9/3/2023 0 Comments Badass elephant![]() ![]() Same goes for the Batman-style "Pow"s with every strike, and so on. AdvertisementĮvery stomp when you hit the "dash" button to run makes the word "BADA" appear in your dust, resulting in a percussive trail of "BADA BADA BADA BADA BADA" that somehow never gets old. It fits well with the decidedly '70s or '80s manga-inspired art style-much like the designs in Nintendo's Elite Beat Agents and Osu Tatakae Ouendan games-that emphasizes bold lines, expressive faces, and giddily unnecessary blasts of text in intense fonts. Tembo features quite a few cartoon action movie tropes: waves of bad guys in matching, ugly, purple uniforms a leading henchman with a wicked laugh a good-guy military squad scrambling to fight back and one particular soldier (you know, an elephant) coming out of retirement to get the job done. ![]() That should be enough pedigree to get any platforming purist excited, and Tembo doesn't take long to assert its, er, weight as a worthy successor. They have a sleeper hit of a platformer under their belts as well: 2006's Drill Dozer for the Game Boy Advance. Tembo comes courtesy of the game makers at Game Freak, who are best known for designing every major Pokemon game. Tembo The Badass Elephant sure feels like one, with an insane challenge curve-and a few curious design decisions-to match. Sounds like a beloved early '90s game, doesn't it? Those are all well and good-really good, in fact-but what about a new game that feels precisely like Sonic? After a long time, a lot of awful 3D Sonic games, and the so-so Sonic The Hedgehog 4 reboot, Sega of all companies has come forward with something that might do the trick. Say hello to Tembo, the so-called "badass" elephant who relies on speed, body slams, and a trunk uppercut to tear through tricky vertical levels full of collectibles. Action Henk might be the best recent game to scratch that speedy, 2D-platforming itch, and other significant platformers of the past five years- Super Meat Boy, Risk of Rain, and Mark of the Ninja, to name a few-have drawn obvious inspiration from Sonic's formula of tricky obstacles, hidden tidbits, and a pressing need to finish levels quickly. Today, the actual Sonic franchise sucks-gosh, it has sucked for decades at this point-but there are plenty of indie developers filling in his spiky-haired void. It was an uninspiring boss fight to say the least.Platform: Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 It took me all of 41 seconds to bulldoze this thing into the pit. I assumed this would be a worthy first challenge. Four stages in and I meet Shell City’s first boss, a mechanical dragon-tank monstrosity on a platform above a fiery pit. Even if I somehow managed to die, collectible peanuts-Tembo the Badass Elephant’s version of rings from Sonic-are spread all over each stage. PHANTOM just doesn’t have enough firepower to stop Tembo. ![]() Deaths are few and far between in Shell City. I powered through the first zone without any difficulty. Rather than be penalized for missing them, players are rewarded for seeking the civilians out in harder to access areas at the end of each stage. There’s even a little Resogun influence as Tembo rescues trapped civilians, literally carrying them on his back to safety. Tembo’s abilities and the stage designs are the most obvious inspirations, right down to Sonic’s mechanical bosses and barrel launching from Donkey Kong Country. The goal from the outset is clear, obliterate the invading army PHANTOM and save what’s left of Shell City. HRRAANHH! Tembo lets loose a thunderous roar emphasized by zany comic book-style lettering as he’s dropped into the first stage. ![]()
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