Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return (PS1, 1999)
Graphics-8 Sound-7.5 Control-6.5 Challenge-6.5 Story-5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7 Fun-6.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
+
Platform Adventure/MV elements (some ability gating (bird clothes - temporary glide jump, squirrel clothes - glide jump/temporary flight if you mash the button+avoid freezing into an ice block while still in the kujara ranch area+climb ice pole at kujara ranch, swimming pig suit - swimming, mini form to get into mouse houses and the mini temple, grapple hook which lets you swing around and climb platforms and objects from below+attack returns, taboo tomba status effect - jump higher, hammer - knock down pegs and activate some machinery, fire hammer - break ice blocks, upgraded fire hammer - break stone blocks, ), three movement speed upgrades (pants, "taboo" status effect) and several life bar upgrades (22 HP halves/pots of life in total and one full pot of life), two elemental shield items, some backtracking to progress and for optional quests and items, some towns, inventory restorative items and quest/puzzle items, the game sometimes blurs the line between town and hostile area, some breakable blocks)
Consumable teleporter items return and are gained early on (magic wings - can teleport between visited areas and save points within them, common item) and later on you unlock fast travel to the forest and mining town via the bell items as well as to any area via the underground mines (however this area is a maze) and with Baron the flying dog if you save him
Can speed up dialogue text (not the quest given/quest completed text though)
Voice acting (so-so to decent)
The game is more forgiving about falling into water (lose 1 HP and respawn on the previous safe platform) - actually too forgiving once you get the mermaid scale (which you can get very early though it is optional) as you then don't take any damage at all!
More weapons (10 in total though some are upgraded versions of previous ones, can grab some items with the boomerangs; switch with L1/R1)
Can quickly reload a save from anywhere via the pause menu
Pretty nice in-game art direction+overall animation and detail
Unlockable "cartoon finale" alternate ending (100% it) and 4 unlockable events/quests (have a save file from the first Tomba game on your Memory Card - at the Grapplejack point or later you'll unlock four extra events which will give a lot of AP each)
Can examine inventory items (square) here too though again it's not always that useful
Basic cooking (dry found fish in the sun in the first area, bake/fry food in an oven/burning machine, boil potatoes in the mines, collect ingredients and give them to the chief in coal-mining town to have him make sandwiches for you; ingredients respawn when re-entering areas they're in)
Shows enemy health bars but only when grabbing them
46 unique NPCs
Some decent puzzles (some spatial awareness puzzles, rolling snowball puzzle, basic physics puzzle in the circus village, holy water puzzle)
Use enemies and some objects as temporary platforms
Charge attacks return
No missable events
Highly interactive world overall
Can escape from boss battles w/ teleporter items
New music and sometimes new quests in restored areas, there's now a benevolent tribe of pigs besides the evil ones (adds a bit of nuance to the setting)
5 mini-games (detective/spot the liar - basically a quiz, catch the falling clown - meh (tank controls), TP view food collecting while riding a mouse - decent, throw kujara birds into moving+opening and closing holes - decent but overly drawn out and the hit detection could've been more forgiving, TP view minecart/trolley race against the clock - fun but memorization-based and either hard or very hard if you're going for 100%)
Minor sequence breaking possibilities (can get a 1/2 HP upgrade before getting the grapple in the mines, more?)
