steep challenge is further hurt by the game’s decision to implement a life system. Collecting three hundred peanuts gives a jar of peanut butter, which are Tembo’s lives. Losing one puts him at the last checkpoint while losing all of them sends the player back to the level select menu, requiring players to restart the level all over. Levels can get pretty long while lives are not as common as recent Mario games, meaning it’s almost certain that this will happen at some point throughout the game. The life system as a whole feels unnecessary, adding tedium rather than challenge.
Certain levels are also gated off until the player does a certain amount of damage to enemy forces. Abolishing these forces can be done through beating enemies, destroying enemy technology, and rescuing hostages. This mechanic adds an extra motivation to explore and discover secrets with levels through a fun and interesting goal of destroying everything in your path. On the other hand, it creates a small level of stress in knowing getting through a level is not enough. While the requirements are low, the design choice still creates a nagging feeling that you have to meet a certain requirement to progress. I feel offering bonus levels instead would have worked better.
Boss fights feel similar to Donkey Kong Country Returns, offering bosses with lots of health and varying attack patterns as you progress. The last boss in particular feels like a ripoff of the final boss from Retro’s first DKC title, offering very similar attack patterns and levels of fun. This boss is so long and annoying to fight that I decided after ensuring it was the final boss and would not lead to anything that the game was not worth finishing. The boss has far too many forms, turning the fight into annoying rather than thrilling.
Even while ending on a sour note, however, Tembo is still a very fun and satisfying game. The strengths of its charging mechanic are enough to overcome any and all of the game’s various missteps. Whether you are a fan of 16 bit platformers or elephants, Tembo should offer a fun and thrilling experience. I hope we see more of Tembo in the future; whether Gamefreak gets a stab at a sequel or, at the bare minimum, makes him into a Pokémon.
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