Tomba! Special Edition Review (Switch)

There’s certainly been a run of classic games making their way on the Switch recently. The games tend to be eight or sixteen-bit games though, so to see a previous Playstation exclusive pop up is a surprise for a number of reasons. It’s certainly not an unpleasant one though as Tombi!, is fairly pricey to get hold of on the original hardware and a decent game to boot.

The first slightly confusing thing is that though the game is listed as Tombi! on the Switch home page, it actually displays the Tomba! name when you boot it up (which was the US name). It’s a little thing but slightly odd none the less. In terms of this being a ‘special edition’, this is basically the original game with the now standard, save states, rewind features and screen options we’ve come to expect from this kind of release. There’s a few other options such as galleries and a music player as well but for the most part this is the original Playstation game in the original aspect ratio for better or worse.

Tomba!, is very much an example of the side scrolling 32-bit platformer. It feels a bit clunky but it’s solid enough and has a fairly unique approach to the genre. Your character can jump on enemies and then use them as objects to hurl at other creatures. Most of these are the evil pigs that are trying to take other the area but there are a host of other animals to chuck around as well.  There are also instances where you character can run into and out of the screen to reach another area and carry on the level in the background. Along with the platforming there's some light adventure elements where you need to find objects or keys to progress or solve simple puzzles but most of the time it's about jumping on pigs.

In terms of how it looks it still holds a certain charm. There’s a sort of quirky ugliness to a lot of textures and graphics of the 32-bit era that you can’t help but warm to. If you are into your retro games then it won’t bother you, just don’t get expecting Mario Wonder. It’s also perfectly playable once you get used to it and you can begin to see why it holds such a cult following among Playstation fans.

Overall, it’s yet another instance of us being glad that a forgotten slice of gaming history has been brought back to a wider audience. There have been some reports of crashes, but we didn’t experience any during our play through. Tomba! Is a great example of a Playstation platformer that still works today (with a bit of patience). It’s also a cheap and accessible way of playing a much sought after title and long may it continue.

Overall 7/10

Aero the Acrobat Review (Switch)

There are so many Super Nintendo games out there that it’s inevitable that not everything would appear on the Online service. It’s proving to be a goldmine for retro developers, and we’ve previously looked at the Top Racer Collection from QUByte and recently enjoyed working our way through the Jurassic Park compilation brought about by Limited Run Games. Fresh from an Evercade release, Sunsofts Aero the Acrobat is the next to make its way to Switch (and will soon be followed by its sequel).

Fairly well received upon original release, Aero the Acrobat fell into the second tier of Super Nintendo platformers behind the Super Marios and Donkey Kongs. It also shifted decent enough numbers for a sequel and spinoff game. We can also age ourselves quite badly by telling you there’s an original copy of the game sitting on the shelf. Honestly though, this is the first time we’ve really put a significant amount of time into it and it’s certainly good fun.

The thing that will take players the most time to adjust to is how Aero controls. We are so used to either Sonic or Mario style implementations that anything else just feels slightly off. Aero is probably closer to the more slip, slidey Sonic approach but after a few levels it all came together. The

It’s important to note that Aero can’t defeat enemies by jumping on them as well. He needs to do a jump and spin attack or use one of the many pickups such as stars which can be thrown. Even then there are a fair few enemies that are immune to your attack and simply need avoiding. There’s lots of objects around the colourful levels to interact with such as unicycles and trampolines as well which fit with the overall circus theme.

Levels themselves are loosely mission based with criteria needing to be met before you can exit. These normally require the player to search out platforms to disperse or a certain number of hoops to jump through. Most of the time this is fine but if you miss one there’s a strict time limit so it can mean a restart if you are not careful. In all honesty, the levels would be fine without these restrictions.

In terms of additions for this re-release there isn’t much in terms of the core game. You get the rewind and save state upgrades most retro revivals now seem to have and a few screen and filter options. However, you also get a host of gallery extras including the original instruction manual and a host of design and production stills. It’s a decent collection of museum items and something that could have easily been overlooked. It shows that little bit of extra effort that has been out in and it’s much appreciated.

Overall, we are glad to see one of the better and often overlooked games from the sixteen-bit era make its way to a new audience. Aero is well worth playing and is more than a simple clone of a bigger franchise. It’s not as slick as the big boys but it remains inventive and fun throughout. Now, if someone could just get hold of Skyblazer and Shadowrun that would be great.

Overall 7/10

Sam and Max Save the World Review (Switch)

It seems like a lifetime ago that the wise cracking canine shamus in the suit and the hyper kinetic, ultra-violent rabbit first made an impact on the gaming world. Luckily for us, after the proposed sequel was cancelled, Sam and Max found another way to reach their audience. It started as episodic seasons, of which Save the World was the first. You get Six episodes in total, and while they aren’t perfect, they certainly do enough to bring a smile to the faces of fans of the dangerous duo.

