Tomba! Special Edition is a remaster of a classic PlayStation adventure platformer. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Tomba! Special Edition Review Overview
What is Tomba! Special Edition?
The game centers on Tomba, a young feral child, and his journey to recover a golden armlet that Kuma Pigs stole during a brawl. As his journey approaches civilization, he discovers that the Evil Pigs, the leaders of the Kuma Pigs, have cursed the entire continent. Tomba now has to vanquish the Evil Pigs and lift the curse from all the various towns and territories in order to find his lost armlet.
Tomba! Special Edition features:
⚫︎ Gameplay with two buttons
⚫︎ Collectible items
⚫︎ Various side quests
⚫︎ An assortment of weapons and equipment
⚫︎ Rewind features
⚫︎ A museum to view game media
 Steam |
$19.99 |
 PlayStation Store |
$19.99 |
 Nintendo eShop |
$19.99 |
Tomba! Special Edition Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Simple But Creative Gameplay Built-In Emulation Rewind |
Even The Loading Time Is Remade It's A Lazily-Done Port |
Tomba! Special Edition Overall Score - 68/100
Tomba! Special Edition is a lazily-done remaster of a classic PlayStation title. It retains the exact same gameplay and visuals, but with an added museum to view related media and a new soundtrack. So although it might appeal to aged gamers for nostalgic reasons, there’s really nothing about it that would justify its price for younger players.
Tomba! Special Edition Story - 7/10
Tomba’s story is as straightforward as a game can get. You’ve lost a precious item to some evil pigs and now you want it back. The entire game revolves around your journey toward that goal, as well as the tales of those you meet along the way. It matches its gameplay’s simplicity well, but it’s not a story that’ll get your brain’s gears turning.
Tomba! Special Edition Gameplay - 9/10
Simple and fun. There really isn’t much to say about Tomba’s gameplay aside from those two words. Despite effectively only needing two buttons to play, a lot of creative maneuvers can be done easily. It’s not even hard to learn or adapt to.
Tomba! Special Edition Visuals - 6/10
The original Tomba looked insanely good back during its time. But the remaster didn’t even enhance the game’s graphics to make it more appealing to a wider audience. It’s simply stretched to display at resolutions exceeding 480p with middling results.
Tomba! Special Edition Audio - 7/10
Despite having a new OST composed for the remastered release, Tomba! Special Edition’s audio as a whole is still nothing special. It’s not bad by any means, though. It’s not even mediocre. The sound effects, BGM and miniscule amount of voice acting do enhance the game’s enjoyability. But, it’s not something that will stick around in your head for a while after witnessing the game’s end.
Tomba! Special Edition Value for Money - 5/10
$19.99 is a big ask nowadays for what Tomba! Special Edition offers. A little too big, in fact. It’s essentially just the original PlayStation title jammed inside an emulator. Sure, there’s an abundance of quests (which are mostly fetch-related ones) and bosses to fight, but it really didn’t age well considering how lazily-made this port is.
Tomba! Special Edition Review: A Lazy Throwback
Tomba is a game that my fellow gamers with back problems would surely recognize. It’s an adventure platformer released on the original PlayStation with incredibly simple mechanics that mostly involve you either latching onto your enemies’ heads (by biting them) and hurling them away, or hitting them with a weapon (and biting them afterward).
An arguably more memorable sequel was released later on called Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return which, while retaining the same gameplay mechanics, was visually higher in quality and utilized the console’s immature 3D engine much better. It was also my first Tomba game before trying out the first one.
Decades later, a "remaster" for the original Tomba was released for the PC and multiple consoles. As such, here we are, giving attention to a title that’s almost thirty years old yet still lives rent-free in the minds of those old enough to have jobs and families.
Before anything else, it’s important to make a certain distinction. As mentioned, Tomba! Special Edition is a remaster of the first title in the two-game series. In other words, it merely updated the visuals such that it could display itself properly on modern resolutions without figuratively (and literally) exploding. Or did it?
The gameplay remains the same as its predecessors. So, for those of us who have played the PlayStation releases, this would be the third time we’re tampering with the same features and mechanics. While this may not normally be an issue, since Tomba! Special Edition is essentially just a copy-paste of the original game, it also carried over the classic’s controls. And it really didn’t age well.
Another aspect that didn’t age particularly well is its resolution. No, I’m not talking about the graphics. We can derive enjoyment from quite literally any kind of visual style, regardless of how retro it looks. What I mean is that the original’s low-resolution visuals weren’t improved on at all. The game simply either stretches the visuals to fit higher-resolution screens, or go down the "I can’t be bothered" route of adding a massive border around your display.