Fast climbing
+/-
Collectathon element (cogs quest and various other fetch quests; optional: have to collect AP (adventure points) by collecting gems, finishing quests and finding optional quests to open some chests, 6 spell parts for the 3 towers containing weapons, 5 adventurer's chests to get into the golden tower for the golden powder item, seeds for finding hidden doors to the towers however you can look them up instead, 30 ice candy for pig ball weapon, 20 fireflies for song of wisdom, etc)
3D graphics but mostly 2.5D gameplay (in most levels/areas you are locked onto a few paths running through the level and crossing each other at a 90 degree angle meaning everything else is locked behind invisible walls, TD/bird's eye view and free movement in towns without enemies in them, circular boss arenas)
Mostly linear structure (can fight the mines area boss/ghost pig before going to area 5/circus village and fight the first 5 pigs in any order if you can find their doors and have the pig bags+the swimming suit (the location restored from beating one is shown after beating a pig), partially non-linear areas/levels (branching paths and various optional quests and items), 3 optional tower challenge levels (need to have done tower of strength to fully finish tower of wisdom, need mini form to finish tower of courage), have to do various things in a set order in the second area, trolley/minecart ride clues can be picked up before or after area 3 and finishing this+the washing machine mini-game+the mouse mini-game is optional, the world structure is also a bit more basic - basically a line from one area to the next with each one connecting to 1-2 others besides the underground mines hub maze (unlocked after beating the flame pig boss) which connects to each area via the black doors)
Frequent save points (multiple slots, shows time taken and current location+AP+events cleared, can restore your HP and reset platforms by reloading a save)
No lives system here and area progress is kept if you die and pick continue (you respawn where you entered the area)
Silent protagonist and uninteractive dialogue
Your flying buddy sometimes helps describe quests/events however you can't review this info
Many fetch quests and key/quest items
The pre-rendered cutscenes look worse than in the prequel (kind of dated 3D compared to handdrawn art)
Overpowered temporary invincibility power up (golden powder item) however it takes a lot of work to get it
No control over the direction that you throw humped enemies in to take them out+can't jump while grabbing one without also throwing it
The magic pig robes basically just let you one shot enemies with spell attacks and there's no skill involved
Lava kills in one hit unless you were holding onto a chain (then it takes 1 HP and sends you flying upwards) - weird when falling into water is so forgiving but since progress isn't lost it doesn't matter that much
Placed HP items (these respawn after dying but not from exiting and re-entering an area, no health drops from enemies but you can find and carry HP restoring items and enemies are pretty easy throughout)
Can't move freely within houses in levels nor examine background objects in them - can do it while in towns
Can't access the inventory menu while climbing or in mid-air
Can't jump while in a town (used for some puzzles though)
One healing spring
Basic spatial awareness and inventory item puzzles overall
Some smaller objects are 2D sprites (clashes a bit with the rest)
NPCs tend not to introduce themselves before asking for favors or telling you hints
Jump attacks make you move a bit faster
Charles the monkey is more of a bumbling fool here rather than the trickster he was in the prequel
Can keep farming mud balls in the mines for gems and consumables
The hammer works like in Zelda 3
Repeats the world restoration theme (some areas barely change when restored though - the ranch area changes the most as you no longer freeze and snowballs+ice block obstacles disappear)
Unlimited inventory?
Can't place a bucket under the holy water tap
No underwater swimming - can only reach a bit lower by jumping into the water
No double jump (wind power) here
Kill enemies to fill up your MP bar (would encourage aggressive play but the spells are optional besides using them as a key before the finale and never really needed for combat, can also drink found potions to refill it)
Unlimited "remove invisibility" fruit is found in the area where you're turned invisible by enemies but the normal fruit (remove laughter/crying) is found in the late game and there's no "turn invisible" fruit (then again this status is barely used for anything)
-
No area maps or even a world map (see the first game) except for in towns for some reason (no indication that you've cleared an area of its items either, the forest and water temple areas are more maze-like and so is the underground area below the mines which connects to each other area, hard to keep track of certain door and chest locations)
Some control/interface issues (no camera control and the game doesn't really pick the best angles+the view is often too zoomed in and you can't look around besides to the sides while climbing trees or poles - plenty of times when moving into a crossroads the camera is placed more behind the player making it seems like pressing up=forward when really you're supposed to press left/right, unintuitive path switching - have to follow the arrows rather than press the direction that seems natural when moving between paths and switching also feels stiff (positioning requirements are too specific when trying to interact with paths and NPCs and you can't be in mid-air while switching paths, sometimes you also press vertically to switch to a path but then immediately have to press horizontally to keep walking down it (seesaws in area 1 for example) - weird!; sometimes the game just