Sam and Max, as we all should know by now, are Freelance police who undertake missions given out by the commissioner. Sam is the thoughtful one, often pointing out the lunacy of what is happening around him, while Max is borderline insane and always looking for things to shoot, break or eat. The duo is joined in their adventures by Jimmy the rat- a low level fence who lives in their office, Bosco the shop owner and Sybil the woman of ever changing career.

The game controls have moved from the PC (and Wii) versions and now players directy control Sam. As he wanders around, things of interest highlight and can then be interacted with. This is still very much a point and click adventure with the character models and objects now in 3D.

It's somewhat of a relief to find that the writing and voice work retains much of its excellent quality. The humour and style that the original game was well known for is upheld admirably here. Some of the lines that our two heroes come out with are absolute genius and will have you laughing away on many occasions. The six episodes all have their own theme and range from average to excellent in terms of humour and general madness. Abe Lincoln must die stands out as a brilliant piece of social satire while Reality 2.0 might strike a little too close to home for many players.

As these episodes where released as episodic content on the PC and are self-contained three hour adventures there is a certain amount of repetition in location. Most episodes require you to visit Sam and Max's room, Bosco's Inconvenience store and Sybil's office. You will then typically have one or two other locations to explore relating to the episode you are playing. This isn't ideal and certainly not on a par with the original games layout but certainly shouldn't put you off.

On the whole, the puzzles are a mix of the logical and lateral thinking variety. Quite often you will have to be in the mindset of the game world to work out how to solve a certain situation. This works fine as most gamers will soon get the drift of how they should be thinking. There is a couple of instances where solutions are quite obscure though, our advice is simply to make sure you look everywhere and try everything. Even so, it's likely that players will stumble a few times and find themselves frustrated just that little bit too often.

Overall, We are really happy to see Sam and Max make it onto the Switch as this, and the games that followed it show enough of the greatness of the original. We can only hope that when the final of the three seasons has been released on the Switch we might get some news about further adventures.

Overall 7/10

Volgarr The Viking II Review (Switch)

The original Volgarr was a bit of a cult hit on steam a few years back. In an emerging era of hardcore, retro styled, titles it managed to forge a path with its chunky, Rastan style, graphics and its heavy Conan the Barbarian influence it certainly caught the eye. Many players though struggled with the unrelenting difficulty. Don’t go expecting anything less than crushing toughness though, as the sequel forges the same unapologetically punishing path as its predecessor.

There’s little in the way of technical changes here. Volgarr has pretty much the same move set and attacks as before. You can attack with your sword, jump, roll and throw spears which can be used to stick in walls to create makeshift platforms. A sort of double jump can also be done which also swings your sword around, creating a sort of circle of death as well. Taking a single hit kills you but you can also pick up rare pieces of armour which gives you the ability to take more damage.

The game is tough, and you’ll die often, but when you die a certain amount you’ll enter dead mode which effectively makes you invincible, aside from deaths via pits. We found this to be an odd design choice. The game is very tough but effectively forcing an invincibility option onto players doesn’t gel very well. Once we had died enough to activate this, we found our interest in the game soon started to drift away and it became a real slog. We could have started the game again of course but it’s very frustrating that you don’t get this as an option that you can ignore if you so wish.

Admittedly, we didn’t make it to the end even with the invincibility option, but we found the level design and bosses to be somewhat weaker than the previous game. The first Volgarr was tough but has a certain logic to it. The sequel just seems unnecessarily frustrating and annoying in places. As a result, we found we really weren’t having fun a lot of the time and the levels soon became a slog.

With a game this difficult its vital the controls work well and in this respect Volgarr is excellent. Controls are responsive and each of the barbarians moves have a purpose and are easy to execute. It’s vital for players to get used to the distances and animation cycles of all the different moves as using the wrong one at the wrong time will almost always leave you open to attack and normally death. This is especially important on ropes as getting knocked off will almost always end in falling into a death pit.

A less drastic concession to the difficulty is that the levels now have check points. Each of the stages are sizable and it’ll take you between twenty minutes and half an hour to get through most of them. The original game made you do this in one go so at least here it’s not as severe. That said, if you lose all your lives, it’s back to the start of the stage you can expect to be seeing the start of some of these stages multiple times.

Overall, Volgarr the Viking II offers up more of the same and those who have beaten the original (there must be someone out there), will no doubt be keen to take on the challenge. For us, this sequel doesn’t quite have the magic of the first game though. It moves from ‘challenging’ into ‘frustrating’ far too often with too many niggly parts of level that you’ll end up having to go through multiple times. As a result, it’s difficult to really get a rhythm going. The almost invincible mode is also not wanted, we would at least like to see it become optional on the continue screen as it took much of the joy of progression away.

Overall 6/10