Honestly, calling it a remaster might even be a stretch. It’s really just the original game made to run on an emulator that they’ve passed as a new release. It even comes with a rewind function that works kind of like an emulator save state.
Don’t get me wrong, though. It’s still as fun as I remembered it to be. But compared to other platformers, you really can’t expect it to appeal to younger audiences. I even feel like they’re just exploiting our nostalgia here.
I do hope that Tomba 2 won’t get the same treatment.
Pros of Tomba! Special Edition
| Things Tomba! Special Edition Got Right |
|---|
|
Simple But Creative Gameplay Built-In Emulation Rewind |
Simple But Creative Gameplay
Tomba is a game designed such that players only needed to mind two buttons outside that of the D-pad, interact, and pause button. These are the jump and attack buttons. Can’t get any simpler than that!
In fact, Tomba might just be playable on the two-button famicom controller.
Despite that, players can perform a lot of creative moves using only these commands such as hurling enemies toward each other, attacking mid-air after charging on the ground, etc. It’s that kind of freedom using such simple controls which really appealed to me as a kid, and it’s faithfully recreated in Tomba! Special Edition.
Built-In Emulation Rewind
The 2024 release of Tomba is essentially just the original game stuffed into an emulator so that it could work on modern systems. Accordingly, the game also allows access to the emulator’s rewind feature, which essentially allows you to go back in time. This is a big help for particularly troublesome fights or areas where you might conclude that you’ve wasted too many lives and want to reset.
Do note, however, that this isn’t exactly the same as a save state. Once you rewind, you can no longer access parts of the game that occurred after. Essentially, the future never exists in the game, so going back means you’re erasing all of your progress following that point in time.
Cons of Tomba! Special Edition
| Things That Tomba! Special Edition Can Improve |
|---|
|
Even The Loading Time Is Remade It's A Lazily-Done Port |
Even The Loading Time Is Remade
I know that accurate remasters are appreciated by the community in many ways, but I don’t think that encompasses the inconveniences to one’s experience. Hence, since we’re running on modern hardware which are far, far superior to its retro (ow, my back) counterparts, there should be no reason why Tomba! Special Edition shouldn’t exploit the higher transfer speeds of our SSDs (or even HDDs). Cutting the loading time to a mere fraction of the original’s two-odd seconds of blacked-out screen would do wonders for a game’s viability.
It may not seem like much, but it does add up over time. Or, at the very least, the game should have a toggle for players who want to play the game with the slow, lore-accurate loading time or the more modern, near-instantaneous load.
It's A Lazily-Done Port
If you’re looking for a shining example of a lazy modern port of a classic title, look no further than Tomba! Special Edition.
Remasters themselves are just the lazy version of a remake. Yes, in some cases, developers actually take the time to scale things up so that they display properly in higher-resolution hardware. There are even remasters that completely overshadow their original release, such as Metroid Prime.
But what about Tomba? All you’ll really get are stretched visuals, mysterious lag (how, even), only three save slots (we’re evolving backwards now), and the same terrible controls and collisions from the PS1 era. And for what? A shiny new OST and a rewind feature?
Is Tomba! Special Edition Worth It?
Only consider if you’re nostalgic
While spending $19.99 on an old copy-paste of a late 90s game might sound appealing to those of us with back problems, there’s really no point doing so for those who are simply on the lookout for a nice platformer to play. Tomba! Special Edition has essentially done nothing to make the game viable for a modern audience aside from giving it a new OST. In other words, I would suggest spending your money elsewhere if you’re part of the latter group.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
| Steam |
$19.99 |
| PlayStation Store |
$19.99 |
| Nintendo eShop |
$19.99 |
Tomba! Special Edition FAQ
Is Tomba! Special Edition a remaster or a remake?
Tomba! Special Edition is a remaster of the original Tomba game released in 1997 in Japan (1998 for North America and PAL) for the PS1
Does Tomba! Special Edition have Tomba 2?
No, Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return isn’t part of the Special Edition release.
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Tomba! Special Edition Product Information
 |
|
| Title | TOMBA! SPECIAL EDITION |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 31, 2024 |
| Developer | Limited Run Games, Whoopee Camp |
| Publisher | Limited Run Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 |
| Genre | Adventure, Platformer |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | Everyone |
| Official Website | Tomba! Special Edition Website |
