Each couple of years, a core childhood reminiscence resurfaces and sends me trying to find a weird PlayStation sport my brother and I obsessed over however by no means truly performed in its entirety. The web search goes like this: sport on red-and-black PS1 demo disk that includes feral youngster with pink hair tackling pigs and bushes that appear like butts. The outcomes inform me the sport I’m searching for is the 1997 platformer Tomba!, and I giddily bask within the nostalgia. Then I neglect all about it, and the cycle finally repeats.
You possibly can think about my shock, then, when a popped up earlier this summer season asserting Restricted Run Video games’ rerelease of Tomba! in all its wacky glory for contemporary consoles. Tomba! Particular Version is now out there digitally for PS5, Nintendo Change and PC. Bodily editions, a line of plushies and a themed NEO S controller (pre-orders for that are sadly offered out) are additionally on the best way. And in lastly enjoying it all through virtually 20 years after its authentic launch, I’ve found that Tomba! is much more unhinged than I remembered.
Tomba, the player-character, is a wild boy who lives outdoors of society, searching boars and sleeping beneath the celebrities. His peace is disrupted sooner or later when a bunch of delinquent pigs swoops in and wreaks havoc, finally robbing him of a gold bracelet that belonged to his grandfather. To get it again, Tomba ventures into the close by cities to search out the Evil Pig ringleaders and take them down. Alongside the best way, he meets a slew of unusual characters who will assist information him on his mission, however solely after he completes a bunch of duties for them.
It’s a 2.5D platformer, that means a lot of the sport operates like a two-dimensional side-scroller, however you possibly can sometimes transfer into the background or foreground to discover the map in additional depth. Tomba! Particular Version doesn’t change a lot in regards to the authentic sport. The graphics are nonetheless distinctly PS1 polygonal, and the controls can really feel clunky. There are some high quality of life additions, although — specifically a rewind function that finally ends up being extraordinarily helpful as a result of, because it seems, this sport is fairly tough in some spots. I discovered myself needing to attempt sure maneuvers again and again to get them proper.
Nearly each a part of the story and its setting carries a contact of absurdity. Tomba is ready to scale partitions, swing on branches, soar with inhuman capability and apparently retailer objects (together with dwelling creatures) in his abdomen, which he can regurgitate once they’re wanted afterward. There are the butt bushes, as talked about earlier, that are allegedly meant to depict however when Tomba jumps onto them and squeezes, a cloud of magical gasoline comes pouring out. You’ll encounter a village of dwarves, however can solely talk with them after leaping on the heads of a number of dwarves to study their language. In one other village, everybody’s been become mice, and for some purpose, they’re all wound up in regards to the disappearance of an precise, never-been-human child mouse.
One of the crucial memorable areas is undoubtedly the Mushroom Forest, a nasty journey of a location that’s crammed with creepy, clownish anthropomorphic flowers and mushrooms that inflict Tomba with sure illnesses if he jumps onto them. One can have him laughing uncontrollably, whereas the opposite makes him wail — and that cry is deeply unsettling. It type of jump-scared me the primary time it occurred, if I’m being actual. With each mushroom diseases, Tomba turns into unable to wield his weapons, as an alternative flailing his arms and screaming if you happen to attempt to do an assault.
It’s altogether a surprisingly complicated sport, and visually hanging because of its loud colour palette. However the quest can really feel convoluted as you attempt to navigate the customarily complicated map format and fulfill the various, many duties thrown your approach. Boss fights are uniquely irritating, too. As an alternative of merely beating up or killing the Evil Pigs, you need to wrangle each and throw it in a bag… however the bag is floating and, usually, spinning.
Whereas continuously maddening, Tomba! was a pleasure to revisit. It’s persistently foolish, and the soundtrack gave me a welcome blast of nostalgia from the second its metal drums began enjoying. (Tomba! Particular Version contains each the unique soundtrack and a remastered model, and so they’re each nice.) If something, the Particular Version launch has made it clear why Tomba! has lingered so lengthy in my reminiscence — I can’t say I’ve ever performed one other sport fairly prefer it.
