If you’ve ever wanted a game that blends brain-tickling puzzles with bloomin’ adorable charm, Tempopo might just be your jam — strawberry-flavoured and served with a soothing synth soundtrack. You play as Hana, collecting her scattered musical flowers across a sky full of puzzle Islands, with help from the Tempopo; tiny marshmallowy beings who need some micromanaging to get the job done.
Pretty sure I had a brief fling with Tempopo back at SXSW Sydney 2023, though that day’s a blur of crowds, coffee, and cosplay. Flash forward to now, and I spot that it’s from Witch Beam — the brilliant Brisbane team behind 2021’s zen-masterpiece and my personal GOTY Unpacking — that alone had me interested. Overall, Tempopo left me tapping to the beat — but occasionally tapping out from all the mental noodling. Not a bad thing, just not something I could binge for hours.
A Garden of Delight (With a Few Thorny Bits)
Let’s get one thing straight: this game is cute. The Tempopo squeak, squawk, and strut their stuff like musical marshmallows on a mission. I was very sad to see some of them plummet off ledges. Jeff van Dyck returns on soundtrack duties, and just like in Unpacking, his bubbly, boppy tunes carry the game’s mood perfectly. It’s all very harmonious… until the puzzles turn your brain into compost.
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The game spans four Seasons — Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter — each with 15 Islands. That’s 60 puzzles in the main story, and another 60 advanced ones unlocked after that. Witch Beam really went full bloom on content.
Petals, Puzzles, and Planting Problems
Tempopo is a strategic puzzler with a whimsical edge. It’s cosy, but it’s also clever — and at times, low-key cruel. Some levels had me twisting my brain into a bonsai. Thankfully, Hana is there to help with hints — one at a time, never too spoilery. She’s the queen of just-enough-help, and you can keep asking until your neurons give in.
Accessibility-wise, Witch Beam brings the goods. One-handed play? Check. Touchscreen on Switch? Yep. Remappable controls? Absolutely. It’s accessibility with heart, and it shows. The game also ran perfectly on the Steam Deck.
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Still, not everything’s sunshine and sunflowers. I didn’t realise I had to plant all my collected flowers to progress to the next Season — a prompt would’ve saved some confusion. A few of the special block mechanics also go unexplained, which isn’t a dealbreaker — just requires trial and error to figure it out. And planting on the Steam Deck got a little fiddly — dragging the cursor around to add more flowers when planting isn’t exactly zen gardening.
One last nitpick: a speed-up option for reruns would be great. When you think you’ve nailed the solution and just want to see it play out faster? The wait can wilt your momentum.
Worth Picking?
If you’re after something warm, weird, and wonderfully challenging — something that’ll make you smile and then immediately second-guess your IQ — Tempopo is a bouquet worth picking. But it’s not for the faint-of-brain. Just know what you’re getting: this is more “cosy chess match” than “couch potato puzzler.” I wouldn’t marathon it, but it’s a delightful in-between game for fans of strategy, charm, and cheerful squish-blobs.
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Tempopo is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Game Pass, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. Grab it if you want to stretch your synapses while hanging out with singing squish-blobs.
Quest Daily scores Tempopo:
7/10
A copy of Tempopo was supplied to Quest Daily for this review.
