I’m just now becoming aware of this news, but I’ve got to be honest: I’m happier than a pig in…well, I’ll say mud, because this is a family blog.
Back on May 31, Limited Run Games—after almost a year of radio silence since the original reveal—officially announced the impending August 1 release of Tomba! Special Edition for PS5, Switch and Steam. Apparently, it’s also coming to PS4 at a later date.
Here are the new included updates, taken from the Steam product page:
- Save Anywhere! No more worrying about heading back to a checkpoint.
- Rewind – Stuck on a difficult challenge? Try again!
- Toggle for analog control
- A museum crammed with classic print advertisements, original packaging and manuals, never- before-seen dev documents, and high-res original artwork
- A new remastered soundtrack
- Interview with the creator, Tokuro Fujiwara
The colorful 2.5D platformer was first published by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan back in 1997 (what a gaming year!), channeling the hybrid gameplay perspective of similar titles like Pandemonium!, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Spider: The Video Game. We got the game in North America later in 1998.
Do you like how I managed to shoehorn a Spider reference into this article? When you come to my blog, always expect this kind of quality and effort.
Basically, Tomba!’s world is rendered in 3D but the characters move on a 2D plane. 2.5D, by the way, is actually one of my favorite sub-genres of platformers, because it allows for lots of interesting camera work and particularly cinematic moments. There’s something magical about the restraint of two dimensions juxtaposed against three-dimensional environments.
I can still remember developer Whoopee Camp’s quirky animated intro screen playing as Tomba! loaded up on my trusty gray PS1 all those years ago. Well, to be completely accurate, it was the Tomba! demo, which I played to death, although it would take me years to finally track down a physical retail copy on Ebay. The disc is rather expensive now, unfortunately, which makes the launch of this enhanced version rather exciting. Us geriatric millennials can convert thousands of potential new Tomba! fans! Let the brainwashing begin!
Whoopee Camp would go on to develop the sequel, 1999’s Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return, before ultimately going under in 2000. The Tomba! games never sold particularly well, as far as I can gather, especially since neither release achieved Greatest Hits status on the original PlayStation. Thank God for that, as that garish green packaging would have tarnished our pink-haired hero’s legacy, I reckon.
On that note, it’s a bummer this Limited Run Games variant doesn’t include the second entry as well, but I’d wager that certain remaster/remake could already be in the works. Series creator Tokuro Fujiwara appears to be somewhat involved in bringing the IP back to modern consoles, so we might see Tomba! 2 if Tomba! Special Edition sells well enough. You can check out an interesting chat with Fujiwara over on the PlayStation Blog.
There doesn’t seem to be any word of a physical edition quite yet, though I’m sure there will be, given this is a Limited Run Games product we’re talking about. If you want to play the retro PS1 throwback day one, I wouldn’t even bother with a physical pre-order, because Limited Run stuff can take a very long time to ship.
What do I think of this re-release so far? From the available footage, it doesn’t look like LRG is doing much in terms of graphical improvements. It sort of just looks like the PS1 version running on their emulation Carbon Engine, which is probably what’s happening here.
I’m torn about this, because on one hand, I’d prefer the legacy PS1 graphics to any kind of modernized coat of paint. On the other hand, I already own Tomba!, both the jewel case physical game and the digital version on PS3. So this newer release is essentially the same as those variants, but with added stuff like rewind, save states and some museum/soundtrack extras. Feels a bit lackluster, to be honest. Might as well just put it in the Classics library on PS Plus at this point.
That said, I’m still looking forward to playing Tomba! again on PS5, and this should make it easier for more people to access, because it’s also coming to PC and Switch. Now if we could only get more news on the Gex Trilogy that was also announced last year, which additionally uses the Carbon Engine. In the meantime, I’ll patiently wait for August 1 to roll around so I can revisit one of PlayStation’s greatest (in my opinion) eras.
Seriously. 1997? Final Fantasy VII, Jet Moto 2, Crash Bandicoot 2, Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping…
