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Tomba 2
"A family friendly title that can be enjoyed by novice and experienced gamers alike."
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Developer  Whoopee Camp Game Type  Platform
Distributor  Sony Review Date  Mar 00
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Playability:
 
      Tomba 2 uses various formats in their game. Most of the game relies on the tried and true classic platform gaming albeit in a quasi-2 1/2D environment. It uses common elements of dashing and jumping with the use of various weapons in multiple directions. Enemies can be startled with the weapon of your choice and can be jumped on and thrown to eliminate them. Arrows appear when you have a choice to be made. If someone is able to talk to you, the up or down arrow used with a button can initiate speech. Reading signs and saving you game is also done in a similar manner. The action sometime takes place on different planes, so the arrows may pop up again showing you that you can go into the background or foreground. This was sometimes confusing and took a little getting use too. But it added to the overall depth of game play. After a short learning curve I was able to execute efficiently, but some areas did get a little confusing.

Some locations also let you have free reign of your character's movements. When in the miner's town you are able to walk in any direction you want. But the changing camera angles made it a little frustrating at times. At one moment you're running left and now you have to push to the upper right corner to go in the same direction.

Other missions give you the "into the screen" view which I found to be similar to most first person racing games. The action was fast paced and your responsibilities included turning, braking, and speeding up.

As you can see, there are a lot of different gameplay styles thrown together here. Interesting enough, Tomba also has to dress and arm himself appropriately to meet the various situations. Switching weapons and outfits were easy enough and this helped when put in difficult situations (as was often the case).

Tomba 2 allows you to make your adventure as complicated or simple as you want. Along the journey Tomba meets various people in need of help. You have the option of ignoring these people and continuing on your mission or solving their dilemmas. This happens a lot and any time a possible side mission is available it will be recorded in your events diary. This system color coated completed missions in gray and incomplete missions in pink (the developers sure liked the color pink). This made for easy review of any additional adventures you want to take. In the end if you help someone they give you a valuable piece of information or item to aid you in your journey.

I found the gameplay enjoyable and appreciated the creative ways they put Tomba in different situations. The overall mix of game playing elements are melded quite expertly and actually enhanced the overall game playing experience. Some of the missions were difficult and at times you had to be very creative in solving the puzzles but there was never anything overly taxing that would have me throwing my controller in a fit of rage. Everything was done from an enjoyment perspective and isn't that what good gaming is really all about…
 
Game Options:
 
      This is a 1 disk game for 1 Player. It is compatible with the standard (digital) joypad and the analog stick controls of the dual shock joypad. Games can be saved via memory card (1 block per save).
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Staff Opinions
Rich  "The overall gameplay was enjoyable and entertaining. Tomba 2 came with enough twists and turns to keep your wits about you but kept an overriding whimsical and comical atmosphere to it.

This game is a family friendly title that can be enjoyed by novice and experienced gamers alike."
Graphics  16/20
Playability  45/50
Sound  8/10
Lastability  16/20
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