Pokemon studio reveals Tembo the Badass Elephant

Remember that project Game Freak and Sega were teasing last week, the one with the elephants? Turns out it's about just one very special pachyderm, one on desperate mission to liberate his city from evil armed forces: Tembo the Badass Elephant.

Yep, that's the actual name of the game (and the main character). It's appropriate, considering the game's all about a lone elephant saving civilians as he barrels through troops, tanks, and poorly constructed architecture.

Tembo's badass, but he's still an elephant, so his combat repertoire is largely composed of tusk-first charges, fearsome trunk uppercuts, and throwing his tremendous weight behind earthshaking butt-stomps. He also appears to be powered by peanuts, so I guess that stereotype is true.

You probably know Game Freak as the Pokemon studio, but Tembo's rendered in a 2.5D style that's more Gravity Falls than Ken Sugimori. And the studio's really stepping outside of its comfort zone for this one: Tembo is planned for downloadable release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One this summer. Nope, no Nintendo consoles.

Then again, would Nintendo even let a title with the word "ass" in it appear on eShop? Maybe this is Game Freak's rebellion against kid-friendliness, pairing up with Nintendo's old rival Sega to make an extreme, mature title… starring a cartoon elephant. Ok, maybe not. But it does look pretty fun.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.