Tomba! Special Edition – Review (PC)

Tomba is one of those games that I remember fondly from my childhood. I rented a copy from Blockbuster and had played the demo a number of times as a kid, back in the day. Although it was known as Tombi here in Europe.

It was one of the games that I never fully completed as a kid and prices of the game as I grew older stopped me from having much interest in picking it up or playing it. Especially since my backlog kept growing each year.

So I was glad to hear that Limited Run Games were bringing it to modern consoles with a few slight improvements as a result of their own emulation wrapper.

This means the game itself, beyond a few QOL enhancements, is the same game you’d get if you went out and acquired a copy except the price is far more appealing.

These QOL features are fairly standard from LRG. The game takes regular snapshots as you play which allows you to effectively rewind time. This is great if you’re trying to do a difficult jump or trick and keep missing it. You can also save anywhere in the game which allows you to put the game down without needing to hunt for a save point.

You have a few options for resolution, including 16:9, 4:3 and full screen options for both. A CRT filter is available but as per most CRT filters, never really replicated the original feel of them.

Included is a new soundtrack with enhanced tracks from Harumi Fujita, who worked on the original release. Which can be selected alongside the original in the main menu.

Another thing I really like is that before the game loads, you have a quick manual page that shows how to play. Reminding you of the buttons and actions available in the game itself.

Performance of the game is generally okay although I noticed some slowdowns during my playthrough most noticeably with audio (some of the Steam reviews mention this as well). There didn’t seem to be a specific area these would happen in, and I honestly didn’t think there would be much of a load for what is an emulated game.

Since the game hasn’t changed from the original. The story and gameplay haven’t changed as well.
You still play as Tombi/a who is out to recover his grandfathers stolen golden bracelet. Stolen by a group of evil pigs, Tombi/a sets out on what turns out to be quite an adventure, meeting new friends as he travels the world helping people out and defeating the pigs along the way.

The game has a lot going on to keep you occupied, with “events” happening as you interact with people and things. These normally result in Tombi/a being given a task or needing to find an item to complete the event to progress.

You’re never really given a lot of information about these events which can lead to a lot of head scratching or guide searching to find out what and where you need to go. It is rewarding to figure it out and complete them though and there are a lot of them to complete as well. 130 to be exact and you will be pushed to complete them all your first playthrough, especially getting the gold medal in the racing minigame.

The controls feel pretty nice although Tombi/a does feel a little slippery from what I remember which led me to using the rewind feature a little bit more than I expected as some jumps and movements felt a little imprecise.

The game also exclusively uses Xbox legends as well for the input which although a minor gripe was just annoying. Games really should be switching the legends automatically for the picked up controller.

Final Thoughts

Overall though, Tomba! Special Edition retains all the charm and characteristics that made the original game such a fun romp. The addition of the QOL features makes the game more accessible and certainly helps with completing some of the more tricky elements.

I played for just under 14 hours realtime and 8 hours IGT and cleared all but one achievement, which is just a health point upgrade somewhere that I missed which I will go back and get at some point.

If this is your first time and you want to get everything I do advise using a guide to help you along the way.

It’s a shame that it wasn’t a collection of both Tomba games though. Since the second is one I haven’t played or touched at all and seems like it would’ve been a perfect pair to throw together and release at the same time.

Thanks to LimitedRunGames an Keymailer.co for giving me a key to review the game. You can pick Tomba! Special Edition up for around £16 which is a fair price in my opinion for the game. Links below!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2851150/Tomba_Special_Edition/