[pinkgothic]

First things first, unrelated: There will be no promises of later reviews this time, because we all know it's never going to happen. That being said, I have neither forgotten I owe this place a longer Labyrinth of Time review, nor have I lost my urge to. But - I've completely forgotten what I wanted to say in it. You may pan me now.

Tombi

Tombi is the the type of game that either mesmerises you on first sight or causes you and your gear to fall prey to the reflex Flusteredly Throw Game And Playstation Out Window, followed by a somewhat panicked Make Sure It Landed Far, Far Away. The first reaction of anyone playing Tombi is bound to be a mildly disturbed stare.

Story

You play a pink-haired lad named Tombi. Tombi has unfortunately lost his grandfather's golden bracelet to a bunch of thieving pigs, and makes his way through a continent previously unexplored.

Pink hair? Pigs? Well, it gets better yet.

Tombi's lifestyle is not exactly what one would call civilised, and he hunts - and fights - much like a wild cat, attacking foe with a well-aimed tackle and gnashing teeth. So you will spend the game hopping onto your enemies and throwing them into whatever direction you please to dispose of them.

Very early in the game Tombi is told that the entire continent has been placed under spells by seven Evil Pigs, who seem to be collecting gold. Maybe if he catches them, he'll find his grandfather's bracelet? But, 'lo behold, catching the Evil Pigs is impossible without the Evil Pig Bags. Yes, you read that right. You're supposed to stuff an Evil Pig into a bag specifically made for that purpose.

Pink hair, magical Evil Pigs (and their henchmen), the Evil Pig Bags that hold them when captured, and Tombi likes to jump onto things. And, as a bonus: He keeps his inventory in his stomach.

Clearly this game does not take itself an ounce seriously, and uses the liberty of nonsense to weave a world that is, in itself, incredibly consistant, and leaves you yearning for more.

Originality: 10/10 - Technically a rip-off of everything else in its core storyline (substituting the pigs for normal adversaries), but remains consistant, and does not claim seriousness like the games it rips off, whilst inventing crazy - but not inaccessible - things to keep you entertained throughout the story.

Genre

The first impression one gets from Tombi is that it's a jump-and-run with a few quest elements.

As the game progresses, it becomes painfully clear that "a few" is a grossly farfetched estimate - one is confronted with 130 quests over the entirety of the game, some which are necessary to complete it, others which are not. These quests range from saving whole parts of the continent from an Evil Pig to finding the spare pair of pants for a monkey friend who got stuck on a high ledge in the wind and tore those we was wearing.

Surviving in this game, save a few irritating sections, is not hard. Once you've mastered the tackle-bite, you'll notice the usual sections of struggle as would be typical for a jump-and-run - where the jumping and running is of deep importance to gameplay - simply don't exist. (Stormy Mountain is the exception)

Fighting the Evil Pigs is not hard, either - once you understand how to dodge their attacks, it's child's play and only a matter of time until you maneauver them with a well-aimed throw into their very own Pig Bag.

The game keeps track of four different experience bars:

• Fire Experience,
• Water Experience, and
• Wind Experience - each one of these continually rise per bite of an enemy. Which increments depends on the enemy; some enemies give you fire experience (such as the typical pig minion), others wind (such as the spiders in the dwarves' Watch Tower) or water (such as the Kokka Birds around the Haunted Mansion). You will need these experience bars at level 10 to collect their respective Jewels. You can raise them in other ways, too, but as that's a quest, I'll leave the details unmentioned.
• AP - can be gained in two ways: Either by completing quests, or the throwing of enemies against something (as opposed to out of the screen). You will need a high amount of AP to progress in some parts of the game - fortune tellers, for example, might refuse to give you their hints if you don't have enough AP, or doors may remain magically locked to you.

...and of your status, health points, and abilities.

So, what is it? It's not a typical jump and run, despite the tackle-bite. It's not a typical roleplaying game, as you have no choices to make, even though it keeps track of your experience, health points, status and abilities. It's not a typical adventure game, because it has all these elements atop the quest-solving.

It's just a good game.

Gameplay: 10/10 - No quirks, total beauty, full understanding not required to play the game, excellent reactions not required to play the game, general level of hardness very low, but never at cost of fun, which has an incredibly high level in this game.

Game

(for a screenshot, see attachment)

The game's visual style is very cartoon-oriented, matching the nonsense storyline perfectly. Additionally, movement is important in this game, even in details - if you jump onto a pile of rocks, it will waver dangerously; if you swing on a branch, the branch will shudder with your movements, tip circling as you do; if you let go of an elastic spore, it will snap back up into the trees.

