I’m a sucker for a good puzzle game, any experience that really makes you stop and think for a moment before it all comes together into a perfect, smiling moment of realisation and the solution falls into place. I’m also a sucker for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, a cracking good time that I impatiently must wait to discover if Nintendo wants to continue in some form. Luckily, Aussie studio Witch Beam has decided to fill that gap with what’s shaping up to be a lovingly crafted puzzler of its own in Tempopo, and I got the chance to try it for the first time at this past weekend’s PAX Australia.
Tempopo follows a similar blueprint to Nintendo’s little Toad that could, a 3D platformer with a cute lead character that must navigate the cubed shape environments and reach the goal, obtaining musical flowers and avoiding hazards along the way. The difference here is that you must place ability markers on the field before pressing play, resulting in the little pink ball reacting accordingly to their direction if placed correctly to shift any obstacles in its path and avoid falling off the edge.
My brief time with the demo gave me a quick overview of the simple control scheme and how to effectively place interactive objects and arrows to ensure my hero reached the goal intact. A quick press of the play button at the start of each level gave me a general sense of what direction the character (of which there can be more than one) may move or which obstacles it cannot overcome. With a couple of button presses I was able to drop instructions that would turn Tempopo into a platform or ask it to smash a block in front of it using a spiked ball. Those first few levels didn’t take too long to figure out, with each level telling you exactly how many items you can place on the level to solve it, but by the end of the demo I found myself quietly contemplating some more complex objectives and beaming widely when Tempopo bounced its way to the goal.
On display at Pax Australia (image courtesy of @TempopoGame)
One set of levels in particular had me using one Tempopo as a platform for another to reach the other side, having me hit play multiple times in order to correctly solve the conundrum. I didn’t notice if the more I hit play to reset a level reduced any kind of high score or solution result, but at the vey least it was gratifying to slowly put two and two together and watch the little critters cheerfully bounce along to show me the way. I never felt overly confused, and that feeling was backed by watching younger PAX attendees similarly figuring things out with a smile.
Backed by a lovingly cute score, with the collective flowers jazzing things up and reacting accordingly once you reach them, Tempopo is all about bringing colourful vibes to the puzzle space. It’s most definitely achieved that so far, which is hardly surprising given Witch Beam’s success with fellow puzzler Unpacking. My hope is that later levels will really bring with them some clever ideas and a healthy dose of challenging solutions, but for now I’m happy to acknowledge its joyful existence and will wait patiently for more.
Tempopo’s release date and platforms remain unconfirmed, but stay tuned for more details as soon as they arrive. Did you get a chance to try Tempopo at PAX? Are you as big a Captain Toad fan as I? Shoutout in the comments below.