changes the angle for you as you move into corners instead), partial control config with two face button settings only - can't map dash or attack to a shoulder button for example (a bit awkward to also have to use the dash button (square) to crouch for a crouching attack with circle and you can't just press down to crouch while still), can't attack downwards or diagonally downwards, can't move while charging your default attack - can jump at least, slower acceleration and jumps than in the prequel, pretty high default jump height (this+the longer air-time makes some platforming kinda clunky since you also can't press up to climb a cylindrical object you're grabbing onto (can do it with regular ledges)), sometimes distracting event HUD, can't examine quests/events to get more info about them, have to go into the item menu to use an item on something or give it to someone - pink ones are used automatically though, x is used to confirm in the save menus but not elsewhere, skippable FMV cutscenes but not in-game cutscenes of which there are many more (can't skip on a per sentence or scene basis during these either), can't cancel gliding during a glide jump and it triggers automatically at a specific point in the jump, hit detection is still weird when jumping onto poles from above, no house signs in towns - sometimes a message is shown when entering a house though, need to stand in exactly the right spot at the washing machine or you can't wash the clumps of mud in it, can't access the inventory while facing an NPC or flower on the z-plane, can't stop hovering after jumping in the squirrel suit - only fall slightly faster while hovering, quest log doesn't tell you any info about a quest - only the title of it, overly floaty jumps while wearing the swimming pig suit, )
Some tedious aspects (backtracking for the cogs after reaching the water temple - also have to remember where you've used them previously, pointless path from the circus village to the beginning of the forest via an "invisible state lock" door, too many fetch quests and bland NPC dialogue, touching the floor spikes in one of the forest rooms sends you flying all the way back to the beginning of that segment, various spatial awareness/path finding puzzles feel pretty artificial in that you can get really close to something you need to interact with but then not turn towards it seemingly for no good reason - burning chain in pipe/lava area for example, revving up the spinning poles and winches is too slow, can only bake/fry/boil one piece of food at a time and can only have the chef make one sandwich at a time, some out of the way chests aren't really worth getting to - blue chest before the path to the circus village for example (seesaw switch puzzle), limited draw distance on chests - fairly easy to miss some of them, leading the paeon/flying elephant towards the well)
Some trial & error (the game doesn't tell you about the black locked doors opening after defeating the flame pig, tower of courage location, finding the last piece of the harp in the water temple (in a corner in the water tank room), minecart mini-game (unforgiving hit detection on the seed items/clues you can grab, also a difficulty spike though you can grab some seeds and replay instead of grabbing all of them in one go and get to keep them even if the cement hardens), flipping all the barrels in the first area to a matching color pattern to drain the water at the windmill bridge - no clue?, getting the mud with clay in it? - appears in a spot you've checked previously, one shot at grabbing the rare shrimp in the forest unless you reload (optional but useful), door maze in tower of courage (optional), flower seed quest (optional))
Invisible walls at the end of paths and sometimes in the middle of them make the world feel less immersive
Some redundant items (Mermaid Bucket, Cold Powder, Hot Powder; none of them are needed by the time you get them)
Some of the backtracking isn't that interesting (chests that you could reach the first time you found them but not open due to not having the right key, no new enemies appear in previously visited areas - just the boss and tower doors+some new NPCs and quests in some areas, for the cogs after reaching the water temple)
Some VA re-takes are left in (lol)
Repeats the same repetitive music for nearly every dialogue scene (there are two dialogue themes in total - more variety or keeping the level theme going for most of them would've been better)
30 FPS (prequel ran at 60 FPS)
Restoring an area doesn't remove or change any enemies or hazards within it
Very easy giant ice pigs in the snow area/ranch and easy mini-boss in the forest
Pretty easy and similar main bosses overall (earth pig is decent if he survives until he splits up, flame pig is also decent)
Easy final boss (would've been more interesting if you had to use some of the weapons to stun him and/or switch between suits or use the grapple to reach him)
Some NPCs act like pieces of a walkthrough
The songs that open the doors to the three towers are used automatically (there could've been a rhythm element to it)
The one-way path between the water temple and the beach through the waterfall can't be used as a shortcut
Lower framerate in parts of the water temple
Short and easy tower of strength area
Most of the clues to the pig door locations aren't that good
Boring "destroy the evil pig statues" quest before the final boss (the atmosphere is cool - they just failed to make the quest itself interesting)
The puzzles don't really become more complex as you progress
Comment:
Tomba 2 (PS1). I've mixed feelings about this game as it makes a nice first impression with very good 3D visuals for the PS1, retaining the same charming aesthetic of the first one to the extent possible at the time, and the platform adventure-style gameplay is a lot like before which is generally a good thing.
