Tempo

"The little grasshopper that could, but didn't because he was on a system that was DOA"

I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this game, but with more work, it could have been something truly special. Still, It's nice to have a change of pace after blowing through Sonic the Hedgehog for the 80th time.

Graphics: 9/10 - The game looks fantastic. All the graphics are hand drawn (with 3 exceptions) and have plenty of animation. Every frame is smooth with no pixelation whatsoever. The colours are bright and vibrant and have plenty of animation, however that's a problem, the backgrounds can be a bit too lively. Sometimes there's so much stuff going on in the background (indigestion performance is the worst for this) that it can be hard to focus on the foreground and this can lead to getting lost or taking cheap hits.
Remember those 3 exceptions I mentioned? Well, the first three bosses, rather than being hand drawn, have this nasty CG look and are poorly scaled so they look really jagged. Considering how good looking everything else is, this is a big let-down.

Sound: 8/10 - The music in this game is definately worth hearing. They pulled everything they could from the genesis' sound chip and made one of the more enjoyable soundtracks for the system. They even put vocals in the intro (not the best vocals, but bareable, besides, you can skip it if you want). Each level has catchy music that fits with the style of the level (hi-fi performance has a techno feel, winter performance is your typical snow-level style music etc.) and the three minigames are focused around the music.
Sound effects are, about average. Nothing to write home about but they do the job.

Story: N/A - Whatever storyline this game has, I dont know about it. I got this game used and there was no manual with it. Nothing is explained in game. All I can work out is that you play as an anthro grasshopper named Tempo (guessing by the name of the game and the intro lyrics) who is such a good dancer his moves make enemies explode into money and you are supported by an anthro butterfly named Katy (There are points in the level marked with her name that lead to bonuses if you have her with you. The relationship between the two is unknown to me) and thats about it, nothing else.

Gameplay: 5/10 - Your standard platforming 'fare for the most part. It's been done before and done better, but it's also been done worse. Controls are responsive so at least you get the movements you want when you want but everything is so SLOW. Tempo moves at a very slow pace, probably the slowest default movement speed in any platformer I've played. You can dash to get to a decently high speed but Tempo has an insane amount of momentum so often times you wont be able to stop yourself from crashing into walls (Tempo actually slams into the walls and will be stunned for a couple of seconds, so be careful). Your slow default speed means long distance jumping can be a pain. Thankfully Tempo jumps pretty high (he's a grasshopper, so thats expected) and jumping while dashing gets you loads of distance and a good bit more height. Another thing that makes jumping easier is that you can 'fly' to slow down your decent (vertical speed will be roughly the same as your horizontal speed), just dont use it during a dashing jump (you lose your momentum). 'Flying' also saves you from falling damage.

The different enemies are all rather generic. You have the guy who just walks around, the guy who throws stuff at you, the flying guy, the jumping guy, the guy who's invincible part of the time, you know, standard platformer enemies. You can fight them off either by jumping on their heads ala Mario or you can kick them. You can also shoot music notes to stun enemies. Tempo has three different kicks, a basic side kick, a slide kick (kick while dashing) and a back kick (kick while ducking). The slide kick is probably the most useful as hit detection can be a little iffy at times with the other two, problem compounded by their short reach.

You also have a screen clearing attack in the form of Tempo's dance moves. Annoyingly, however, this is only availible at specific points in each level. These points have the word 'Dance' floating just above the floor (usually marked with a music note). Typically, these points are surrounded by enemies. When you touch these points, Tempo will preform a short dance and all the enemies on screen (or just off screen) will explode and earn you a coin for each one. This will also call in Katy, who acts as your support. She does two things, she attacks stunned enemies, making shooting even more useful and she can remove walls at points marked with the word 'Katy' floating next to them. These removed walls typically lead to stashes of health restoring music notes or other power-ups. Her presence also adds more instruments to the music playing and changes the dance you get. If you take too many hits she flys off but hitting another dance point before she leaves resets the count.

Power-ups are pretty limited. There are four varieties of health restoring music notes. Single, double, triple and giant notes. The giant notes give you points for whatever health you have left and then fill your health bar, the other three just restore health. Headphones provide you with an increase to you maximum health. CD's provide you with a temporary shield that kills any enemies it touches but does not protect against projectiles or undestroyable hazzards. Cassette tapes give you double points for a fairly long period of time or until you get hit. Vinyl records temporarally boosts your speed (very large, walking speed is just below normal dashing speed), provides you proper flight (slow but steady ascent rather than descent) and gives you with two after images which follow your route exactly, shoot and kick at the same time as you.

The level design is average, playable without too much frustration but for the most part there's nothing special. Thankfully, the game is free of instant death pits. Each level is presented as a 'performance' and each has their own style. The downtown performance is your typical city level, the hi-fi performace takes place on some giant and rather expensive looking sound equipment, the indigestion performance takes place inside the body of.....something or other, the circus performance takes place in a circus (where else), the jungle performance takes place in a jungle (which contains destroyable platforms but none are vital for beating the level, they are just used for bonus items), the winter performance is a typical snow level and the final performance takes place in a tower block (containing a, thankfully short, teleport maze). The hi-fi performance is probably the most creative while the downtown and final performances are painfully generic.

Each level has a different boss but they all have the same flaw, they are WAY too predictible. They only have a couple of attacks each and it's easy to get them into patterns. All you really have to do is shoot them and then kick them when they are stunned (or just shoot if you have Katy with you when you reach the boss, she'll do the kicking). Once you beat the boss you get to see Tempo (and Katy, if she's there) perform a victory dance. It's nice to see this the first couple of times but it wears thin and you cant skip this. There are only two dances to see after each boss, one with just Tempo, one with Tempo and Katy.

Along with the main game there are three bonus games. All of them play the same way, press a button to the beat of the music. The first one, Tasty Vittle Session, costs 2 coins to play and each round is worth 1000 points. The second one, Goin' Pearlin', costs 5 coins to play and each round is worth 3000 points. The third one, Just Hackin' Away costs 10 coins to play is each round is worth 8000 points. Each game goes on until you either mess up the timing or miss too many beats in a round. Each round gets harder as they go on, round 1 has visual cues to teach you the beat, from round 3 onward the tempo of the music increases each round.

When you beat the final performance your score is tallied and the ending is decided based on your score. The only difference between the endings is what picture is shown during the credits.

Overall: 8/10 - For it's flaws, I still enjoy playing this game but I feel that it could have been a lot better. Some better level design, a proper implementation of the dance ability, some rythym based gameplay outside the bonus games (considering how music is a big focus in this game, it would make sense. It would have been good for the boss fights), a more balanced movement speed (walking is too slow, dashing is too fast) and an actual storyline (outside the manual, if there's one in there), thats all. Anyway, if you have a 32X you might want to try this out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/09

Game Release: Tempo (US, 1995)