On the downside, all Tombi animation is designed in 2D, which becomes painfully obvious when a 3D camera path is taken - walking around corners can look fairly awkward. Additionally, there are other visual glitches, such as grappling to a moving platform can leave you with the impression that you're attached to air. Occasionally, the background image changes whilst it's all you see - this only happens fairly late in the game, where you can jump very high and float down slowly - and sometimes, you reach the bounds of the visible unintentionally (mainly in the same situation), seeing background where you would expect trees to continue.

But the occasions where these 'glitches' become apparent are rare.

Graphics: 7/10 - A few unfortunate, fairly grave visual glitches that are rarely encountered - overall consistant, fitting, bizarre as the game concept demands, childish and playful in tie in to the nonsense delivered.

Playing the game is easily understood in its basics and details are explained in-game on signs scattered across the world. You'll get very far just with X (for jumping) and O to use your equipped weapon, aswell as the directional buttons. Trying the controls out instead of reading the manual usually suffices completely, and to learn to read sign-boards, you merely need to listen to the first person you encounter.

The only thing that is not explained is the Motocross course controls, causelessly leaving you clueless. (For those wondering - square accelerates and X has you jump. Also, you should try not to run into the pigs scattered across the course, that's the major slowdown, almost everything else is forgivable, even for gold.)

Additionally, the game suffers from ambiguity in some situations. The 'Animal Dash', an ability you'll likely gain early in the game, is activated by running whilst holding down the square button. At the same time, the square button initiates conversations, which leaves you frustrated when you're hoping to scram away from someone you only just talked to, because typically, you'll end up hitting the square button first, at least if you're anything like me. If the person you just spoke to is long-winded, you'll be fuming.

The inventory has another quirk along these lines - buttons belonging to one of the four sections (Items, Events, Status and Map) are accessible with those four buttons. Specifically, this means that if you enter the Items menu, you can pick Events, Status and Map in the top bar, or 'Use Item', 'View', et cetera. Sounds useful, but as pawns of the internet, we tend to be used to hierarchy organisation. I've lost count of the times I reflexively wanted to exit the Item menu to access those top four buttons... ending up back in the game and having to make my way back to the inventory. Keeping in mind the game likes being slow-loading, this can be frustrating.

Interface: 6/10 - A couple of annoying, recurring ambiguities, but easy to grasp, memorise, and talk about in your sleep. The lack of explanation of the Motocross controls is frustrating as its one place that's hard to trial-and-error through.

(continued)

[pinkgothic]

And then, there's the music. Annoying, deliberately off-tune in many tracks and nerve-wrecking in style, it makes for a perfect match to the comic style graphics and wacky storyline. The tunes in-game are all MIDI style, meaning, incredibly simplistic with no 'ambience' whatsoever, just a melody.

Occasionally, some of the tunes leave you wondering if they are really appropriate. Perhaps it was just me, but walking through the Dwarf Village after liberating the 100 Flower Forest from it's spell left me wondering if I'd just walked into church. Serene and peaceful, yes, certainly - but unfitting.

In general, changing soundtracks for areas after their saving makes for awkward effects. It's fitting that the mood would change, but you've typically just gotten used to it and expect the track to continue playing, only to be confronted by a new one. Some places, especially Lava Caves, pull off difference with astonishing subtlety - what do you mean, you didn't hear a difference? Give the two melodies a closer, comparing listen, you'll notice they differ then.

Sound: 7/10 - Irritating, but lovable; with a few quirks, especially after 'saving' locations just after you got used to the original soundtrack, and the occasional chronically unfitting melody in rare instances.

Satisfaction

Frankly summarised, I am rather disturbed by Tombi. There are occasions in the game which left me with a deep feeling of unease, as though I'd discovered a creeping, underlying, serious darkness.

I count three occasions that left me feeling awkward:

Spoiler:

1 . Mushroom Forest is a terrifying, nightmarish place for anyone who does not trust clowns. The huge flowers sprouting here have large faces that at first are simple expressions of serene apathy. However, Mushroom Forest is full of mushrooms - as the name suggests - and eating one will either make you laugh uncontrollable (both at random and if you try to use your weapon, rendering you helpless), or cry, and worse yet, the plants will mimick your expression and either rise (the platforms they support following) or fall according to mood. The laugh of those faces will haunt me forever. Not to mention there is something very disturbing about accidentally throwing yourself off a cliff due to an unintentionally aquired depression.

2 . Call me naive, but the two glowing red gem insets in the Strange Small Room always disturbed me.

3 . And worst of all... the end of the game. You've spent your time hunting seven Evil Pigs - immature as they might be, they were spiteful creatures - only to find out there is another Evil Pig, who is master of those seven you already bagged. You must find seven friends - a quest that takes some time up - before you can fight the Evil Pig, because you need to enter the Evil Pig gate to reach him. You are given time to contemplate.

