In a retrospective review, IGN gave the game 7 out of 10.
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By Travis Fahs On the surface, Tempo might have seemed like another "me too" '90s mascot, and from the incredibly cheesy rap song that introduces him ("Tempo, check it out ya' know/He makes it funky and he's good to go") to his too-cool-for-the-room persona, you'd be half right. But Tempo wasn't so much of a cash-in as it was a throwback, the spiritual successor to Hudson's Bonk series, with slower-paced, pure platform gameplay, and as one of the handful of quality originals on SEGA's doomed 32X, it's worth a second look. The similarities to Bonk are no coincidence. Tempo was directed by Bonk's creator, Keisuke Abe, and many of the same characteristic design elements are easy to spot. Like the prehistoric TurboGrafx mascot, Tempo is a leisurely walker (though he does have a dash ability) and playing well means finding ways to bounce from enemy to enemy without hitting the ground. Tempo can also glide with his wings, just as Bonk could with his spin, and in some spots he can grab onto walls. He has a few tricks of his own, of course, with the ability to stun enemies from across the screen by snapping musical notes from his fingers, and a handy roundhouse kick to finish them off. By the time it hit the shelves, a lot of these elements seemed quite dated, and Tempo is definitely a simple game, but its purist approach wasn't lost on everyone. As a personality-driven game, Tempo walks the line between originality and cliché. The eponymous big-headed anthropomorphic cricket is an appealing if slightly creepy lead, and he remains blissfully quiet, without uttering nasal wisecracks and movie quotes like so many of his peers. The story, of course, involves some nasty king trying to abolish fun, but it dodges clichés with a game show format that casts the funky bug as a contestant out to save the world and earn a few bucks. His girlfriend, a butterfly named Katy, tags along, and actually helps to kick some ass instead of playing the damsel in distress. Go, Tempo, go! If nothing else, Tempo's style was unimpeachable. The animation was smooth, expressive, crisp, and clear. Tempo bops to the beat, busts a move when it's time celebrate, and flips and twirls as he clobbers enemies from above. The backgrounds were a surreal, shifting, jumping jumble of colored layers. Everything about the look was undeniably funky and colorful, even if it wasn't much of a showcase for the 32-bit platform. That lack of technical flash might have been the biggest problem, at least at the time. The unlucky few that actually dropped $170 of a 32X while it was still fresh were looking for something to justify the costly upgrade. Tempo's only use of the 32X hardware was a colorful background layer, scaling effects on some early bosses, and a recorded theme song – a small notch up from what the Genesis could do, but still well within Super Nintendo territory. The foregrounds, sprites, and the rest of the music were all handled by the Genesis hardware, and the end result was a game that, for all intents and purposes, seemed stuck in 16-bit. Even the soundtrack was surprisingly indistinct for a game with a music theme. It's not that any of it is bad, and some of the songs will stick in your head, but parts of the soundtrack are overused, and some layers of the music only play when Katy is around. But when you look past the technical merits, you're left with a game pure in spirit. There are no loops, no careening down hills, no giant, rotating mazes. This isn't a game of gimmicks, but the fundamentals are strong. The simple set of moves makes for a compelling game, and finding routes to string together enemies for high scores is good, clean fun. It can be a fairly challenging romp too, and there's a harder difficulty mode for the masochistic and the experienced. ## The Verdict Tempo was never a great game. It was simplistic, a little repetitive, and smacked of a dying generation in graphics and gameplay. Still, despite that, it's hard not to find something genuinely charming about it. The character, art, animation, and strange sense of humor make for a memorable experience, and the classic gameplay was nostalgic, even when the game was new. Even though it was never really a hit, Red Company was right to realize they were onto something. After a faithful Game Gear sequel, and a Rayman-esque departure on Saturn, the series was retired, but it will always be the original vision that remains the purest. An overpriced 32-bit upgrade wasn't the right platform to sell a game like Tempo, but with a few years behind us, maybe it's time we gave it a second chance. IN THIS ARTICLE Released May 5th, 1995 18 Nov 2008 Read our review standards A clever game show theme, a handful of bonus mini-games a memorable intro flatter the game nicely. It's more colorful than a Genesis game, but nothing the SNES couldn't do. The animation is still impressive, but it wastes the extra horsepower, and it uses a lot of repetitive backgrounds. Apart from the deliciously cheesy theme song, most of the music doesn't stand out, but that doesn't make it bad. It's a simple game that borrows heavily from Bonk. Either that appeals to you, or it doesn't. Lasting Appeal The seven stages only last a couple hours, like most games of the day. There's an adjustable difficulty, and score ranking at the end of the game that extend its life. 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Tempo (video game)
Reception.
On release, "Famicom Tsūshin" scored the game a 30 out of 40. Though they commented on the lack of originality in the gameplay, "GamePro" concluded that "Tempo'"s "dazzling" background graphics, rich soundtrack, and extremely low difficulty make it "a perfect game for novices." They gave the game a 4 out of 5 overall. 
 "Next Generation" reviewed the game, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "none of [its] good qualities keep "Tempo" from missing the beat and being yet another poor 32X effort." 
 Four reviewers for the Japanese "Sega Saturn Magazine" gave it scores of 6,4,6,7, for an average of 6.25. 
