2D platformers are certainly back on the menu and Tembo is
the next in line to make its way out into the world. There is certainly still
room in the market for well executed spins on the genre and it’s been a while
since we played a game where you get to control a commando elephant sent to
save the world from an invading alien menace on an island shaped like a peanut.
Tembo certainly looks the part with large and colourful
levels filled with graphical flourishes and lots of personality. Our hero
conveys lots of heroic emotion through his expressions and the enemies look
suitable shocked when a giant elephant lands on them. Rescuing the many
captives around the levels also sees them ride on top of our hero as the destructive
elephant parade smashes through just about everything in its path.
There aren’t that many levels to get through but each of the
three main areas offers something new for players to get used to and they are
suitably distinctive from each other as well. You start out in the city before
moving to the Donkey Kong Country inspired highlands and then finally to the
islands Sonic inspired amusement park. There are some chase sequences thrown in
as well and some suitably impressive boss battles that pit you against thing even
bigger than yourself.
Tembo has a host of different moves he can use to get around
and smash up the enemy. He can charge, stomp and spray water while also being
able to spin around in mid-air like a giant Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s also a
much under-used slide attack to get to grips with. In fact, there are so many
moves that it can cause a problem in certain sections of the game. A number of
times we were jumping or running from something and pulled off completely the
wrong move - which usually means death.
Sadly, out heroic elephant can be a bit of a pain to manoeuvre
around. He does in fact control as you would imagine an elephant to which is
fine when you are charging around but not so good when precision platforming or
quick reflexes are required. It’s basically like trying to play the whole of
Donkey Kong Country while riding the Rhino all the time. There’s nothing game
breaking here but we lost count of the amount of needless deaths caused by the ungainly
control system and with the games, somewhat pointless, lives system this can
mean restarting levels from scratch.
Aside from the obvious Donkey Kong influence there is also a
touch of Sonic in the mix. A couple of levels turn our hero into a giant
spinning pinball and can’t help but conjure memories of everyone’s favourite
Sonic 2 level. It works for the most part as well, as do most of the different things
that have been thrown into the mix. The boss fights are particularly satisfying
as well with some giant creations ready to be smashed up by our rampaging
elephant. We've never seen giant bowling balls used so creatively either.
This isn’t the longest game in the world and it’s likely you’ll
get through it in a couple of hours. There are a few extra things you can do
such as seek out all the captive humans or destroy all the aliens but we didn’t
feel a great urge to replay levels. The game thrusts a mandatory number count
of defeated aliens on you a few times to allow the unlocking of the next stage
and this really wasn’t needed and only acts to try and artificially lengthen the
game.
As with a number of games recently you are going to struggle
here if you have any form of colour blindness. There aren’t any colour coded
puzzles but laser beams and bullets all but disappear against some backgrounds
and that’s a big issue in a game that requires precise timing.
Overall, Tembo the Badass Elephant may be short and a bit
cumbersome but it is also a fair amount of fun and keeps players interested by
introducing new things at regular intervals. There are certainly faults and
frustrations but there is also a lot of imagination and good humour on show
mixed in with a Donkey Kong and Sonic influence that makes the game a fun but
brief ride.
Overall 7/10
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