Today we’re having a cool, calm, and collected look at Tengami. It’s an adventure video game which you can download and enjoy and, my word, enjoy you will. Or else!

Tengami as a Chillout Papery Adventure

There are two reasons why we’re championing the game: it’s a chilled out and beautifully imagined experience, but it’s also packing a brilliant soundtrack from the legendary composer David Wise.

The title was clearly designed by Nyamyam (an indie developer composed of former Rare employees) to provide a relaxing experience through traditional Japanese paintings (such as Hokusai’s Great Wave Off Kanagawa). Not to mention Wise’s emotive music.

What’s it all about? Tengami is essentially a puzzle game, but the puzzle solving isn’t overly taxing. The real appeal here is the artistic style which replicates traditional Japanese paintings.

As the player, you use the gesture-based controls to essentially enter the paintings and move the story along—different locations are introduced in the style of a 3D pop-up book. It’s all rather lovely.

Tengami is simplistic, but this is the point. Some of the gaming press criticised this simplicity and how it’s barely a video game—these idiots can get stuffed.

You merely have to immerse yourself in the experience as whimsical haikus are thrown in your direction as you stroll through a concise majigger with beautiful pop-up scenery.

Obviously, this isn’t going to satisfy the hordes of gun-toting first-person shoot-em-up fans out there, but this isn’t aimed at them.

How can you get access to it? The fantabulous news is you can buy the game on Steam, the Wii U, or through iOS (iPad and iPhone). There really are no excuses if you dig a relaxed experience with some glorious Eastern music.

Nyamyam has crafted a delightful little adventure here and the industry benefits enormously from its creative endeavour.

Tengami’s Soundtrack

Outside of the gaming world David Wise remains largely unknown.

We’ve long championed him as a musical genius, and this is merely one of the hundreds of brilliant compositions he’s created over the last 25 years.

He’s arguably most famous for his work on the Donkey Kong Country series, but he’s certainly proven his versatility as a composer yet again on Tengami.

He keeps a very low profile and we’re presuming he wants to keep it this way, so we’re not going to go looking for, and pestering, him with overly enthusiastic questions.

However, we would like to state this: Mr. Wise—you legend. More of this type of stuff, please.