However they expanded a bit on the 2.5D thing here with multiple paths through areas crossing each other at a 90 degree angle, and problems immediately arise related to this: there's zero manual camera control, the view is too zoomed in to get a good overview of areas (there're also no area maps, not even a vague world map for them here), it doesn't pick the best angles when moving around and you generally feel like it should've just been a fully 3D experience or continued like in the prequel as you run into invisible walls everywhere. Switching between paths is really stiff as well, forcing you to stop and stand still, press the other cardinal direction, and then sometimes switch back to the previous direction as the game decides to change the camera angle again. Yep, it's really strange.
On the plus side the controls feel pretty much the same if a bit slower when not running (good besides certain finer motions required during some platforming which are as clunky as before), and the game is more forgiving as it ditches the lives system and keeps progress when dying, spawning you at the last save point used - something that works better for an exploration-based game. Level gimmicks are fun and their structure test your spatial awareness at times. When in towns, oddly enough the game switches to a different engine where movement is actually free, the perspective is in bird's eye view and there are even maps, however you can't jump or attack.
There are again tons of quests, many of them not that interesting or useful to complete, but I did see it through to the end. Besides a few parts here and there, and some things lacking proper clues, the game was easy and the finale wasn't really harder than the first couple of areas. Wish it was remade with some control tweaks, some quests remade and more of a proper difficulty curve.
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7 Fun-6.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
+
Platform Adventure/MV elements (some ability gating (bird clothes - temporary glide jump, squirrel clothes - glide jump/temporary flight if you mash the button+avoid freezing into an ice block while still in the kujara ranch area+climb ice pole at kujara ranch, swimming pig suit - swimming, mini form to get into mouse houses and the mini temple, grapple hook which lets you swing around and climb platforms and objects from below+attack returns, taboo tomba status effect - jump higher, hammer - knock down pegs and activate some machinery, fire hammer - break ice blocks, upgraded fire hammer - break stone blocks, ), three movement speed upgrades (pants, "taboo" status effect) and several life bar upgrades (22 HP halves/pots of life in total and one full pot of life), two elemental shield items, some backtracking to progress and for optional quests and items, some towns, inventory restorative items and quest/puzzle items, the game sometimes blurs the line between town and hostile area, some breakable blocks)
Consumable teleporter items return and are gained early on (magic wings - can teleport between visited areas and save points within them, common item) and later on you unlock fast travel to the forest and mining town via the bell items as well as to any area via the underground mines (however this area is a maze) and with Baron the flying dog if you save him
Can speed up dialogue text (not the quest given/quest completed text though)
Voice acting (so-so to decent)
The game is more forgiving about falling into water (lose 1 HP and respawn on the previous safe platform) - actually too forgiving once you get the mermaid scale (which you can get very early though it is optional) as you then don't take any damage at all!
