Tomba, the First game by whoopee camp, is a very unusual and unique
game, which stands out from other games because of its unique way of
gameplay, It’s a side scroller, is kinda puzzlish, kinda like a RPG,
and also has many adventure and platformer elements.
The story is pretty straight forward, at first, but then the twists and
turns in the story will keep you going on till the end. The story begins
with your precious bracelet (handed down to u by your grandpa) being
stolen by some Pigs, and you then following their path to reach a
village. It starts as a journey to recover the bracelet but in course
of your journey you find out about the EVIL SWINEs and their evil deeds
and finally getting rid of them all and saving the world:D. As you
progress from one place to the other, you will find many NPC, most of
the story is driven by the NPC who each have a story to tell and help
to ask, and helping each character is the key to getting through the
various places as they help you to a very great extent, some teach u
new moves, and some might give you some items that are required to pass
through certain areas. Each place has its story to tell and each place
and its surrounding is cursed by one of the evil swines which
completely transformed the area into a melancholic place. And sometimes
transforming the citizens into different creatures than what they are.
The basic thing is that you will have to go to each of the 100, 1000,
1000000……. Year Old men and get to know of what and who has cursed the
place and try to regain peace and harmony in all lands, you will have
to find a Pig bag which is hidden in nearby places to the areas which
are cursed and only then u will be able to see the layer of the evil
pigs , somewhere in that cursed land, you will have to fight them and
capture them in the pig bags to lift the curse off the place. Every
area transforms into the former form when you capture the evil pig of
that area, giving you new places to explore which were not available
before.
The whole adventuring is done by the way of Missions that the NPC give
you, the mission when given is mentioned on the screen and also when you
finish a particular mission the CLEARED word is shown, along with the
missions objective. This way of mission oriented but NON-Linear
gameplay really makes playing this game a VERY special experience.
Gameplay wise the game does many good things, by giving you different
ways to attack and the primary way being, you jumping on Evil pigs,
biting them and then tossing them. you will learn to swim, dash like an
animal, dive, and many other things, you will also have many items to
use, you can use your dog BARON, who has huge ears like DUMBO, to fly
from one area to another, removing the burden of traveling all way from
one place to the other. Many minigames in the game are also present and
they are fun to play. The game also has its platforming moments, with
many jumps and tricky moves to get to different places, The RPG
elements in the game improve your strength and increase your level via
experience points called AP, having a HIGH AP is very imp ;) as It will unlock a secret
in the NEXT game (Tomba 2).Every part of the game is a puzzle having u
to figure out what to do and HOW to do it. Mostly by collection items
and finding possible routes to new areas and machinery which on using
might alter the situations in places.
Graphically it is quite simple, it is complete 2D but you can go from
the background to foreground in many areas, Backgrounds are nicely done
especially the mushroom forest. Every other part of the graphics is as
good as it gets on PSone (2D).
The Music in the game is exceptionally well done and it easily gets
stuck in your mind:D u will travel through many diverse localities and
meet many strange characters, adding great interest into the players
mind. The enchanted mushroom forest will excite and also maybe scare as
you see all those BIG flower faces laugh haughtily as you walk by and
eat mushrooms, which either makes you cry or laugh.
All in all the game is a awesome package which will re-introduce to u
the feeling that you got when you played games for the first time. I
would recommend it to any gamer who loves playing platformers and also
to the ones who are searching for a new and unique experience.
