Tomba! (PSOne) Review

Received: April 5th, 2017 | Written: December 8th-13th, 2019

Alternate Titles: Ore! Tomba [ ⬤ ] / Tombi! [ ◯ ]

Year: 1997 | Developed by: Whoopee Camp

Published by: SCEA

So who wants to explore to explore feral character-driven video game platformers?  😃  ... and I don't mean the one I covered for the Game Boy Color last month, that one wasn't exactly good in my opinion (though the movie it's based on is).  😐  I'm... probably dragging the opening line out longer than I should, and I apologize if that's the case, so to make up for that: let's talk about Tokurō Fujiwara.

Left image from the Arcade-Machines website, right image from Wikipedia

Fujiwara is (or was, since he hasn't worked on a game since 2009 due to health issues) a Japanese video game designer who began his career with Konami in 1982 who worked on two classic arcade games for them: Pooyan and Roc'n Rope.  After having worked on the latter he left Konami to join Capcom in 1983 and had been around since their inaugural 1984 title Vulgus; during his time with the company he's had lots of producing credits that vastly outnumber his directing credits (the latter of which included Pirate Ship Higemaru, the original 1987 coin-op Top Secret/Bionic Commando, the survival horror Famicom RPG Sweet Home, and the first two games in the Makaimura franchise) where he was credited either under the pseudonym "Professor F" or "Arthur King".

As for his producing credits several examples are the Nintendo 8-bit adaptation of Ron Howard's Willow, the Makaimura trilogy spinoff starring Firebrand the Red Arremer Ace (the first of which marked as Capcom's first Game Boy venue), Chōmakaimura/Super Ghouls'n Ghosts (as opposed to directing like he did the other Arthur-starring installments), the first two Breath of Fire turn-based RPGs, Final Fight's two Super Famisequels,

most of the Disney licenses Capcom developed such as the Mickey's Magical Adventure trilogy and Goof Troop/Gūfii to Makkusu - Kaizoku Shima no Daibōken, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, served as general producer on the first Biohazard/Resident Evil, and lest we forget, the Blue Bomber's Rockman/Mega Man franchise until Fujiwara left the company in 1996.

After thirteen years of service to Capcom he created and founded his own developing company by the name of Whoopee Camp.  Directed, produced, and executive produced by Tokurō Fujiwara; planned and programmed by him, Toshihiko Uda (who did the planning for Mitchell Corporation's first two Pang/Buster Bros. games), and Masayoki Kurokawa (who worked on the planning for three of the Rockman/Mega Man games); scenario and event written by Kurokawa and Akira Kinoshita; assistant produced by Uda; production managed by Teijiro Handa; and game system programmed by Yukio Arai (who also served as technical director) and Hideki Hara, Whoopee Camp's inaugural game was

Images from GameFAQs; the European cover is more or less like the Japanese one

Ore! Tomba (which translates to "Me! Tomba") which they released on the PlayStation One in Japan on December 25th, 1997, which would then be released in American shores as Tomba! on June 30th, 1998 by Sony Computer Entertainment America while Europe would receive it that September 4th albeit as Tombi! courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

This game centers around a pink haired feral boy named Tomba (Tombi in the European version) who after having hunted a boar and was in the process of eating he heard a sound and decided to look into it: someone had been terrorized by the Koma Pigs who were taking his possessions.

Not wanting to stand idly by, Tomba rushes down the mountain to confront the pig-snouted trouble makers.  🐽

As he used his blackjack against them, the branch above him where he inadvertently launched one of the Koma Pigs after speeding down broke off causing the pig to fall on Tomba thereby knocking him unconscious.  The Koma Pigs saw this as an opportunity to take his grandfather's bracelet from him and leave.

Once he comes to he notices that his grandfather's bracelet that he generally wears is gone,

"Yahtzee!" (?)

so he goes on a search to take back his grandfather's heirloom from the Koma Pigs that stole it from him.

Determined to get it back at all costs, Tomba embarks on a journey and begins his quest at the Village of All Beginnings.

During his quest he meets the 100 Year Old Wise Man who tells him that the land they're in used to be very peaceful until the Seven Evil Pigs, the Koma Pigs' leaders, came and placed a curse upon each portion of the land with their evil powers; he also explains that they've been collecting and stockpiling gold (which is also what Tomba's grandfather's bracelet is made of) but is presently not sure why.  The only way to reverse the curse and get the bracelet back is to find the Evil Pig Bag for each of the Seven Evil Pigs which will reveal their hideout and must trap them in it,

also he learns from the Dwarf Elder that they don't hide in the same spot they placed the specific curse so he'll have to search carefully.  Once he traps all Seven Evil Pigs will he get closer to recovering his grandfather's bracelet and put an end to their misuse of power and restore the balance of the land in the process.

