Nut Load. Mini reviews of games old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. Occasional shock face.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Tomba! (1998)


Genre: Platformer | Players: 1 | Developer: Whoopee Camp

The feral wild child Tomba with the pink coif is just going about his day hunting wild game when he stumbles upon some anthropomorphic pigs robbing a carriage and intervenes. He is at first successful, but is then knocked unconscious and his gold bracelet is stolen. It being the only keepsake of his deceased grandfather, he takes off in pursuit of the pigs.

Tomba runs around several 2D colorful landscapes attacking enemies either by jumping on them and hurling them into obstacles or with various weapons while completing the games missions. The missions are surprisingly varied ranging from exploring and talking to NPCs to fetch quests and puzzles. Though the objectives can sometimes be incredibly vague. This makes exploration essential and the game rewards players for it with hidden items, chests and missions to find in overlooked nooks and by talking to the various other characters that also vary widely from humans to flying dogs and parasol carrying monkeys in striped pants. Tomba will also gain new abilities that allow faster movement and further exploration of both new and old areas.

The cartoony graphic style has aged rather well and its soundtrack, while nothing special, is competent enough to do the job. Its strange premise is also a nice throwback to a time before the rule of muddy brown realism where enemies weren't terrorists and the main character could crack a smile. A wonderful, colorful and most of all fun if rather short adventure.

Buyer's Guide:
The old physical PS1 discs are collectors items and thus carry a premium often up past $100 for mint copies, but Sony has just recently re-released it on PSN for a much more palatable $9.99.

Stomachs as an infinite Bag of Holding out of 5

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