Thoughts had: First of all, clearly this mind must be deranged enough to create these nonsense pigs, however pushovers they were. Secondly, he probably gave them their powers, which means his own are vastly greater. He hides behind an archaic looking door in a Strange Small Room, and has something to do with the creepy looking pig head island you saw from the Watch Tower. He must be unusually dark to like such a style, compared to the other pigs; with those red gems leering at you, what else can one expect? His Pig Bag is black, not the other rainbow colours you spent bagging (Pink, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Navy and Blue). Additionally, this guy has all the gold. We've learnt gold is the source of the Pigs' magic. Lastly, he's referred to as "A Real Evil Pig" in the quest list. That implies - to the player, at the point in time, with the given knowledge - the others aren't evil, or at least not evil in comparison.

In summary, I was expecting a nasty, wicked thing with a temper of a raging beast throwing things at me and wishing me a slow, painful death, or, better yet, torture, for my meddling. A fight to be remembered, a struggle to win.

But this is Tombi.

Your last opponent is what I can only describe... as a child. He greets you with a jovial, enthusiastic question of whether you had fun with his seven creations, because that was his point in making them. In conclusion, he dismisses the conversation, and dares you to catch him if you can.

You can literally sit down and do nothing and you will lose no health point.

He's fast, and he can stop time if you're far enough from him to allow him to react to you jumping in his direction. But all in all... he's doing nothing to stop you, really. It's just a matter of time until you manage to bag him. Nothing stands in your way.

It's a fun last few minutes, no doubt about it, but I felt distinctly... unheroic. Yes, the lad was misguided, clearly a bit nutso in the head, but here was one who wanted no harm at all, who played with you, properly, not in a spiteful way, and all you did was stuff him in a bag... and go home with your bracelet.

I was left wondering if I had done the right thing.

Best. Ending. Ever.

Rating

Interface: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Originality: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10

Overall: 9/10 - Incredibly unsatisfying as a game - you want more quests after you did 130 successfully, for one, and secondly, there's the end as discussion in the Satisfaction section; but such glorious fun and with such a wicked twist that I have to give it a bonus point in rating (just taking the mean of the individual ratings would give it 8/10). Wicked.

[Hammerite]

I used to have a demo of this.
I remember replaying it a lot.
Couldn't find the fullgame though.

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Hammerite

I used to have a demo of this. I remember replaying it a lot.

Ah, yes, story of my life. In all seriousness, though, I aquired a like for two of my favorite games that way - Tombi and Kula World. I think they might even be on the same demo disk.

Both of them are really hard to find, or rather, on eBay, decently easy to find, but atrociously expensive!

I'd suggest searching for Tomba on ebay.com. Doing that: here's a decent hit (I'd buy that instantly if I didn't already have the game), or here... things get nastier if you try and find the European version of the game.

Anyway, as you see, not exactly hard to find, but it can get distinctly hard to afford. They're roughly worth 50 EUR on ebay.de (that's ~65 dollars), getting Tomba is easier, same game though. So now you might ask, why did I try and find Tombi? That'll be because I had no idea it had an alternate name in the US until a few days ago.

I hope that helps.

BTW, Kula World suffers similar problems - it's called Roll Away in the US, and Kula Quest in Japan.

[Kehoe]

I remember this game. I really want to find it and buy it now actually.
I think I have a friend that has a copy.

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Kehoe

I remember this game. I really want to find it and buy it now actually. I think I have a friend that has a copy.

I hope you're right! And if not - best of luck finding it for a decent price on eBay/comparable.

[Terramax]

I remember a demo of this too. I remember the title music too (I always remember a good soundtrack to a game when I hear it).

Never got the game in the end, I had a chance, but grabbed something cheaper instead.

there was a crummy looking sequel too. In 3D, that never looked half as imaginative and colourful as the original.

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Terramax

There was a crummy looking sequel too. In 3D, that never looked half as imaginative and colourful as the original.

Well, the original is in 3D, it just mimicks 2D in the way you make your way through the world and how perspective is kept. I assume that's exactly what you're contrasting it to, mind (I do realise the 3D of Tomba 2 is different in style), so feel free to ignore my blathering.

I'd say try your luck finding it again - it's so very, very worthwhile. eBay should make it relatively easy finding.

[Terramax]

easy, but not cheap. plus, i've too many others. I'm still trying to get the first two Gabriel Knights....

[Muck2k6]

I bought tombi fae ebay costed me around 20 quid because its mega rare, worth every penny, A mega platform game to play. Totally addictive wi crap tunz, goes with the game tho. Its a game u always pick up and play when your near yer console, Trust me... ADDICTIVE!!!

[The Impostor]

I asked Andy Partridge to read this wonderful review aloud for me. Oh, my poor heart!