Every now and again, a puzzle game comes along and surprises you in ways others haven’t. Unpacking by Witch Beam was one such game, and while their follow-up doesn’t hit as hard, Tempopo is still engaging. It isn’t aimed so much at the die hard fans of puzzlers. Even after playing through just a few of the stages, its focus is obviously more on appealing to every age. Music plays a huge role in its appeal, with younger audiences being a target for its fantastical and vibrant world, where the challenge is never overtly difficult.
Each puzzle is a diorama of colour. A contained challenge where orders are given to a select number of creatures called Tempopo who need to retrieve flowers. Hana, the girl of the story, has lost her garden to these various islands. By issuing commands, these cute balls of life must follow a path directed by you in order to bring them home. At the start of each island, various squares that can be interacted with are highlighted by a bright white outline. Survey the route to the flowers, then issue commands to the Tempopo before letting them loose.
The Tempopo can kick blocks or turn into them, fly to a higher platform, and bash obstacles out of the way. You can use these skills a set number of times as indicated in the bottom left of the screen. Once you realise that unless you have an arrow indicator to lay down as a command, they will roam the islands with sentience. At first, it feels as though you have control, however, they’re pretty smart. Laying down the commands and watching it all unfold is where the satisfaction comes in. In order to complete each puzzle, only one of the Tempopo needs to reach the finish line.
As long as you’ve collected all the flowers, you’ve succeeded. Over the course of the 60 original islands, the layouts change and gradually get harder. While its never difficult, some of them do take a few times to complete. You get the feeling Witch Beam isn’t pushing for players to bash their head against a wall trying to solve puzzles. As I said, it feels aimed at a younger audience with the difficulty at least. The Tempopo are clever little guys who know their way around these islands. They just require you to tell them the correct action to use.
Getting to travel back to Hana’s garden and plant the flowers you’ve collected is a nice addition. Planting them singularly or in bunches provide different melodies. At the end of each 15 islands, Hana will perform a song in the garden. It isn’t hugely exciting, and even planting flowers at your own pace and listening to the melodies didn’t make me want to keep returning. Saying that, this feature might scratch other people’s brains differently. It is a nice little feature that breaks up the puzzle-solving at least.
The soundtrack is light and fluffy, with fun rhythms and beautiful memories accompanying every island. The Unpacking composer Jeff van Dyck has provided an upbeat soundtrack to a game all about feeling happy and comfortable in a world where stress is at the back of your mind. Tempopo is about relaxation and consistency. The puzzles do provide a challenge, but it is the routine of going from one to the next in beautiful little world filled with joy that offers something different from the mundanity of other titles within the same genre.
If you’re after a laid back game to play on the go, Tempopo is great on the Switch. Handheld is the way to play, and is a great one for killing time. It might not offer much in the way of story, and outside of the puzzles and going back to the garden, there isn’t a great deal else to do. Still, I loved the simplicity in the puzzles, and like games such as Humanity, it’s satisfaction comes in the planning stages of each island.
