Preview – Tembo the Badass Elephant

Thanks to the friendly folk at Sega, I was given the opportunity to sample the first two zones from the PC version of Game Freak’s upcoming game, Tembo the Badass Elephant. This is a title that I didn’t know much about apart from the initial reveal trailer that was shown during its announcement back in March of this year, which showcased an elephant that appeared to be dressed up like Rambo ready for a war. After beating the content twice in the preview build, I left knowing more about what the game is and why I’m excited to see what else this peanut munching mammal has left to show once he escapes from the confines of development zoo.

I’ll honestly confess that the initial reveal for Tembo the Badass Elephant didn’t exactly light my world on fire. It looked like a simple, jolly game that had potential to be fun, but after my time with Tembo, I’m changed on my feelings and I truly believe that it seems Game Freak produces some of its best work when it isn’t confined to making Pokémon games and has the freedom to develop. We saw this with their last download only game, HarmoKnight, offering a great, charming, rhythm game that was completely unexpected from the developer, and Tembo the Badass Elephant seemingly keeps the trend up with its big focus on action gameplay and platforming with no Pikachu, Charizard or Mewtwo in sight.

The game opens up with comic book panels painting a picture of the peaceful Shell City coming under attack from a purple army known as PHANTOM. This force pushes forward, destroying parts of the city with their skull decorated tanks and helicopters, while capturing civilians for prisoners. Struggling to fend off the invaders with the local Army, General Krenman rubs his hairless chin – but doesn’t twiddle his amazing moustache – and remembers a time with an old friend, a grey mammoth of a friend, that once helped him in the past to defend a hostile opposition on Tembo’s own island of Tuskland. After receiving a call from the General, Tembo grabs his gear, paints his face and sets off to help his friend in need by doing what he does best – causing destruction. Makes me wonder if his motto is “to survive a war, you gotta become war.“

You will be surprised how versatile an elephant can be, because even though Tembo is a seven ton animal that plods along when moving the left stick, once he’s commanded to perform one of the game’s multiple moves he blasts like a rocket with the weight fully behind him. The starting tutorial introduces these abilities through help boards that hang in the background as you perform the action to proceed onwards. Tembo can jump, do a Yoshi flutter to extend his air time, dash to smash through objects and obstructions, turn his trunk into a hammer and perform a uppercut to break through materials above him, butt stomp to perform similar destruction but downwards, a dive spin to turn Tembo into a heavy ball of destruction that can bounce off the ground to keep momentum, perform a sort of footballer’s slide tackle to slide under barriers or kick away blockages, and finally use his trunk to spray water on dangerous flames. This are used to tackle various enemies, be it cannon fodder soldiers, tanks, helicopters and even mechs that require timing to slide under and hit their weak point. Moves get a lot to use, and added depth is brought as the game will ask you to combine them, such as doing a dash air jump to smash through a wall that is slightly above ground.

Games can often fail on maximising the potential of a character’s moves by hardly using a selected few or simply ignoring them all together once a specific situation has passed, but during the first two zones of Tembo the Badass Elephant, it’s clear that Game Freak doesn’t want this to happen with its level design and has made sure that the action stays constant and that Tembo’s abilities are put to good use. Straight from the get go, you’re butt stomping through the roof of a tall building, smashing through floors and shattering windows until Tembo lands and dashes off to smash through walls and mountains of cars that block the route. Obliterating obstacles is a key feature, often revealing peanuts or occasionally life to refill Tembo’s health metre, so it’s good that the sound and visual effects are over the top in a comical way to drill in the impact of something as silly as elephant mass destruction. It never gets old experiencing the sound of glass, metal or wood shattering on ferocious impact in all directions, which is emphasised with a slight decrease in speed on hit to cause an extra millisecond to the carnage.

It helps that the Man of Steel inspired demolition and charming presentation is backed up with solid gameplay. I felt vibes from other games that could have potentially influenced Tembo the Badass Elephant. For starters, and I guess even though Sega is only the publisher for the game, the feeling of Sonic the Hedgehog can’t be helped when Tembo is galloping along at speed, not stopping for any wall or obstacle, jump dashing, while collecting peanuts (the game’s take on rings that eerily sounds like the banana collecting sound in Donkey Kong Country –  filling the jar with 300 peanuts rewards an extra life) then performing a barrel roll that looks like a giant grey spin-dash – this keeps the Sonic comparisons in me without the heartache that has recently been the disappointment of that franchise.

Donkey Kong Country is another inspiration that can be seen in the game, as cannons act as barrels that autopilot Tembo forward, and even at times are used to switch planes, while Tembo’s butt stomp flips over shielded enemies. The player is only ever asked to stop when given a quick puzzle to solve, such as taking down a platform to set in motion a large bowling ball that skittles poor misplaced soldiers out the way, putting out flames with the use of water storage tanks that fill up Tembo when his water metre is low, or looking for ledges that hold innocent civilians that need rescuing, think Metal Slug, as they jump on the back for a ride to the finish line, adding personality to Tembo and the civilians as they hold on for dear life when the action gets rough.

Credit is due, because Tembo doesn’t just take mechanics used in other video games and leave it at that. The developers have come up with inventive ways to make use of the elephant’s skills. Each level never feels short of creativity, which is a good sign that the rest of the game will follow suit and be stimulating all the way to the finish. Some of these inventive examples include a part where a tank is shooting bombs from the background, which Tembo must dodge, but every second shot a tennis ball pops out (why, who knows….video games, son) and a well placed hammer uppercut produces a tennis racket sound as Tembo smashes the ball back at the tank to cause damage. Another is the use of spraying water, as early levels learn the player to spray water on flaming skulls to drench the danger, or if blue flaming skulls, damp them out and get away before those nasty skulls burst back to their blue glory. The second zone introduces seeds that sprout bounce/solid platforms that bring into play more challenge platforming, plant fists that make bridges when sprayed and gates that require water to spin the wheel to lift them up, while building on the last zone’s challenge by having skulls that are perfectly placed to make the player dash and spray at the same time to create a water barrier to pass. Some of these might seem like simple ideas, unoriginal even, but blended together with the forward momentum that Tembo the Badass Elephant has means the action is always stimulating and fast, rewarding players with combos if they manage to keep alert by using the skills available to protect Tembo from damage.

Tembo the Badass Elephant could have easily been a quick cash endless runner for mobile platforms, but thankfully, from my time with the preview build, it seems Game Freak made a good decision and brought us what is looking to be a promising platform game infused with ideas from the 16bit greats of Donkey Kong Country, Yoshi’s Island and Sonic the Hedgehog,  while keeping it creative with brilliant level design and a neat art style. It might have a silly main character, but Tembo the Badass Elephant means serious business and no amount of allergic reaction to peanuts should stop anyone from checking the game come its release in summer if it keeps being as fun as its initial two zones.