Game #1354: Tomba! 2 - The Evil Swine Return Special Edition

 Suddenly, I'm craving some smoked ham...

 After playing so many modern day letdowns, why not go back to the classics with Tomba! 2 The Evil Swine Return Special Edition for the Switch! I finished this game eons ago, I'm pretty sure I covered it on the blog, which I brought with me from Miami. And at the time the game was incredibly expensive, so I'm glad it's been made easily available for everyone, because it's worth it!

 I started the game yesterday and I pretty much 95%ed it today because it was so addictive. The game is every bit as great as it used to be, it's sort of an Adventure game with Metroidvania-like elements in which you slowly amass more and more power ups with in turn lets you finish more and more sidequests. The game is as much fun as it used to be. 

That said, it does have a few issues. Firstly, controls are very slippery, sometimes getting on top of certain platforms is a bit of a pain because Tomba slides right off! Secondly, some of the sidequests CANNOT be finished without a guide. Literally, the three Towers, which are optional content, offer no clue whatsoever of where their HIDDEN doors are. You need a guide, full stop. Same goes for a scant few others, like the miner's ring quest. That's kinda bullshit. It's a lovely game anyways, but if you mean to finish everything you WILL need a guide.

 As for this version, besides the mandatory art gallery, you also get the ability to play the entire game with the relatively different Japanese Soundtrack as well as the very useful Rewind feature, which is a blessing. This is not a hard game, but it simplifies things, such as maybe avoiding status effects you accidentally contracted.

 Overall? Games like these show how much more fun games used to be sometimes. Pure gameplay goodness.

9.5