More weapons (10 in total though some are upgraded versions of previous ones, can grab some items with the boomerangs; switch with L1/R1)
Can quickly reload a save from anywhere via the pause menu
Pretty nice in-game art direction+overall animation and detail
Unlockable "cartoon finale" alternate ending (100% it) and 4 unlockable events/quests (have a save file from the first Tomba game on your Memory Card - at the Grapplejack point or later you'll unlock four extra events which will give a lot of AP each)
Can examine inventory items (square) here too though again it's not always that useful
Basic cooking (dry found fish in the sun in the first area, bake/fry food in an oven/burning machine, boil potatoes in the mines, collect ingredients and give them to the chief in coal-mining town to have him make sandwiches for you; ingredients respawn when re-entering areas they're in)
Shows enemy health bars but only when grabbing them
46 unique NPCs
Some decent puzzles (some spatial awareness puzzles, rolling snowball puzzle, basic physics puzzle in the circus village, holy water puzzle)
Use enemies and some objects as temporary platforms
Charge attacks return
No missable events
Highly interactive world overall
Can escape from boss battles w/ teleporter items
New music and sometimes new quests in restored areas, there's now a benevolent tribe of pigs besides the evil ones (adds a bit of nuance to the setting)
5 mini-games (detective/spot the liar - basically a quiz, catch the falling clown - meh (tank controls), TP view food collecting while riding a mouse - decent, throw kujara birds into moving+opening and closing holes - decent but overly drawn out and the hit detection could've been more forgiving, TP view minecart/trolley race against the clock - fun but memorization-based and either hard or very hard if you're going for 100%)
Minor sequence breaking possibilities (can get a 1/2 HP upgrade before getting the grapple in the mines, more?)
Fast climbing
+/-
Collectathon element (cogs quest and various other fetch quests; optional: have to collect AP (adventure points) by collecting gems, finishing quests and finding optional quests to open some chests, 6 spell parts for the 3 towers containing weapons, 5 adventurer's chests to get into the golden tower for the golden powder item, seeds for finding hidden doors to the towers however you can look them up instead, 30 ice candy for pig ball weapon, 20 fireflies for song of wisdom, etc)
3D graphics but mostly 2.5D gameplay (in most levels/areas you are locked onto a few paths running through the level and crossing each other at a 90 degree angle meaning everything else is locked behind invisible walls, TD/bird's eye view and free movement in towns without enemies in them, circular boss arenas)
Mostly linear structure (can fight the mines area boss/ghost pig before going to area 5/circus village and fight the first 5 pigs in any order if you can find their doors and have the pig bags+the swimming suit (the location restored from beating one is shown after beating a pig), partially non-linear areas/levels (branching paths and various optional quests and items), 3 optional tower challenge levels (need to have done tower of strength to fully finish tower of wisdom, need mini form to finish tower of courage), have to do various things in a set order in the second area, trolley/minecart ride clues can be picked up before or after area 3 and finishing this+the washing machine mini-game+the mouse mini-game is optional, the world structure is also a bit more basic - basically a line from one area to the next with each one connecting to 1-2 others besides the underground mines hub maze (unlocked after beating the flame pig boss) which connects to each area via the black doors)
Frequent save points (multiple slots, shows time taken and current location+AP+events cleared, can restore your HP and reset platforms by reloading a save)
No lives system here and area progress is kept if you die and pick continue (you respawn where you entered the area)
Silent protagonist and uninteractive dialogue
Your flying buddy sometimes helps describe quests/events however you can't review this info
Many fetch quests and key/quest items
The pre-rendered cutscenes look worse than in the prequel (kind of dated 3D compared to handdrawn art)
Overpowered temporary invincibility power up (golden powder item) however it takes a lot of work to get it
No control over the direction that you throw humped enemies in to take them out+can't jump while grabbing one without also throwing it
The magic pig robes basically just let you one shot enemies with spell attacks and there's no skill involved
Lava kills in one hit unless you were holding onto a chain (then it takes 1 HP and sends you flying upwards) - weird when falling into water is so forgiving but since progress isn't lost it doesn't matter that much
Placed HP items (these respawn after dying but not from exiting and re-entering an area, no health drops from enemies but you can find and carry HP restoring items and enemies are pretty easy throughout)
Can't move freely within houses in levels nor examine background objects in them - can do it while in towns
Can't access the inventory menu while climbing or in mid-air
Can't jump while in a town (used for some puzzles though)
One healing spring
Basic spatial awareness and inventory item puzzles overall
Some smaller objects are 2D sprites (clashes a bit with the rest)
NPCs tend not to introduce themselves before asking for favors or telling you hints
Jump attacks make you move a bit faster
Charles the monkey is more of a bumbling fool here rather than the trickster he was in the prequel
Can keep farming mud balls in the mines for gems and consumables
The hammer works like in Zelda 3
Repeats the world restoration theme (some areas barely change when restored though - the ranch area changes the most as you no longer freeze and snowballs+ice block obstacles disappear)
Unlimited inventory?
