a classic to the core

I've waited a long time on this. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, and hope that things turned around so that I could give a review on the completed version of this edition of the game. As it stands however, this port of Tomba! is just a passing edition of the game.

Why the negative review?

I grew up with the original Tomba! on the PS1 as a kid and cherished it. I know the game basically from memory at this point. I replayed it on its original hardware again in college, then again 10 years after that. I even dabbled in the "taboo" methods of playing it just so I could see how it ran when it was free from the limitations of the hardware it was on. I grew up with its sequel and some other games of a similar vein that were remembered by not as successful as other titles from the late 90s. I love this game and I bought a copy for nearly everyone on my friends' list because I wanted to share it with them in the hopes that one day, Limited Run would fully iron out all the issues that this release has.

But the last update was at the beginning of September 2024--one month after the game's launch--and it's been radio silence ever since. I also went for one of the collector's editions that netted me a physical copy of the Switch version, of which I played with to see no issues passed that September 2024 update were fixed or even entertained.

This game is playable, and it is a "legal" way to play this wonderful classic, but the management (or lack thereof) for this port is incredibly poor, and will more than likely continue to be so. It's a steep price asking for $20 on a digital game that doesn't really have any enhancements from the original.

Limited Run's Carbon Engine just isn't a good emulator. Many have echoed this in the past when it comes to other retro releases they've done, but I wasn't subject to this issue until a game from my childhood came along to be done basically the bare minimum with if even that in making a functional iteration of the game. The negative reviews you see are correct, and the fact that so many have awards toward them goes to show there is an outcry of those who want Tomba! to return, but in a fashion that truly brings him back instead of just being a checkmark on a list of "retro games to use our emulator with."
The visuals of Tomba! are truly wondrous to look at on the original hardware, and say you were to use another emulator such as duckstation, it shines even more. The Carbon Engine on the other hand makes the game look as those it seems even worse than the original did on a CRT, regardless of filter choice. The Carbon Engine was designed for 8-bit and 16-bit games, so putting a 32-bit sprite game upon it shows its limitations clearly. It's baffling to think they'll be somehow using this for 3D 32-bit games such as Tomba!'s sequel.

The presentation of the game has an overall disregard for the property. In the Steam version all of the FMVs that play in the game are literally just mp4 files that the game loads in when it gets to a check. The intro cutscene is stupidly stretched to 16:9 with no method of changing it unless you somehow have an uncompressed iteration of the original 4:3 animation to replace it with. Music in these FMV files are horribly balanced and look like they were a first pass without any additional checks. I know for a fact there were no additional checks, as the credits that plays that gives the original dev staff is in Japanese only. There is no English version of this FMV, which seems to me that they just got one iso of the game, took the materials they wanted and then put it into their emulator that can't run FMVs well (the Switch version struggles when loading these) and didn't bother to check if perhaps the English release should showcase the associated text.

The music in general is bizarre. While this release boasts a remastered OST by Fujita-san herself, the implementation of these tracks is laughable. While the tracks themselves feel like they're rushed in terms of creating a new composition, none of them can properly loop as I'm sure they just loaded in an MP3 for the music data that has no mark to loop the audio or their emulator just can't handle it. It's a very notable problem with one of the tracks, "The Mermaid's Singing Rock" which is not a very long track and thus you will hear it start over and over again without creating a proper loop. This was "somewhat" rectified by the game's only patch that basically just hit "record" on the MP3 for longer, but the problem still persists. It's in many of the tracks as a lot of them contain introduction bars to the main melody that are never supposed to replay. It's jarring to hear the music abruptly stop and go back to the top of the song which should not happen. Thankfully you can play the original OST instead of the remastered, but that shows its own problem as the iterations of the tracks that play are full of static and odd pitch shifts that show up randomly during each track. If you want to experience this soundtrack, the best way to do so is from this edition's sound test, which play the tracks correctly (for remastered, with proper looping and for original, no static, etc), which is very odd as the main place you'd want to hear these correctly is in the game itself.

As far as bonuses go I feel there's not much to this that isn't the game, which needs improvement on its own. Outside of the mentioned sound test there is an art gallery that showcases various concept art, movies and key art that was used in the game's promotion and publication. None of it is very ground-breaking however as many of these can be found online, and could still be easily found before this edition's release. Outside of the remastered soundtrack, the only real thing this edition contributes are very short and somewhat rushed interviews with the creator Fujiwara-san and composer Fujita-san. Something about these interviews just feels... off. You'd think you'd learn much more information on this game and hopes for the future, but whoever was conducting these interviews didn't seem to care about the fine details so most of what's contained are just base facts about the game that was already well-known, now we just have a video of the creator or composer saying it.

My hope beyond hope is that somehow, some way, part of buying this puts money to Fujiwara-san so perchance we can start Whoopee Camp up again and either get a new entry or a proper remake, but seeing as how Limited Run was the main handler of this edition through their middling Carbon Engine, I doubt that is the case. As more has come to light about LRG recently as a company, I can't say this is a worthwhile investment despite how GOOD Tomba! as a game is. This version is ALMOST there, but a lack of respect for the property and mismanagement will make this version of the game just another blip on the radar like the original release was.

There will be no more updates on this game. I would love be proven wrong, but I am 95% sure at this point that this is "finished" in LRG's eyes and what we got is a nearly-finished product that just needs one more pass by people who actually give a darn. I don't trust their Carbon Engine, and quite honestly at this point unless there's a way for us to fund Fujiwara-san personally to re-open Whoopee Camp so he can run things with a more robust staff and trusted care, you're better off getting an iso.

This edition of Tomba! is worth at most $10 if I'm being generous. And that's if they had bothered to fix anything in nearly the last year they've had since it released. I'm so sad to write this as I love Tomba!, especially the first game. As it stands though, find other indie devs to support that are working on spiritual successors.

Fantastic edition. Essentially just adds a rewind and save state feature to Tomba, but it's greatly appreciated on some of the more perilous sections with asinine platforming or enemy hitboxes. If you've never played Tomba before, let me give you some highlights:

• I recently played through 20 games in my backlog and this PS1 game was somehow the better playing gameplay wise of them all. Especially after you gain animal dash: it feels exceptional to control.
  
• 130 events/quests to discover! Unfortunately you're given a bare bones event list for remembering them so get a walkthrough handy.
  
• Often times items or positions of NPCs make little sense, so you may have to use items in peculiar positions or search high and low for NPCs that just felt like being at the top of a lava cave or some other nonsense.
  
• The visual style is charming and decades later I still remember it fondly.

It's an easy recommend, especially if you have nostalgia for the original title.