Left: Meeting the monkey Charles  🐵 | Right: Villager jumping in front of Tomba surprises him

In the 2D nonlinear action-platformer Tomba! you take control of the eponymous feral character who you can move with the left and right buttons during the sidescrolling portions, move in all eight directions while you're in a few villages viewed from a semi-bird's eye perspective, jump with the 𝖷 button (with your gained altitude dependent on how hard you pressed the button) during the sidescrolling portions, hold down the ☐ button to move at a faster rate and converse with the NPCs and hold up next to a sign to read it, and with the ⭘ button you use your selected weapon against your foes ahead of you, above you, and diagonally (and to make it go a long distance and to increase its potency, just hold the button down long enough until you're ready to let go).

Left: Taking Jean-Bob back to his pond | Right: Scaling up high

Eventually when Tomba learns how to swim he can navigate the water in any of the eight directions and you can press the ☐ button to swim faster; he can also hang on to ledges, climb a rope or climbing substance up and down unless you wish to remain in position, and swing from poles and go up in the direction held by the time you let go; during the sections of the land that comprise of two planes you can jump to the backdrop by holding up and pressing the 𝖷 button (if you're standing in a spot where you're allowed to), and in the case where you're in the backdrop and wish to return to the foreground you can hold down and press the 𝖷 button to return to the front (in these portions it's also possible to shift the angle by pressing the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons, but I never really found a need to use those whenever I play this game).

Left: Meeting the affable 100 Year Old Wise Man | Right: Swung on over to a floating chest

Naturally these are the default and much preferred settings that can be altered in the options screen in the title screen if you so choose.  Throughout the duration of the game you will come across and collect items which you can browse on your inventory by pressing the △ button during any part of the game, and during the inventory screen you can decide to use, view, or sort out the items that are in four categories: the items in green font can be equipped, the items in red font can be used automatically (mainly the treasure chest keys), the items in blue font are vital key items that you can use during key moments, and the items in black font can largely be used for the benefit of Tomba (like say, a lunch box to replenish some lost health or a charity wing to take you to places you've been to before).

Left: Animal dashing towards the Dwarf Forest | Right: Jumping on and biting a dwarf in order to learn the Dwarf language, because that's how language education works

With the Select button you can access one of four options: Items much like you would with the △ button, Events to see the number of events you did out of the present total, Status to check up on Tomba's status and elemental levels, and Map to peruse the map of the overall land and check out your current position.  And with the Start button you can choose to load from your previous saving progress during any point of the game (even if you lost all your health or fell offscreen), quit the game to return to the title screen, or resume your game thereby unpausing.  To save your game simply stand next to a plain wooden sign and accept the prompt to save your game, then you can do so in any available file (out of fifteen) on your memory card (either in the first slot or the second one should your PlayStation One have two sets of memory cards attached).

Left: Puppy Baron | Right: Just casually hanging on a string ball on top of a campfire

Another way of attacking the enemies, the Koma Pigs or otherwise, is by having Tomba jump on them and bite them, afterwards you can jump while holding on to them and throw them ahead of you or below you (sometimes onto another enemy); you'll notice a gauge that gradually gets filled whenever you tackle an enemy with a pig-like quality, and filling said gauge up will get you to a new level.  Should you reach Level 10 of the fire, wind, or water element only then will you be able to gather the respective Jewel of power; luckily there's enemy respawning to make the proceedings quicker unless you move on to the next sequence.

Left: Climbing up the Watch Tower | Right: Helping the helpless dwarf child down

Tomba! is by and large a 2D game at heart, and a pleasingly very colorful one at that, but there's also some 3D modeling (or in plenty of cases some form of pixelated background designs at the forefront) in the platforms, poles, backdrops, or props to give it a visual sense of atmospheric depth plus there's always a sense of movement more often than not; and because of this it's easy to tell which prerendered area is static or includes 3D.  The art direction by Tokurō Fujiwara and concept art by Hideki Hosokawa is superb, there is a very endearing quality to the visuals and each location in terms of theme or sense of detail or color use is different than the last.  😃

Left: "You and I are friends now, so my son and I will see you in the sequel"  😃 | Right: "Too bad we weren't programmed to do that"