Can't place a bucket under the holy water tap
No underwater swimming - can only reach a bit lower by jumping into the water
No double jump (wind power) here
Kill enemies to fill up your MP bar (would encourage aggressive play but the spells are optional besides using them as a key before the finale and never really needed for combat, can also drink found potions to refill it)
Unlimited "remove invisibility" fruit is found in the area where you're turned invisible by enemies but the normal fruit (remove laughter/crying) is found in the late game and there's no "turn invisible" fruit (then again this status is barely used for anything)
-
No area maps or even a world map (see the first game) except for in towns for some reason (no indication that you've cleared an area of its items either, the forest and water temple areas are more maze-like and so is the underground area below the mines which connects to each other area, hard to keep track of certain door and chest locations)
Some control/interface issues (no camera control and the game doesn't really pick the best angles+the view is often too zoomed in and you can't look around besides to the sides while climbing trees or poles - plenty of times when moving into a crossroads the camera is placed more behind the player making it seems like pressing up=forward when really you're supposed to press left/right, unintuitive path switching - have to follow the arrows rather than press the direction that seems natural when moving between paths and switching also feels stiff (positioning requirements are too specific when trying to interact with paths and NPCs and you can't be in mid-air while switching paths, sometimes you also press vertically to switch to a path but then immediately have to press horizontally to keep walking down it (seesaws in area 1 for example) - weird!; sometimes the game just changes the angle for you as you move into corners instead), partial control config with two face button settings only - can't map dash or attack to a shoulder button for example (a bit awkward to also have to use the dash button (square) to crouch for a crouching attack with circle and you can't just press down to crouch while still), can't attack downwards or diagonally downwards, can't move while charging your default attack - can jump at least, slower acceleration and jumps than in the prequel, pretty high default jump height (this+the longer air-time makes some platforming kinda clunky since you also can't press up to climb a cylindrical object you're grabbing onto (can do it with regular ledges)), sometimes distracting event HUD, can't examine quests/events to get more info about them, have to go into the item menu to use an item on something or give it to someone - pink ones are used automatically though, x is used to confirm in the save menus but not elsewhere, skippable FMV cutscenes but not in-game cutscenes of which there are many more (can't skip on a per sentence or scene basis during these either), can't cancel gliding during a glide jump and it triggers automatically at a specific point in the jump, hit detection is still weird when jumping onto poles from above, no house signs in towns - sometimes a message is shown when entering a house though, need to stand in exactly the right spot at the washing machine or you can't wash the clumps of mud in it, can't access the inventory while facing an NPC or flower on the z-plane, can't stop hovering after jumping in the squirrel suit - only fall slightly faster while hovering, quest log doesn't tell you any info about a quest - only the title of it, overly floaty jumps while wearing the swimming pig suit, )
Some tedious aspects (backtracking for the cogs after reaching the water temple - also have to remember where you've used them previously, pointless path from the circus village to the beginning of the forest via an "invisible state lock" door, too many fetch quests and bland NPC dialogue, touching the floor spikes in one of the forest rooms sends you flying all the way back to the beginning of that segment, various spatial awareness/path finding puzzles feel pretty artificial in that you can get really close to something you need to interact with but then not turn towards it seemingly for no good reason - burning chain in pipe/lava area for example, revving up the spinning poles and winches is too slow, can only bake/fry/boil one piece of food at a time and can only have the chef make one sandwich at a time, some out of the way chests aren't really worth getting to - blue chest before the path to the circus village for example (seesaw switch puzzle), limited draw distance on chests - fairly easy to miss some of them, leading the paeon/flying elephant towards the well)
