Tombi! [Switch]

Originally released on the PlayStation in Japan way back in 1997, with other regions seeing it release a year later; Whoopee Camp’s Tombi! was one of the lesser-known but still much-loved platformers of the 90s. Known as Tombi! in European territories but Tomba! elsewhere, this naming convention has continued to the modern age, with the launch of a ‘Special Edition’ re-release from Limited Run Games. Like previous LRG re-releases, Tombi hasn’t changed much visually, but has had a bunch of quality of life improvements implemented such as the ability to Save anywhere, Rewind gameplay if you mess something up (conserve those precious lives), and even switch to using analog controls.

Tombi’s Grandfather’s bracelet has been stolen, and throughout his journey to track it down, you’ll come across ‘Events’ which are an amalgamation of quests and side quests available for you to complete, with 130 to find in total. Some will be required in order to progress, but many could simply be missed if you’re not careful, so it pays to explore carefully. Tombi does not hold your hand - when you find an Event, an “Event Found” will display on screen, along with the title, but for the most part, figuring out how to complete it is up to you. Upon triggering an Event, you may have been speaking to an NPC who might mention something to point you in the right direction, but rarely is it anything specific. Upon completion of an Event, an “Event Complete” pop-up will appear, and the relevant Event will now be marked off in your log. Event names will sometimes hint you towards what is required, but what I found was that it is best to just ensure you are exploring everywhere thoroughly and interacting with everything, just to make sure nothing is missed - though a great deal of backtracking will still be required in any case.

Boss Fights are a bit of a mixed (pig) bag - they all play out in the same way, with you needing to jump on the Boss pig and toss them into the nearby Pig Bag to capture them. Some will have electric attacks to launch at you, others might have balls of fire, but most are fairly straightforward to deal with; the hardest part is timing your toss when the bag is open at the right angle (since they usually rotate). If I remember correctly, all but two of the Boss fights were over and done with almost as soon as I began - though this is largely luck with trying to time the bags.

Despite the bosses themselves not putting up much of a challenge, some ‘normal’ sections of the game feel unnecessarily punishing, with plenty of death drops that will have you racing through your lives and cursing at the little pink-haired dude on screen. There’s a whole windy section in particular that is infuriating, especially if you end up in a run of unfortunate jumps that just lead you to danger every. Single. Time. And like… this was considered a kids game!? Having a finite number of lives is where this all gets a bit sketchy - yes, you can rewind in this modern re-release, but if you’re looking for the original experience, it makes you wonder how possible this would even be for a kid.

Visually, Tombi retains its pixelated appearance, with lots of bright colours and often wacky environments. To help assist with the visuals, Tombi has a few options available to play the game with bars at the side, taking into account the ‘old’ resolution; for this you can choose to have the background have a few different appearances, too. This is definitely a very retro-looking game, but it still runs well and everything is nice and clear when exploring, it’s more just the imprecise controls that negatively impact you. The world is split into different areas, with various villages, the Masakari Jungle, and Mushroom Forest being some of the most memorable. The Mushroom Forest in particular has mushrooms you can pick up and eat that cause some alterations shall we say, with some causing Tombi to laugh uncontrollably, and others making him cry - with both affecting your gameplay in rather frustrating ways. You’ve always got to be prepared for the unexpected when playing Tombi, as many of the quests will send you off on what feels like a wild goose chase, since you’ve truly got to think outside of the box to complete many of these Events.

Overall, Tombi! Special Edition has its fun moments, but as far as ‘re-releases’ go, it’s definitely on the sloppier side given that it’s pretty much just a straight up emulation (with remastered music that is great to listen to). There are additional perks added, such as a Tomba Museum filled with artwork, interviews and more, which is interesting to have a look through but it definitely feels like a bit more could have gone into overhauling the game itself to make it a little more user friendly such as having better tracking of Events as well as improving upon the precision platforming. Completing all 130 Events is a challenge, but it can be fun to explore and try to check them all off - as long as you don’t mind all of the back and forth. Honestly, Tombi is a great game, and is well deserving of getting a modern release, it’s just a shame that it hasn’t been upgraded further, as this could truly have been even more special if it had. Plus, this is making us even more excited for the eventual release of Tombi 2! If you want to give Tombi a go, you can get it for £16.69 on the Nintendo eShop.

In the end, we decided to give Tombi! Special Edition the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.

Are you interested in Tombi!? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Overload PR for the Tombi! Special Edition Switch review code!