The Village of All Beginnings have got extensive use of the green and yellow colors for the trees and straw covered houses; the first time you arrive at the Dwarf Forest it's pretty much nothing but autumn leaves covering the ground, and white and blue and pink balls covering for trees but when you lift the curse there is a nice spring quality with the light pink trees and green grass; the Mushroom Forest has got red flowers big and small that react differently depending on whether Tomba ate a laughing or a crying mushroom;

Left: You don't know that for sure | Right: Just watching that one wood chopping dwarf character I can never talk to because he's in a spot I can't reach

Baccus Village looks serene and peaceful, the Haunted Mansion (which is the one area in the game where you can explore on all four sides) initially starts out with a dark thundering sky with dark blue Kokka birds with a green roof but upon lifting the curse there is a more welcoming feeling with a bright blue sky and is devoid of major enemies; the Deep Jungle has got a good amount of parallax scrolling; and Trick Village initially begins submerged in blue water (with soothing color layering effects) to name several examples.  Some of the best backgrounds are seen when you confront any of the Seven Evil Pigs;

Left: "And why was there what looked like a swarm of bees surrounding me when I got out?" | Right: I'd be careful who you'd gossip in front of, that Koma Pig there looks as if he's listening intently

like the Green Evil Pig battling you in front of a perpetually fiery backdrop, the Yellow Evil Pig which takes place underwater with the seaweed flowing in the current, and the Navy Evil Pig transpiring in front of a pink and yellow coconuts, it's a shame that you don't stay to admire it for too long.  The character designs by Satoshi Ueda, Jyunya Kida, Hiroshi Onishi (all three of which also worked on the 2D graphics alongside Youko Shimizu and Hiroshi Itoh), Hiroyuki Masui (who was also among twelve of Tomba!'s 3D modelers), and Yuka Komatsu are very charming, colorful, and highly expressive.  😃

Left: I leave twenty-five of them at once, and he views it as "a couple"... | Right: Going down a leafy slide

As usual the main character gets the lion's share of the animation, and Tomba! is no exception in this regard as he's also got a muscly build about him and is incredibly fluid when it comes to his jumping, enemy tossing, sliding, running, and animal dashing motions; he even reacts incredulously upon either sustaining damage or being surprised silly (where his hair reacts also by standing up on end  😆) by either a villager in the Village of All Beginnings or when he suddenly gets transported to a room with one of the Seven Evil Pigs.  I like too that he even has idle animations for when he's holding still too long where he'll either sit down grumpily and impatiently or if he's holding on to a climbable substance and doesn't move for a while he'll start to look directly at you.

Left: See, Tomba ain't in the mood to play with determined Frisk flowers at the moment | Right: Riding a boat towards a beach

The Koma Pigs each have different variants of their actions or set of animations, such as the animation for when they rest or fly inside the Lava Caves as they occasionally peer to the side as they're on the lookout or doing a body slide on the leaves in the Dwarf Forest, and I like how expressive they are and the amount of detail they have.  The spider enemies and blue creatures who occasionally augment the length of their body in the Watch Tower and Phoenix Mountain is also likable,

Left: Beholding the mansion treasure (oh, and that engraved mural of the whole land, I suppose) | Right: Sadness-afflicted Tomba is sad

and each of the Seven Evil Pigs have their own design and animation (i.e. the Green Evil Pig is bulky and tan, the Yellow Evil Pig is lanky and practically devoid of body color, the Blue Evil Pig has glasses).  Each of the characters that talk (both good and bad NPC) to Tomba generally have got a limited amount of animation during the moments of dialogue.  The designs for Charles, the dwarves, the miners, the mice later reverted back to humans, and the four Wise Old Men is charming, and his canine friend Baron looks adorable.

Once in awhile there'll be animated cutscenes where the characters and animation really shine, brief though they may be, as they have a good splash of color and Tomba's pink hair is more vibrant.  During the introduction and ending cutscenes his animation is fluid and when the 2D is juxtaposed in the otherwise 3D texture it looks seamless (although I did notice recently that there's an instance when we cut back to Tomba who's in a different position but the sky background hasn't changed), the Phoenix's animation when he's strong enough to fly Tomba to the Deep Jungle is masterfully graceful,

and whenever a curse has been lifted there's a little cutscene with a slightly dropped (almost VHS) visual quality as it's of the actual game environment but otherwise everything else looks really good.  The 3D programming by Tomoko Fukui has largely aged well, mainly thanks to the 2D character models and gameplay.  😃

Left: Going down a nifty-looking waterslide | Right: "I'm completely useless now!"

