Each couple of years, a core childhood reminiscence resurfaces and sends me looking for a weird PlayStation recreation my brother and I obsessed over however by no means truly performed in its entirety. The web search goes like this: recreation on red-and-black PS1 demo disk that includes feral little one with pink hair tackling pigs and timber that seem like butts. The outcomes inform me the sport I’m in search of is the 1997 platformer Tomba!, and I giddily bask within the nostalgia. Then I overlook all about it, and the cycle finally repeats.
You possibly can think about my shock, then, when a popped up earlier this summer time saying Restricted Run Video games’ rerelease of Tomba! in all its wacky glory for contemporary consoles. Tomba! Particular Version is now accessible digitally for PS5, Nintendo Swap and PC. Bodily editions, a line of plushies and a themed NEO S controller (pre-orders for that are sadly bought out) are additionally on the way in which. And in lastly taking part in it all over nearly 20 years after its unique launch, I’ve found that Tomba! is much more unhinged than I remembered.
Tomba, the player-character, is a wild boy who lives exterior of society, searching boars and sleeping below the celebrities. His peace is disrupted at some point when a gaggle of delinquent pigs swoops in and wreaks havoc, in the end 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 way in which, 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’ll be able to often 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 unique recreation. The graphics are nonetheless distinctly PS1 polygonal, and the controls can really feel clunky. There are some high quality of life additions, although — particularly a rewind function that finally ends up being extraordinarily useful as a result of, because it seems, this recreation is fairly difficult in some spots. I discovered myself needing to strive sure maneuvers over and over to get them proper.
Nearly each a part of the story and its atmosphere carries a contact of absurdity. Tomba is ready to scale partitions, swing on branches, soar with inhuman potential and apparently retailer objects (together with residing creatures) in his abdomen, which he can regurgitate once they’re wanted afterward. There are the butt timber, as talked about earlier, that are allegedly meant to depict however when Tomba jumps onto them and squeezes, a cloud of magical fuel 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 changed into mice, and for some motive, they’re all wound up in regards to the disappearance of an precise, never-been-human child mouse.
One of the 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 sort of jump-scared me the primary time it occurred, if I’m being actual. With each mushroom sicknesses, 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 advanced recreation, and visually hanging due to its loud coloration palette. However the quest can really feel convoluted as you attempt to navigate the usually complicated map structure and fulfill the various, many duties thrown your method. Boss fights are uniquely irritating, too. As a substitute of merely beating up or killing the Evil Pigs, you must wrangle each and throw it in a bag… however the bag is floating and, most often, spinning.
Whereas often maddening, Tomba! was a pleasure to revisit. It’s constantly foolish, and the soundtrack gave me a welcome blast of nostalgia from the second its metal drums began taking part in. (Tomba! Particular Version consists of each the unique soundtrack and a remastered model, they usually’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 recreation fairly prefer it.