System: Sony PlayStation
Release date: 1997

Tomba! on the PlayStation is one of the most charming, inventive and criminally overlooked games the platform ever produced – and the fact that original copies now sell for hundreds of pounds proves that the people who found it knew exactly what they had.

This Tomba! title is a side-scrolling action-adventure with a quest system, inventory management, and an interconnected world that opens up as you progress – dressed up in a colourful, madcap package about a feral pink-haired boy on a mission to retrieve his grandfather’s stolen gold bracelet from a gang of evil pigs. It sounds ridiculous. It plays brilliantly. In 2025, does this PS1 cult classic still deliver the goods, or has time finally caught up with this wild child?

Gameplay: Jump, Grab, Complete the Quest, Find Another Quest

Tomba! sends its feral protagonist through a series of interconnected 2D environments collecting quests from characters he meets, solving puzzles, finding items, and gradually unlocking new areas as his capabilities and inventory expand. It’s a Metroidvania before that term was widely used – progress is gated by knowledge and items rather than raw ability, and backtracking through familiar areas with new tools reveals solutions to quests that seemed impenetrable earlier.

Tomba himself is a wonderfully physical character. His primary combat method is grabbing enemies from above or behind, which can then be thrown into obstacles, used to solve puzzles, or simply flung off a cliff. It’s deeply satisfying and gives encounters a tactile quality that straightforward attacks wouldn’t achieve. Over 100 quests are distributed across the world – some story-critical, many optional, all worth doing – and the structure rewards curious, thorough players over those who want a straight line to the credits.

The world design is inspired. From the Mushroom Forest and Haunted Mansion through to the elemental pig bags that corrupt each area and must be defeated to restore it, every zone has its own mechanical and visual identity while connecting seamlessly to everything around it.

The Evil Pig Bag? Tomba! doesn’t explain itself nearly as well as it should. The quest system tracks objectives but provides minimal guidance on where to find solutions, and several puzzles require either experimentation, patience, or knowledge the game hasn’t directly shared with you. Players expecting a conventional platformer will be disoriented by the quest-driven structure, and the lack of direction can tip from satisfyingly mysterious to genuinely frustrating when a quest that seemed simple turns out to require an item from a location you visited three hours ago and didn’t know to search properly. The original release was produced in relatively small numbers, meaning physical copies are now seriously expensive – though legal digital options exist.

Graphics: Colourful, Chaotic, and Full of Life

The visual design is one of Tomba!’s greatest strengths – a bright, densely detailed cartoon world that makes every screen feel like somewhere worth exploring. Character designs are wonderfully eccentric – Tomba’s pink hair and wild-child energy, the villagers with their outsized personalities, the Evil Pigs themselves with their distinct and memorable designs.

Each zone has its own colour palette and visual identity, the sprite work is detailed and expressive, and the animations give Tomba genuine physical personality – the way he grabs, throws, climbs and reacts to the world around him communicates character constantly. It holds up beautifully as a piece of 2D art direction.

Sound: Upbeat, Quirky, and Quietly Memorable

The soundtrack matches the game’s cheerful eccentricity throughout – upbeat, slightly quirky compositions that give each area its own musical personality without ever settling into generic background noise. The Haunted Mansion theme carries genuine atmosphere, the livelier outdoor areas bounce along pleasingly, and the boss themes arrive with appropriate energy.

Sound effects are crisp and characterful – Tomba’s grabs and throws have satisfying audio feedback, enemy reactions land cleanly, and the various quirky characters the game populates its world with have enough audio personality to feel genuinely alive. A well-judged audio package that serves the game’s tone completely.

Replayability: A World Worth Revisiting

The quest structure and interconnected world give Tomba! genuine replay depth. A first playthrough will almost certainly miss quests, items and secrets that only become apparent in retrospect, and returning with full knowledge of how the world connects opens up a significantly more efficient and complete experience.

Speed running the quest completion in a focused second run is satisfying in its own right, and the world is rich enough that exploration rarely feels like retreading familiar ground. Not a game that demands constant return, but one that rewards the players who go back with something genuinely worthwhile to find.

The Retro Looney Verdict

Tomba! is one of the PlayStation’s genuine masterpieces – a game that invented its own genre before anyone had a name for it, wrapped in a visual and tonal identity so distinctive that nothing else on the platform looks or plays quite like it. The quest system, the interconnected world, the physical combat, the sheer density of things to find and do – it all holds together with a confidence that belies how unusual the whole proposition actually is.

The lack of guidance will test patience and the quest structure demands engagement rather than passive play. Neither of those things is a flaw so much as a feature that doesn’t suit every player. For those who connect with what Tomba! is doing, it’s an unforgettable experience that absolutely earns its cult status and its eye-watering resale value. Track it down, grab a pig, and start collecting quests.

Don’t forget to check out my other PlayStation Reviews!