Some trial & error (the game doesn't tell you about the black locked doors opening after defeating the flame pig, tower of courage location, finding the last piece of the harp in the water temple (in a corner in the water tank room), minecart mini-game (unforgiving hit detection on the seed items/clues you can grab, also a difficulty spike though you can grab some seeds and replay instead of grabbing all of them in one go and get to keep them even if the cement hardens), flipping all the barrels in the first area to a matching color pattern to drain the water at the windmill bridge - no clue?, getting the mud with clay in it? - appears in a spot you've checked previously, one shot at grabbing the rare shrimp in the forest unless you reload (optional but useful), door maze in tower of courage (optional), flower seed quest (optional))
Invisible walls at the end of paths and sometimes in the middle of them make the world feel less immersive
Some redundant items (Mermaid Bucket, Cold Powder, Hot Powder; none of them are needed by the time you get them)
Some of the backtracking isn't that interesting (chests that you could reach the first time you found them but not open due to not having the right key, no new enemies appear in previously visited areas - just the boss and tower doors+some new NPCs and quests in some areas, for the cogs after reaching the water temple)
Some VA re-takes are left in (lol)
Repeats the same repetitive music for nearly every dialogue scene (there are two dialogue themes in total - more variety or keeping the level theme going for most of them would've been better)
30 FPS (prequel ran at 60 FPS)
Restoring an area doesn't remove or change any enemies or hazards within it
Very easy giant ice pigs in the snow area/ranch and easy mini-boss in the forest
Pretty easy and similar main bosses overall (earth pig is decent if he survives until he splits up, flame pig is also decent)
Easy final boss (would've been more interesting if you had to use some of the weapons to stun him and/or switch between suits or use the grapple to reach him)
Some NPCs act like pieces of a walkthrough
The songs that open the doors to the three towers are used automatically (there could've been a rhythm element to it)
The one-way path between the water temple and the beach through the waterfall can't be used as a shortcut
Lower framerate in parts of the water temple
Short and easy tower of strength area
Most of the clues to the pig door locations aren't that good
Boring "destroy the evil pig statues" quest before the final boss (the atmosphere is cool - they just failed to make the quest itself interesting)
The puzzles don't really become more complex as you progress
Comment:
Tomba 2 (PS1). I've mixed feelings about this game as it makes a nice first impression with very good 3D visuals for the PS1, retaining the same charming aesthetic of the first one to the extent possible at the time, and the platform adventure-style gameplay is a lot like before which is generally a good thing.
However they expanded a bit on the 2.5D thing here with multiple paths through areas crossing each other at a 90 degree angle, and problems immediately arise related to this: there's zero manual camera control, the view is too zoomed in to get a good overview of areas (there're also no area maps, not even a vague world map for them here), it doesn't pick the best angles when moving around and you generally feel like it should've just been a fully 3D experience or continued like in the prequel as you run into invisible walls everywhere. Switching between paths is really stiff as well, forcing you to stop and stand still, press the other cardinal direction, and then sometimes switch back to the previous direction as the game decides to change the camera angle again. Yep, it's really strange.
On the plus side the controls feel pretty much the same if a bit slower when not running (good besides certain finer motions required during some platforming which are as clunky as before), and the game is more forgiving as it ditches the lives system and keeps progress when dying, spawning you at the last save point used - something that works better for an exploration-based game. Level gimmicks are fun and their structure test your spatial awareness at times. When in towns, oddly enough the game switches to a different engine where movement is actually free, the perspective is in bird's eye view and there are even maps, however you can't jump or attack.
There are again tons of quests, many of them not that interesting or useful to complete, but I did see it through to the end. Besides a few parts here and there, and some things lacking proper clues, the game was easy and the finale wasn't really harder than the first couple of areas. Wish it was remade with some control tweaks, some quests remade and more of a proper difficulty curve.