We’ve all been there, standing in ridiculous queues at 11pm in the rain wind and cold to fork out a fortune for a game with a shiny steel case and picture book. But while blockbuster releases are all well and good it’s often the hidden gems in gaming we all covet and remember best. It’s no secret us gamers love to reminisce about games that still make us smile despite not experiencing them for over a decade. This week in It’s a Cult we look back to the PS1 and uncover one of its’ many great unappreciated titles.
Back in 1999 there were over 50 million PS1’s in homes across the globe, however Sony’s debut console wasn’t at the fore front of the industry it had dominated for almost five years. Just like today 1999 was the last year of the fifth generation consoles and with the Sega Dreamcast already available worldwide and the PS1’s successor right around the corner many of us missed out on what could be argued as the Playstation’s greatest achievement.
Tombi 2 (or Tomba 2 for those of you in the Americas) was the second game from Whoppee Camp who released the original title 2 years earlier. Whooppee as a studio where relatively unknown but CEO of the developers Tokuro Fujiwara had already played a major role in creating Ghosts and Goblins and produced the Mega Man series: the talent was evidently there. You may be wondering why I’m starting with a sequel when the original Tombi is a cult classic in its own right? Well in the nineties we weren’t yet evolved enough to have an online market place so Sony produced a wealth of demo discs with official magazines to wet our appetite for new content. In one of the most popular demo discs mass produced and readily available was Gex, New Jersey Devil and Tombi. So although a great game in its own right it was well recognised and sold surprisingly well to both hardcore and casual gamers.
Tombi 2 was a side scrolling, platforming adventure complimented by light RPG elements with intriguing combat, beautiful environments, challenging puzzles and over 100 quests to smash and solve your way through. Tombi 2 can be commended for any of its elements but as a whole package the game was really quite ahead of its time. Perhaps its finest achievement was the more than successful transition from 2d to 3d which many juggernaut titles at the time like Sonic and Castlevania had failed to do. With this transition Tombi 2 moved with the times capitalising on the now popular 3D adventuring which gamers now loved thanks to games like Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot, all while still giving a nod to the 2d adventures of yesteryear. Tombi 2 achieved what many modern game developers now strive for in that it innovated enough to make the game feel like a new experience whilst also staying true to its formula which the series was known for. This was a feature taken for granted as even nowadays games like Call of Duty although immense in their popularity now face opposition from within the gaming community due to a lack of innovation and yearly releases. The shear longevity of Tombi 2 was another strength to an already impressive list of accolades. Again an underappreciated element in a modern world of 7 hour campaigns.
You play as the pink spiky haired primate Tombi accompanied by your witty ladybug pal Zippo who serves as your guide. Armed with your black jack, boomerang and athletic ability you had to take down the evil pig lords who have kidnapped your childhood friend Tabby and placed a curse over the continent. Combat its self was diverse as using weapons would stun the pig enemies who were various in their own attack abilities anything from charging you with pitchforks to flying above you to reign down fireballs. Once stunned Tombi can use his floated jump to land on a pig and then flip toss him to his demise. The combat was a great evolution of the traditional head jumping from games of the past. Environments spanned from picturesque fishing villages to fiery mines, blizzard ravaged mountain towns to haunted forests all in all the variety available kept the adventure moving along nicely. Each area had its own unique look and really showcased the Playstation’s 32-bit processing power, rather than trying to make square blocks look sexy (cough Lara Croft cough) Tombi 2 went for a unique art design which ultimately doesn’t make the game look ridiculous and awkward more than ten years later. Characters had an Anime flavour to their design its Japanese influence was evident, but released during a time when Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z were taking Europe and North America by storm was a great design choice whether intentional or not. Tombi would be handed quests by voiced NPC’s one of the improvements from the original and while Tombi himself couldn’t speak Zippo provided as your voice when interacting with the world. There was a great variety of quests available some taking 5 minutes others could take 5 hours. Tombi 2 even had quests which were carried over from saved files from the original game, a feature that helped make the Mass Effect franchise so popular with gamers the world over. Helping characters find items, defeating enemies with specific items, solving puzzles and a host of other challenges kept the game from ever getting repetitive and in the process would reward Tombi with adventure points. These adventure points served as both a highscore tally another nod to classic games gone by and an XP system. There are chests scattered across the world that can only be unlocked by having a certain number of points these chests would reward Tombi with upgrades and special items like a squirrel suit for gliding and more powerful weaponry.
Tombi 2 encouraged you to see all it had to offer as by even playing solely the main quest you would have to indulge in some form of side quest in order to get the equipment you need to progress to the next area. By the time you finish the main story you could have clocked 20-30 plus hours let alone trying to get the highly coveted 100 percent completion rank. In that case prepare to spend hours long into the night and book off work the next day. One word to some up this hidden gem could be charm, the longevity, fairytale-esque soundtrack, quirky visuals , characters and plot, diverse and fun combat and replay ability really do make this game a true classic in every sense.
Tombi 1 is available on the PSN now and Tombi 2 currently is only available on the Japanese PSN. Short of that the best way to get your hands on this game is to dust off your PS1 and expect to pay anything between 40 to 90 pounds sterling for a hard copy on E-bay. It’s a mark to how coveted the game is to gamers the world over. Should that be too much of an investment with Tombi 1 already on PSN maybe with the PS4 set for release this year the new PSN will have more content and if it honours its classics expect Tombi 2 to be there.
Next week on It’s A Cult were looking at an overlooked survival horror Dino Crisis. If you would like read more about a hidden gem from your youth leave a comment below or send me your suggestions on twitter by following @chris02mvp and using the hash tag #einfogamesIAC