Tomba!'s soundtrack was composed by the very talented Harumi Fujita with her hubby Yasuaki Fujita handling the sound effects, but this time there's another name in the music composing credit and that's Nao Hatsutani who hasn't worked on anything else other than this game, but she did also work on this game's package and manual production.  Individually speaking, Harumi worked on music for Capcom games such as The Speed Rumbler, Higemaru Makaijima: Nanatsu no Shima Daibōken, 1943 Kai, and Red Arremer: Makaimura Gaiden/Gargoyle's Quest: Ghosts'n Goblins, and most recently provided music for WayForward Technologies' smartphone title Spidersaurs;

Left: Getting Charles out of a bind | Right: "I'm sorry, but the Phoenix is in the next castle"

Yasuaki was involved in Capcom's fourth Rockman/Mega Man game, their Game Boy video game adaptation of Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Disney's Darkwing Duck, the first Breath of Fire, Final Fight 2, and created the amiable Capcom jingle which was also heard in Capcom's Nintendo 16-bit adaptation of Westwood Associates' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder.  But the audio-based contributions the Fujitas are most known for are the ones where they worked together with Harumi composing the music while Yasuaki worked on the sound effects:

Left: Found a drunk and innocent baby mouse that wasn't originally a human  🐭 | Right: Bothersome Kokka eggs in the way

most notably the first Final Fight back when they worked for Capcom and Yasuaki did most of the third Rockman/Mega Man soundtrack after his wife composed some music but left to give birth, for Tom Creates they both did Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Kondo wa Puzzle de Oshioki yo!! and Panic in Nakayoshi World, but during their years at Ukiyotei before lending their services to Whoopee Camp their added portfolio together comprised of Skyblazer/Karuraou, Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Video Game, and the PlayStation One-exclusive Kuri Skunk/Punky Skunk.

Left: Piercing sunlight in Baccus Lake | Right: Recuperating in a... sauna, I think

Tomba!'s soundtrack has never been one of my favorites; now that's not to say the game's music is bad in the slightest, not at all.  My main problem with the songs is that the length and melodies are way too short and as a result can tend to sound repetitive with each loop which is unfortunate given the otherwise high quality of this game and Harumi Fujita has done excellent music before this; but what songs do work primarily work within context as opposed to being heard by itself without the visual accompaniment.

Left: Surprise attack | Right: Sliding down the grassy roof

The songs I personally gravitate to the most when it comes to Whoopee Camp's inaugural game are Baccus Village's theme which sounds welcoming and tranquil, the restored theme for the Lava Caves once the flames have been doused out from within which has an atmospherically echoic quality about which works well, for another good example of a purely atmospheric piece the Underground Maze theme sounds wondrously intriguing, the cursed Phoenix Mountain theme is a bit intimidating but fitting for the scenario, the Real Evil Pig's theme is eerily jazzy, and the piano-driven theme for when Tomba bids farewell is nice and has got an air of finality while at the same time sounding quite classy in its own right.

Left: All fired up to find Yan... again! | Right: Damn right, Tomba's fast!

Now I wish to reiterate that the entirety of the soundtrack is not bad, just its melodies are so short.  The theme that plays in the Village of All Beginnings kind of sets the tone for the adventure, the cursed Dwarf Village theme sounds casual and playful while its restored theme has got an appropriately relieving yet heavenly vibe to it, the Mushroom Forest theme sounds playfully sinister,

Left: The Red Evil Pig | Right: …  Undyne?  😮

the theme that plays when you confront one of the Seven Evil Pigs is a bit hectic but throws in a little banjo here and there, the cursed Trick Village theme is pensive-sounding, the Wise Old Man theme sounds sage and wise as brief as it is, the relieved Phoenix Mountain theme is wholesomely breezy, and the Village of Civilization theme sounds nice, to list several examples.  I did personally prefer Harumi Fujita's music for Skyblazer which I have a big fondness for,

Christmas is coming again!!!  🥳🎄

and I really did mean it when I said I found her music in Punky Skunk stronger in terms of quality; its music worked exponentially, the melodies were longer and therefore didn't grow repetitive with each loop, the themes were as effective to listen to in-game as they were to listen to out of context, and its game disc doubles as a soundtrack which is a huge plus for me.  💿🎵  Unflattering title choice aside, I genuinely do like it and think it's solid fun in its own right; sadly it got needlessly shredded when it first came out among the American gaming crowd but the way I see it, anyone who's called it a bad platformer *whispers loudly* has never truly played a bad game before--just saying!  *end whisper*

