Tempopo

I feel like Tempopo’s timing—of all things, it had to be timing—works against it. Releasing when every puzzle game fanatic is still trying to make their way into the 46th room in Blue Prince is rough for what is essentially a more basic puzzler than the game of the year contender. I also hope that developer Witch Beam’s success with their previous game, Unpacking, doesn’t undermine Tempopo either. Because the Australian developers have made another quietly profound game, just one with a little less depth than their previous masterpiece.

In Tempopo, you play as Hana. This young girl has a beautiful garden of musical flowers, which floats around like a little island in the sky. Hana is full of enthusiasm and passion for music but still lacks a bit when it comes to conducting her orchestral flora. One day, she makes another attempt to make beautiful music, but everything goes horribly wrong, and all of her flowers are whisked away by a storm. Luckily, Hana still has her Tempopo by her side, magical yet chaotic and uncoordinated creatures that vow to help her get her flowers back.

To do so, you have to conduct these cute creatures across 60 different gardens, all of them beautiful little dioramas in the sky. To do so, you will switch between the planning phase and the execution phase. During the planning phase, you can add instructions to certain locations in the garden, varying from giving literal directions to move into to destroying things, becoming a block, a launch pad, and whatnot. You only get a certain number of these instructions per level though, so be careful where you put them. Something I found incredibly helpful is that you need every single one of your instructions; otherwise, you won’t be able to solve the puzzle.

When you’re done with the planning phase, you can let the execution phase do its thing. At the start of the game, you might get a puzzle correct before using the reset button, but soon after you’ll realise that you’re going to need that button frequently. As the levels grow in size and complexity, it can become a bit difficult to really see what each of your Tempopo will be doing, so I often let them do a test run before even inputting any commands. The game doesn’t punish you for this, except for possibly hearing the Tempopo fall to their doom or witnessing Hana—who’s conducting everything on the right side of the screen—get a bit disillusioned.

In typical Witch Beam fashion, this creates a very cosy and comfortable experience. Even as the difficulty of the gardens ramps up throughout the different seasons of the game, frustration is limited because you’re always having a good time. This is helped a lot by the stunning music by BAFTA award-winning composer Jeff van Dyck, whose songs switch from being unintrusive during the planning phase to wonderfully active during the execution phase. Yes, you will be hearing these songs a lot as you try and retry (and in my case, retry a couple more times), but rather than getting annoying, the music keeps you going when you might be stuck at times. The Tempopo always moves to the beat, so the music even incorporates itself in your puzzle solving as you try to figure out what happens when and which cause will create what effect.

Tempopo is just a perfect package of a puzzle game. The visuals are colourful and alluring, creating an atmosphere and story that can be enjoyed by all ages. The music, as mentioned, is absolutely stunning. And gameplay feels satisfying, as you go from being overwhelmed by the amount of things happening in one level to slowly figuring out your next step to finally reaching that AHA moment when everything clicks together. If you do struggle with the puzzles, there is a hint function, and if you want to give younger players a try—or allow yourself an easier time with the game—you can go for adventure mode, which will show you where you need to put instructions, so all you need to figure out is which ones go where.

It’s clear that Witch Beam wants you to have a good time with this game, as both you and Hana grow and evolve through the game together. Now, while Hana is an absolute star and her story is worth telling, it does lack the emotional heft that was the major asset of the dev’s previous game, Unpacking. But to compare this game to that all-time classic is doing it a disservice, as they are just too different. Not every game needs to be all about the big emotions and life-changing events. Sometimes, a game can just be about a kid who wants to return her singing flowers to her garden and create beautiful harmonies with them. If the devs wanted to make another Unpacking, then they might have just created a sequel of something, but they went for something completely new, and that’s cool.

I just hope people can judge this game for what it is and not what they had hoped it would be. Because what it is is a fantastic puzzle game that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. Hana is iconic, the Tempopo are adorable little creatures, and each tiny garden is a little piece of art holding an intricately designed puzzle that will challenge your brain a bit before giving you immense satisfaction when you figure it out. Watching all the pieces fall into place has rarely felt, looked, or sounded this good.