Tembo the Badass Elephant

[Kong Wen]

Tembo the Badass Elephant is coming to PS4 tomorrow. This is Game Freak's first outing on PS4 (they're well-known for their previous creations, Pulseman on Genesis, Drill Dozer on Game Boy Advance, and Pokémon on various Nintendo platforms).

Judging from the looks alone, it kind of reminds me of a mix of Drill Dozer and Alien Hominid. There are various platforming and fighting mechanics. The aesthetic is generally military, apart from the mascot theme. These guys tend to make games that feel good, so it could be one to keep an eye on.

[The Shoemaker]

Given the style of gameplay I'm surprised this isn't on Nintendo platforms. I can't really think of a reason why they didn't put this on Nintendo platforms either other than strickly wanting to develop for other platforms.

[Kong Wen]

Given the style of gameplay I'm surprised this isn't on Nintendo platforms. I can't really think of a reason why they didn't put this on Nintendo platforms either other than strickly wanting to develop for other platforms.

Game Freak's director James Turner actually beat around the bush about this very question in an interview earlier this year.

When asked why Tembo wouldn't be coming to Wii U, he prevaricated, "I was writing the presentation documents for this game, I drew a mockup poster, and I put the Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox logos at the bottom. It seemed to fit, and it happened to stick that way. We thought about other hardware during development, but our hands were pretty full with those three platforms!"

When asked about the game's potential to appear on other platforms, he gave the usual line about focusing on the current platforms for now, no comment, etc.

I hate to go back to the familiar but all-too-true refrain, but I'd almost guarantee the reason is because Nintendo kicked themselves in their own ass with the Wii U being a last-gen system. It would be easy enough for a small team to develop a game that was cross-platform capable across PS4, Xbox One, and PC due to similar infrastructure. A Wii U version would require significantly more development time & resources, by contrast.

If anything, I'd say a 3DS version is a Nintendo-only gamer's best bet. Their share of that market is immense and thus a far more justifiable avenue for port-related expenditure.

[The Shoemaker]

Given the style of gameplay I'm surprised this isn't on Nintendo platforms. I can't really think of a reason why they didn't put this on Nintendo platforms either other than strickly wanting to develop for other platforms.

Game Freak's director James Turner actually beat around the bush about this very question in an interview earlier this year.

When asked why Tembo wouldn't be coming to Wii U, he prevaricated, "I was writing the presentation documents for this game, I drew a mockup poster, and I put the Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox logos at the bottom. It seemed to fit, and it happened to stick that way. We thought about other hardware during development, but our hands were pretty full with those three platforms!"

When asked about the game's potential to appear on other platforms, he gave the usual line about focusing on the current platforms for now, no comment, etc.

I hate to go back to the familiar but all-too-true refrain, but I'd almost guarantee the reason is because Nintendo kicked themselves in their own ass with the Wii U being a last-gen system. It would be easy enough for a small team to develop a game that was cross-platform capable across PS4, Xbox One, and PC due to similar infrastructure. A Wii U version would require significantly more development time & resources, by contrast.

If anything, I'd say a 3DS version is a Nintendo-only gamer's best bet. Their share of that market is immense and thus a far more justifiable avenue for port-related expenditure.

I've read that interview before, and it's funny that they phrased it that way because it's not really an explaination. But you're probably right. Obviously it would run on Wii U, but given the fact that it was just a side project, why bother putting the resources in to making an entirely different version?

Has anyone tried the game here?

[Kong Wen]

I've read that interview before, and it's funny that they phrased it that way because it's not really an explaination. But you're probably right. Obviously it would run on Wii U, but given the fact that it was just a side project, why bother putting the resources in to making an entirely different version?

Has anyone tried the game here?

Yeah, it's kind of an obvious way to politely skirt the issue and basically say "yeah, we're not gonna do that."

I've tried the game. I got up to the boss of the second dome before N++ came out and I started focusing on that. It's enjoyable enough. It's a fairly run of the mill platformer with high production values.

Your character has standard charge, butt-stomp, uppercut, jump, and hold-jump-to-hover moves. You collect peanuts, and when you get enough of them you earn an extra life. There are also collectibles in the form of 10 civilians per stage that you have to rescue (usually easy to find, but some are hidden), and the game keeps track of every enemy you beat, so they become something of a collectible as well.

The enemies become fairly varied. There are standard troops who just stand there and let you defeat them, and then there are varieties with swords (can't charge them head-on), spikes (can't butt-stomp them), flying in helicopters, driving tanks, etc. The key to dealing with some of these varieties is projective dodging and keeping an eye on patterns, kind of like the Hammer Bros. And then there are bosses, but like I said, I've only seen a couple of these so far.

There are three worlds, with four stages and a boss per world, plus probably an end boss or a sequence of end bosses. The stages are replayable enough that going back in for collectibles isn't too much of a chore. Overall I'd say it's pretty good value for a $15 game so far.

[The Shoemaker]

I've read that interview before, and it's funny that they phrased it that way because it's not really an explaination. But you're probably right. Obviously it would run on Wii U, but given the fact that it was just a side project, why bother putting the resources in to making an entirely different version?

Has anyone tried the game here?

Yeah, it's kind of an obvious way to politely skirt the issue and basically say "yeah, we're not gonna do that."

I've tried the game. I got up to the boss of the second dome before N++ came out and I started focusing on that. It's enjoyable enough. It's a fairly run of the mill platformer with high production values.

Your character has standard charge, butt-stomp, uppercut, jump, and hold-jump-to-hover moves. You collect peanuts, and when you get enough of them you earn an extra life. There are also collectibles in the form of 10 civilians per stage that you have to rescue (usually easy to find, but some are hidden), and the game keeps track of every enemy you beat, so they become something of a collectible as well.

The enemies become fairly varied. There are standard troops who just stand there and let you defeat them, and then there are varieties with swords (can't charge them head-on), spikes (can't butt-stomp them), flying in helicopters, driving tanks, etc. The key to dealing with some of these varieties is projective dodging and keeping an eye on patterns, kind of like the Hammer Bros. And then there are bosses, but like I said, I've only seen a couple of these so far.

There are three worlds, with four stages and a boss per world, plus probably an end boss or a sequence of end bosses. The stages are replayable enough that going back in for collectibles isn't too much of a chore. Overall I'd say it's pretty good value for a $15 game so far.

3 Worlds with 4 stages each seems a little small for a $15 game to me, but it all comes down to the quality I suppose. Sounds like just an interesting side project the team felt like doing. At this point in time it's kind of hard to revolutionize the genre that started it all, but I enjoy platformers enough that usually even an average quality one will satisfy me.

[VictorViper]

I ended up picking this up today and scoured the first two stages. Fun game, feels really great to play the elephant.