Tomba! Special Edition review – WGB

My first experience with Tomba! (also known as Tombi!) came from the demo disc that was stuck to the front of the Official PlayStation Magazine. What I discovered on that disc was a weird mish-mash of genres and ideas, all squished into a quirky mess. But that’s where my Tomba! Adventure ended. I never got the full game. That brings us to the year 2024 where Limited Run Games announced Tomba! Special Edition, a new release of Whoopee Camp’s 1997 platformer/RPG/adventure game. Let’s take a jog down memory lane, shall we?

First things first, let’s tackle what this Special Edition is. If you were hoping for updated graphics or other major changes then I’ve got some bad news: visually and mechanically this is almost exactly the same game that released on PS1 in 1997. I say almost because the emulator is actually upscaling the game a little bit.

But there have been a couple of useful things added, namely a handy rewind ability that lets you jump backwards in time, much like the recent Sly Cooper release on PlayStation. It’s a great addition, especially in a game like this where the platforming calls for some precision that the controls can’t always deliver. You can also save the game at any time now, rather than just at set points. Again, an excellent addition. The music has been remastered too, although you can swap back to the original. And you can choose to play the game in a few different ratios as well, including stretching it out to 16:9. I’d recommend sticking to the 4:3 though, because it looks strange in anything else.

There are also some cool extras included in this package. There’s an interview with creator Tokuro Fujiwara, along with a museum that includes never-before-seen developer notes, original packaging, the game’s manual and more.

If these changes, or lack of changes, don’t feel like they justify the £20 pricetag then…well, yeah, I get it. For some people the recreation of Tomba! on modern consoles without any major changes or tweaks is exactly what they want – a way to play the game as it was intended For others, paying £20 for an emulated version of a PS1 title is asking too much, especially when you Sony themselves currently releasing classic titles for far less.

The Game Itself

Tombs! is weird. There’s no other way to describe it. Even back in the PS1 day when weirdness was commonplace, Tombi! was weird. It combined 2D and 3D, side-quests, RPG-style levelling up and a host of other elements into a unique package. It was conceived by Tokuro Fujiwara who left Capcom in 1995 and set up Whoopee Camp. He sought to create a less difficult game than he was known for, and chose the platforming genre for its relatively straightforward nature.

As the titular cave child with inexplicably pink hair (which everyone likes to comment on) you are one day mugged by a bunch of evil pigs. As if the beating they deliver wasn’t insulting enough, the pigs also steal Tomba’s grandfather’s bracelet. They hot-hoof it away with their ill-gotten gains. Enraged by this turn of events, Tomba follows them to a nearby village where he is told to seek out the 100-year-old Wise Man. The wizened old geezer tells Tomba the story of the 7 Evil Pigs who rose to power. Their underlings, the Koma Pigs, stole Tomba’s bracelet because they are stockpiling gold for some nefarious reason. To get his grandfather’s heirloom back, Tomba will need to travel the land, kick some pig-arse and eventually use the magical Pig Bags to discover where the Evil Pigs are lurking.

This brief plot synopsis is only the beginning of the game’s oddness.

Tomba! is primarily a platformer, albeit a very floaty one. Tomba has some well-developed leg muscles because he can leap into the air like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh on crack cocaine, and he even has a decent amount of control in the air. He can spin around poles on occasion, and can even leap forward and backwards onto different 2D planes from time to time. It’s a clever piece of design that lends the world a sense of depth missing from other 2D platformers of the time.

The various enemies are dispatched by leaping atop them whereupon Tomba bites them. Tap the button again and Tomba will toss the enemy away with ease. But if jumping on them doesn’t work, Tomba also has a handy throwing weapon he can hurl a few feet in front of him, too.

For the most part the game doesn’t demand too much precision from the player, but there are a few sequences that need you to land on tiny ledges that are immensely frustrating. Tomba’s aerial controls take some getting used to, and the noticeably iffy hit-boxes don’t help the situation.

Those aren’t the only frustrating moments. Tomba! is a product of its time, including some obtuse PS1-era designs that can leave you scratching your head. There’s a touch of Metroidvania to the world’s layout, often sending you bumbling back across the various locations with a new item or ability in hand that will hopefully let you progress. I don’t mind admitting that I opened up some of the old walkthroughs to figure out what I needed to do next. Maybe I’m just getting old and soft and to used to modern games which subtly (and sometimes, not subtly) point you in the right direction. Tomba! is happy to let you stew in your own stupidity, and other times to let you stew in the game’s stupidity.

A few sequences stand out as nearly being annoying enough to make me stop playing. One section of the world involves using special mushrooms to make Tomba laugh or cry, but while they are active they stop you from using your boomerang and will also activate at random, leading to a bunch of annoying deaths. The key is to find the regular mushrooms which can heal Tomba, but while your travelling back and forth to special doors and to characters that need Tomba to display these emotions, it can be incredibly annoying to die because Tomba randomly runs forward while bawling his eyes out.

Some of the confusion stems from the game’s interesting design. It’s all based around non-linear “events” which act as quests. Some are optional, some are mandatory to move the story forward. Almost all of them boil down to finding a specific object. Keeping track of them all can be confusing at times, but finally figuring out what you need to do can be satisfying. As you complete these little quests, Tomba will earn points that can be used to unlock new abilities, like swimming. It’s a fun dash of RPG.

So far, I sound kind of negative about Tomba! Special Edition, so let me clear that up – it’s an old game and I sometimes struggle to go backwards in time like this. But that doesn’t stop there being a quirky charm to the game. Even now, in the year 2024, it still feels unique. There’s nothing quite like it, which makes me eager to try out Tomba! 2 which I’m reliably informed is a far better game. The good news is Tomba 2 is already is already confirmed to be getting the same treatment.

In the 6 or 7 hours it takes to complete the game, I learned the language of Dwarves by jumping on their heads and biting them, ate a lot of mushrooms, helped a monkey find his pants, met some old dudes, battled evil pigs, got angry a few times, got impressed a few times, wound up a tad confused and helped a village by brewing some wine. That’s not a bad way to spend a few hours.

This is a tricky game to review because it heavily depends on what your expectations are from this Special Edition release. This is a faithful recreation of the original game in many respects. The additions of some quality-of-life improvements are fantastic and make playing the smoother. However, the lack of graphical upgrades or even something like faster loading times might be a sticking point for some.

In the end, I enjoyed my time with Tomba! Special Edition. I can’t lie: it feels clumsy and awkward, but a lot of that comes down to my inability to enjoy older games some times. I’m too spoiled by all the comforts of modern gaming, I suppose.

Putting that aside though, Tomba! is a fascinating game. It’s strange, and quirky and combined elements of multiple genres. It’s easy to see why it scored so well when it launched in the 90s.