HA!!  Badler's two-frame temper tantrum always gets to me!  😆  My second .gif I made in regards to that game, and I did a more seamless job here than I did in my first one.  And to show how I occasionally like to create .gifs for my reviews, here's an irrelevant one

Screencapped five frames (one of them used twice) while watching ParietinaeUmbra's "Uppcon 10 AMV Competition #7 Prepare for Trouble [Arukenimon & Mummymon]" on YouTube, and I sped it up a little because I could've sworn this bit animated faster when I saw that Digimon episode on TV back when I was younger

with Mummymon holding and pinning Digitamamon down forever, because why not?  🙃

Left: Tossing the Green Evil Pig inside the Evil Pig Bag | Right: A caricatured Hanzou Hattori seemingly trapped inside the deceptively designed maw of a Piranha Plant

The beginning and ending cutscenes of Tomba! each had its own individual song: the first of which was "Paradise" by Tokyo Q Channel (where in the actual game it only plays the first minute and forty seconds of it, the full song is over six minutes) which had the vocals in the Japanese version while in the American version they kept the instrumental but added sound effects to fill in a void (the European version Tombi! replaced it entirely with North & South's "No Sweat '98" which I listened to once and don't wish to listen to it again; let's just say it's no "Paradise" and leave it at);

Left: Deep in the jungle | Right: Charles diving to save a drowning Tomba

and lastly there was Fumitaka Fuchigami's "Que Serã Serã" playing during the ending cutscene which I presume had a similar treatment to the intro where the vocals were present in Ore! Tomba but in the American version the instrumental was there but added sound effects.  And speaking of sound effects, I liked the various sound design such as the loud crawling sound of the spider enemies, the authentic drum sounds for when you bounce on drums in the Deep Jungle, the ringing sound for when you ring the bell which reconvenes Tomba with the 100, 1,000, 10,000, or Million Year Old Wise Man, the sound for when you vanquish an enemy either by weapon or by jumping on and biting them, and I liked Tomba's limited digital sound bytes as well ("Yah!" and especially "Wuryah!" among them).

Left: WOW, never saw anyone squeezing anything quite like that before | Right: The Tree of Knowledge, thanks to Tomba's help, has been rejuvenated

Tomba's first endeavor had a lackluster commercial performance upon release, one would think it'd be due to half-arsed marketing but that is actually not the case: the game kept selling out that by the time the next set of customers came to buy it the game stores ran out of stock, but the number of copies sold wasn't sufficient to include in Sony's budget range, but it did sell just enough to warrant a sequel and on the bright side its reception was very positive and over the years has developed a cult following.  GungHo would digitally re-release Ore! Tomba for the PSOne Classics on July 2011 while the series' current Western license holder MonkeyPaw Games digitally re-released Tomba! in North America on June 2012, while Europe and Australia would both catch up with the American version that October (since they apparently had difficulty emulating the PAL edition).

Tomba's second (and last) venue is that rare game where the American digital release comprised of both the original Japanese version and the American version; not because of demand reasons or anything, but because MonkeyPaw Games apparently had difficulty emulating the American version the first time out so they made up for that by emulating the Japanese version first in 2014 before successfully making available the American version a year later

On October 28th, 1999, Whoopee Camp's second game Tomba: The Wild Adventures would be released on the PlayStation One in Japan, with North America receiving it on December 31st, 1999 as Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return, until finally Europe played the simply titled Tombi! 2 on June 30th, 2000.  In this game Tomba sets out a new adventure to stop the Evil Pigs after learning of the disappearance of his childhood friend Tabby, and this time joining him on his arduous quest is a lady bug named Zippo.

Like its predecessor before it Tomba! 2 had a very positive reception from those that played it, unfortunately its commercial performance was as lackluster as the first one (if not more so) which caused Whoopee Camp to be disbanded a year later.  I only played a tiny bit of this game as a child when I borrowed it from one of my elementary school classmates as a child after having played the demo of the first game, but it wouldn't be until Christmas 2017 that I would experience it in full... well, for the most part anyway, but I'll get to why that is.  Rather than be 2D they elected to go the full 3D route (while preserving the 2D gameplay) which doesn't look bad but hasn't aged well in parts (mainly the facial textures of the characters and them being overly animated); that said, the snowing effects are absolutely breathtaking and it is vibrantly splashing with color.

