Tembo the Badass Elephant asks players to fight through a war-torn country as a giant elephant with a gun on its back. That premise alone sells a lot of the game, and for a while it delivers. The game launched for PS4, PC and Xbox One in 2015, and it remains a solid, if limited, shooter.
Trailer, via SEGA.
Fighting as a Gun-Loaded Elephant
The core loop is simple: move forward, press buttons, watch enemies explode. The elephant itself can be directed around the screen with a small amount of control over its movements, and the guns attached to its tusks do most of the work. It is a strange sight, and the game leans into that strangeness rather than apologizing for it.
Boss fights break up the pacing with larger set pieces that ask players to target weak points on towering foes. These moments work best when the game trusts its own idea fully, and they suffer when the enemy design grows too simple to feel like a real challenge.
Where the Game Falls Short
Tembo the Badass Elephant does not try to reinvent the shooting genre. It borrows ideas from other games and packages them inside a shell that looks nothing like any of them. That is a smart approach, and it mostly pays off.
The problem comes from a lack of depth elsewhere. The levels are built for quick traversal rather than exploration, and the gun variety does not expand enough to keep later missions feeling fresh. Players who want a shooter with a strong identity will find it here, but players who want a shooter with a deep identity will leave wanting more.
Comparing the Platforms
| Platform | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Best performance overall | No clear disadvantage |
| PC | Highest resolution support | Most demanding system requirements |
| XONE | Balanced experience | Middle ground on hardware |
Key Facts
- Title: Tembo the Badass Elephant
- Release Year: 2015
- Platforms: PS4, PC, Xbox One
- Critical Score: 7.1/10
The game’s strengths are easy to see. Its premise is memorable, its boss fights are well staged, and the gun-on-a-tusk concept carries through most of its runtime without losing its charm. Where it falls short is in the details that matter after the novelty wears off. The level design does not reward curiosity, and the gun variety does not grow enough to sustain the entire campaign.
Tembo the Badass Elephant is a game about a gun-toting elephant that mostly knows what it wants to be. It is not a great shooter, but it is a competent one with a very specific identity that few other games share. For players willing to overlook some rough edges, it offers a memorable experience that rewards patience. It earns a score of 7.1 out of 10.
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