VGR Tempo

Back in '95 Sega asked to Red Company to come up with a mascot for their then-all new 32-bit system, the poor ill-fated 32X. (rather than always resorting to Sonic for these sort of things)

This is what they came up with...

VGR: Tempo 

From Red Company/Sega

Played on Sega 32X

Also available on /

Type Sidescrolling platformer

Year 1995

In case you're asking, Red Company (aka Red Entertainment these days) are the ones Hudson Soft/NEC turned to to create a mascot - PC Genjin - for the PC Engine/Turbografx! Which resulted in several sequels.

Anyway, back to Tempo!
Tempo is the short lived mascot those guys from Bonk created for Sega's 32X system, you know, the 32 bits add-on for the Megadrive! The poor green cartoon grasshopper was doomed from the start...

But thoughts on the 32X aside, what about the game itself?

The groove is outta town!~

You play as the eponymous Tempo.
A groovy green insect with headphones on.

The whole game is presented like a performance playing live, from the level selection in front of an audience to the stages themselves.
You score "points" by the way you play your way through them.
And the game's principal theme is - obviously - music.

At first glance, it looks like a 16-bit platformer on acid!
Everything's animated, moving around.
You play through about 6 quite unusual stages, all quite psychedelic. There's a visually "loud" hifi stage, a surprising indigestion stages (literally!), a downtown area, a winter zone, a jungle and then the final performace...

As soon as the game is started, you hear lyrics to a campy 90s rap song.
There you have it, TEMPO!
Music in the foreground, in your face!

The music of the whole game is actually pretty catchy. Such a fun groovy soundtrack!

Tempo is pretty fun to play with as well!
He can float around with his wings, you can also jump and defeat foes like Mario, or kick your way across your enemies. And also "shoot music" by snapping around which temporary paralyze foes.

The game is a beautiful example of what 2D could achieve on 32 bits powered systems.
The graphics were all hand-drawn(!).
Well animated, big beautiful sprites that could give even Rayman a run for its money.
The whole backgrounds are animated.
The chara design and animations are actually kinda reminiscent of Tiny Toons I want to say, giving the game a particular cartoon look.

In style, the game is not that much different from Sega's Chaotix (a Sonic spinoff, also for the 32X) .
Both tend to show what the system was capable off.
The game is very colorful. Lots of color on screen, multi-layered background, lots of animations going around.
Even the way to select levels and the layout of those are quite similar to Chaotix.
The levels are soft of opened up, rather than linear. There's few levels, but with various sub-parts that change visually and musically as you go along, according to the current themes.

At first you might feel lost, various things are distracting you on-screen.
There's also portals that contribute to the confusion, which transport you around the levels.
But you are never really lost, these arrows indicating the way all the time.

You are not alone either!
There's an element of co-op with the CPU! (it's not 2 players though..)
Tempo is joined by his girlfriend Katy!
The game as several zones to dance in front of the cameras. Which bring Katy to help you out. She can hit enemies you stunned.
The more you dance around, the more you chain-upgrade Tempo! Which makes the music more dynamic.
So one must avoid getting hit to keep the power "boost" up. Tempo has a classic healthbar.

The game needs some getting used to, but it's not that complicated.
Also it uses a password system instead of saving progress directly on the cartridge.

There's also some button-timed bonus stages. QTE special stages.
You have to either help a surfer strike poses, a dude that needs eating a pizza without his wife catching him or karaté-choping falling object like rocks and trees.

The game features a boss per level.
The first couple ones don't make much sense though, a boxing glove, a shoe, really? And they're in 3D for some reason rather than in 2D sprites.
But later on they get TV/music related (a singing trio, a clown who's losing ratings,..)

Overall, I simply friggin' love this game!
Such a fun and entertaining game!
It perfectly shows off 32X graphics and features funky music.
A little game with a lot of charm and personality.
The 32X has a very small library, and this one's a must have for any possessor of the system.

Oh, and that extreme 90s gritty cover art we have on the NTSC cover... ugh..

Red was tasked by Sega to come up with a mascot for Sega, and they took the challenge and come up with a winner!
Too bad the system was doomed, since Sega was already working on the actual 32-bit successor of the Megadrive.
Which prevented Tempo from becoming the mascot he was expected to be.
But his success and redeemable qualities granted him a return!  
Tempo went on to star in a sequel on Sega's other 32 bits system, the Sega Saturn, in Super Tempo and even was able to get a spinoff title on the Game Gear, Tempo Jr.

I give it:

 2.5 / 3 Bruces!