Tomba! 2 also has got to have the most poorly implemented mine car sequence in a video game ever, and everyone that's played this game will agree  😒

I like that the event-based gameplay of the first game makes a return, and there's a cool addition where you'll be given four more events to do while loading your saved progress from the first game (provided those requisite events were done) making for a grand total of 137 events (can't think of many games that did that).  I'll admit it did take me a bit to warm up to this one (this game made the grave error of incorporating voice acting which I found to be cringe but fortunately can be disabled), and in my most recent (attempted) playthrough I managed to get through the majority of it done but what made me stop was the ???? room: when I entered it, it cut to a loading screen and I must've waited at least five minutes and it was still loading (I tried a few more times, but no dice).  I can't even finish the game, I'm that upset (I could try to play from the beginning and forego loading from the first game until after, but if the same thing happens then that's not going to be a happy scenario) which is a shame because while it doesn't hold a candle to the first game in my opinion it is fun to play in its own right, I genuinely liked the soundtrack more than the first one (a rare example of a sequel's soundtrack being an improvement), the battles against the Evil Pigs were made a little more challenging, and you could switch your weapons on the fly with the shoulder button.

Image from GameFAQs

Before Whoopee Camp's dissolution to Access Games Tokurō Fujiwara's company originally was to develop the 2001 PlayStation 2 survival horror title Extermination until Deep Space took over which... certainly would've been a dark direction for Whoopee Camp after two very lighthearted and endearing games that bordered on unapologetically silly.

Left: "After the cageful of butterflies brought me up here my voice has suddenly deepened, I'm scarred for life!" | Right: A caged Bonsugee

Like a lot of people who grew up owning the PlayStation One console, my first exposure to this game was through a compilation demo CD over twenty years ago (albeit as Tombi! since I lived in Italy at the time), and I recall enjoying it a lot as brief as the demo was.  One memory I have is being scared upon reaching the Dwarf Elder as after the conversation with him

the screen suddenly faded to black with the huge Game Over message and intimidating accompaniment cue.  😨  I knew it was a demo, but the way it ended was too much for me back then; I never did upgrade from demo to full game like I did with Namco's Tekken 3 (which I want to say was the first one-on-one tournament fighter I've ever played) as a child, and over the years after having moved to America in 2002 I kind of forgot about it (what with my attention being geared towards a vast multitude of other games or what was hot at the time) until several years later if I recall correctly which is when the memory of playing its demo kicked in.

Left: Next thing you know he'll be asked if he's the Master of Unlocking  🗝 | Right: Angle change

I wanted to experience Tomba! in full, so for my 26th birthday on April 5th, 2017 it was among the games I asked for, and once I got it and played through it all it quickly became one of my favorites on the PlayStation One console.  😃  The gameplay is richly intuitive, the worlds are equally as fun to look at as they are to explore, there is a great lighthearted anime charm about, and its sense of adventure-like nonlinearity truly expands the gameplay depth.  If I have any complaints they are few and far between (and some of them are nitpicks, really), so I'll get them out of the way before going back to the positive qualities (and there are many).

Like I said before I'm not really a fan of this game's soundtrack given its lightweight compositions and brief length, but it's not bad music just to be clear; there are a couple isolated instances during dialogue sequences where there's a long pause until they get to the next bit of dialogue to which I worry if the game has froze on me (abnormally long loading times are worrisome when it comes to game discs  😟), first with the 1,000 Year Old Wise Man after freeing him in the Haunted Mansion and later on with Witch Mizuno after you give her the Cold Medicine and rewards your kind gesture with the +1 Vitality Max;

there are a total of 130 events in this game, and when you browse the list of events that you did or have yet to accomplish each page can fit up to eight events,

but there is one solitary page that bafflingly never really utilizes it to the fullest extent because even though it can fit eight it only lists two (I'm guessing Whoopee Camp slightly overestimated how many actual events there were going to be in this game during its development process); while I would've preferred the vital items to be utilized automatically as opposed to accessing the menu every time for the majority of the events I learned to get used to it after every replay, although there is one moment where a Big Key must be made and you have to construct it with five pieces one at a time which could've been cut short; Tomba! is one of those games that has a built-in time clock, and the time passes even when it's paused when it really shouldn't;

during the ending credits cutscene there is a moment when the coachman talks to Tomba but I could barely make out what he was saying because the music drowned him out, and in the same sequence there is a brief second or two when the vocals for "Que Serã Serã" can be heard but again it can barely be made out because the music is overshadowing it; the blue enemies in Phoenix Mountain are a bit obnoxious and if you sustain damage during one key portion after lifting the curse then Tomba will fly backward and you can't do anything about it until it runs its course which is annoying;

One of them even boasts that they'll give you a battle you'll never forget, and the ironic part is that he's right but not for the reasons intended

but the most disappointing part of this game is the battle against the Evil Pigs, while the setup is different and they each have their own power to try to stop you the end solution is the same as you must toss them successfully inside the rotating Evil Pig Bag once which depending on where they teleport the battle (and if the open Evil Pig Bag is facing you) can be ended pretty quickly (in certain cases, a matter of seconds) if you positioned yourself properly which also applies to the Real Evil Pig at the end.  😞  It is too bad, but otherwise the rest of the game is great.  😃

Left: "Who do you think you are making me point out the one trait that's been prevalent in pretty much every action-adventure and/or turn-based RPG ever conceived, young man!" | Right: Paying the Ol' Pond's aquatic residents a visit

There is a genuine sense of depth in terms of the gameplay because of the occasional equipment change (with the grapple helping you get through the Lava Caves for one example) and using items to advance the story, but perhaps the most important part is the accumulation of AP (adventure points) throughout the game, whether it be defeating enemies or collecting differently colored gems or clearing an event for a set amount of AP; sometimes you'll need just the right amount in order to access certain moments.  Among the many different events that you have to complete in the game outside of lifting the various curses of the land are rescuing all the lost dwarves of Dwarf Village, engaging in a continuous game of Hide and Seek with Yan of the Hidden Village, collecting leaf butterflies,

Left: Gotta deal with the Joker fish here and there | Right: Good thing Tomba can seemingly breathe underwater forever then, huh?

collecting enough Bunk Flowers to give to the weakened Phoenix so that it becomes strong enough to fly in the sky, helping Charles out on a handful of occasions, using the weed killer against the weed in Mushroom Forest (or rather, jumping on them and tossing them away), jumping on all the pump rocks of the land, taking a frog back to his home, learning how to swim, meeting the different Elders, engaging in a timed motocross race, entering the door that has either a laugh or a frown adorned on it, and collecting the three elemental Jewels to name several examples.  From what I looked up the localized version used a process called Gouraud shading for the background elements which is visually effective as the textures (like the blades of the grass and the constantly glowing Lava Caves) do come to life especially when viewed in motion.

Baron is a great animal companion to Tomba.  When you first meet him he's this tiny helpless puppy but when you take him to the healer and bring enough healing items he becomes big and repays Tomba's kindness by helping him fly to any location he's been in which means no more using Charity wings (only limit your usage with those, that's what I do personally) and becomes loyal to him.

Baron also seems to have Bearded Collie features about him, and now that I think of it he reminds me a bit of Dusty from Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii's Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic; only difference is the latter is anthropomorphic while the former is more dog-like in behavior (and is also more likable and is not a backstabber with the most flimsily one-dimensional motivation to serve a weaselly one-dimensional villain).

Screenshot of 1997's Anastasia from my Region 1 Family Fun Edition Widescreen DVD, courtesy of 20th Century Fox, taken from my TV; there is something impossibly surreal about the notion that a movie people somehow tended to confuse for a Disney film, given Disney's recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox, can now officially be a called a Disney film...  🤯

And how nice that 1997 graced the world with not one, but two flappy-eared dog companions as Pooka from Don Bluth's Anastasia debuted first!  😃

Left: Spider handling | Right: Underground Maze

There is a pick up and play quality about Tomba! that makes it pretty much accessible to gamers of all levels, from beginner to intermediate, where people with decades' worth of video game experience will probably get the most of it plus there is a nice amount of trial and error to undergo and the game will let you know if you're using the vital item in the correct scenario or not.  Director and (executive) produer Tokurō Fujiwara is known for one of two things: apparently having a strict personality according to those that worked with him (which you wouldn't think given this game's lightheartedly wide-eyed and silly tone), and making games difficult for the average gamer.

Left: Tomba impatiently waiting to get to action | Right: Timed motocross race

Considering Fujiwara's portfolio also consists of Capcom's 8-bit and 16-bit Disney licenses, I wouldn't exactly describe those as being difficult, not really (the only exception or one that comes close is the third difficulty setting of Gūfii to Makkusu - Kaizoku Shima no Daibōken which has two more difficulty settings than the original American SNES version Goof Troop).  I don't know if I'd really call Tomba! hard per se on a general sense but I definitely wouldn't say it's easy either (if anything it falls somewhere in-between), though there are treasure chests that are placed in rather precarious spots in certain areas (like near the bottom edge of death in the Lava Caves, for instance) and completing all 130 events do give an added sense of challenge (it's not mandatory but it is the only way to truly 100% the whole thing).

Left: Tomba, the living weed killer | Right: Charity Fountain

One such event is possible to permanently screw over your chances of accomplishing it, because if you destroy that barrel in Wobbly Wharf you'll never get to push it towards the water unless you load from your recent saved progress (whenever you see a plain sign, save often); and after planting the flower seed there's one of two ways to grow the Golden Flower (one of them being defeating enemies back and forth in the Watch Tower for at least ten minutes, thank goodness for enemy respawning).  What also helps is that Tomba! is a charming and endearing game; yes it can get silly but never to the point of being alienating as it feels just right and this game has a big heart buried underneath its funny bone plus the dialogue is likable, brimming with personality, and quite clever at points.  😄

There are at least a couple instances of self-aware dialogue that tends to break the fourth wall, and the beauty of this adventure is that there is not a cynical bone in its body which make the proceedings all the more affable.  Let's stop for a moment to address the elephant in the room and discuss the European title choice Tombi!: for the longest time I wasn't sure why the name was slightly altered for the eponymous feral character and shortly after I got it on my 26th birthday until it hit me the past year, for to put things into perspective the first eleven years of my life I lived in Italy and the word "tomba" there translated to "tomb" which for a lighthearted and silly venue would've been a rather dour term all things considered--of all the altered title changes, I find it interesting that the PAL division inadvertently named it after an Iranian city.

What I also adore about the game is the sheer amount of replay value it's got going for it as most of the events you can choose to do in any order, and with the built-in time clock you can get a sense of how long it took you to beat the game after watching the ending credits (my present fastest clear time was three hours and thirty-two minutes).  Since I got Tomba! I've played through it seven times (once in 2017, two times last year, and four times this year) as it's a game I find myself coming back to every once in awhile, and its enjoyably intuitive gameplay, reasonable length given it's a small world, and pleasurable feel-good charm easily help contribute to that.

Speaking of original entries in tragically discontinued IPs that I find myself coming back to way more than the sequel...

I've played through this PlayStation One vehicle more times in the past two years than I have Matrix Software's Alundra, Shade's The Granstream Saga, and Argonaut Software's Croc: Legend of the Gobbos--the last of which I personally consider to be the best game from 1997 and is one of my top favorite PlayStation One games ever.  There's a reason for that: it's innocently charming, very fun and delightfully feel-good, Justin Scharvona's soundtrack is heartfelt, I like its sense of platforming and secrets and attempts at challenging you, and it (like Croc himself) has got to have the purest and biggest heart in a game ever!  💖😭  It's not fair that his adventures ended after the second game.

Left: Walking around a restored Dwarf Village | Right: Planted a Golden Flower

By the same token, so too is it not fair that Tomba's legacy ended after entry number two, for he was never given a fair chance back then given his games' disappointing sales figures.  🙁  Luckily in the ensuing years they would receive a cult following, which is a good thing because I consider Tomba! to be a really great game in spite of its handful of shortcomings.  🙂  If you can afford it I highly recommend it, especially if you're in the mood for sidescrolling action-adventure platformer that's nonlinear and has got a sense of depth in terms of replay value and objective-based gameplay full of heart and humor--it knows not to take itself too seriously and lets people in on the joke.

Simply put, it's a wild ride while it lasts.  😃

My Personal Score: 8.5/10

d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b

● I love that Tomba, like Dido, is a Christmas baby; Santa's appearance in the second game makes so much sense with this knowledge.  🎅

● And wow, I scored a game on my video game blog higher than an 8 this year 🎵 for the first time in forever 🎵  😄

● 12/15/19 Update: Oh God, the irony only just hit me: Tokurō Fujiwara went from working on a game with the pigs as the good guys (Konami's Pooyan) to working on today's game fifteen years later where instead they're the bad guys!  🐷  How mind-blowing!  🤯

Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW allowed); hope you have a great day and have yourselves a Merry Christmas, take care!  😃

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😆  Heeheehee, Tomba tripped over a Baby Pig, amazing!