Trivial Trivia: Tomba! and Tomba! 2

Tomba! is one of my fondest gaming memories from childhood. It was a quirky action-adventure platformer with RPG elements, set in a 2.5D world. It was such a unique gaming experience that I've yet to experience anything like it outside of it's own franchise (I know... two games hardly counts as a franchise). 

It's common for game developers to cut content due to time, size or budget constraints. When I discovered that Tomba met this same fate, I became obsessed with sniffing out this missing content. Little did I know of the treasures Whoopee Camp left behind, waiting to be discovered...

Removed Town: "Iron Castle"/"Iron Village"

In Tomba!, if you examine the overworld map near the Tree of Knowledge on Old Tree Hill, you'll notice a village east of your location. Despite being on the map, players are unable to reach this town. However, some enterprising hackers managed to uncover details of this village.

The biggest clue is a cutscene left on the disk showing the town being healed from an Evil Pig's curse. The curse in question is hard to pinpoint, but given the strong iron-theme of the town, I would imagine the town's iron was turned to wood by the Jungle Pig.

Another resourceful hacker, by the username BMF54123, managed to unearth a series of "raw tiles" for this village. Most of the tiles offer no more than what is found in the video above or are too obscured to provide true insight, however, you can get a glimpse at sprites and other interesting objects (like a hammer object, which was reused in Tomba! 2 as a weapon) 

Removed Events

A quick glance at the Event Log would indicate that some events were cut from the final game. While there are quite a few empty spaces, players have only found 3 removed events – Miniature Making Trumpets, Wonders of the Black Water, and The Rusty Steel Car. It's hard to identify the intent of these events, especially considering an entire town was removed from the game. 

Miniature Making Trumpet may have tied in with the Baby Pig event, or at least would provide more context than "peach gas shrunk this Koma pig". Wonders of the Black Water may have been another event for Mizuno the Cute Witch or  the Dried Wishing Well at the Lumberjack Factory. The Rusty Steel Car most likely tied to the removed village. At the 0:04 second mark of the video above, you can see a long chain where this car may have run.

Despite the removal of these events, it's worth noting that the "miniature" and "steel car" elements were carried over to Tomba! 2. Tomba! 2 features the Minita Mushroom, allowing Tomba to explore tucked away locations/interact with mice, and the Trolley mini-game.

Removed Items

Hackers also discovered a number of items not found in the final game: Rain Essence, Torn Map 1+2, Rubber Gloves, Electric Eel, Black Water, Candy (Red, Blue, Green, Black, and Silver), and Unusual Key. The most fascinating items to me are the Rain Essence, Black Water and assorted candies. I wonder if the Rain Essence has to do with the Dried Wishing Well, which could produce Black Water to clear the Wonders of the Black Water event.

The assorted candies are most likely related to Mizuno the Cute Witch, considering she makes Gold Candy. Red, Blue, and Green Candy all correspond to the types of experience points and jewels found ingame, so it's likely they were related somehow. I also wonder if the Black Candy was intended to be made with Black Water, which leaves the mysterious Silver Candy.

It's also worth noting that you're able to use items like Weed Killer, Bunk Flower, or Biting Flower Plant when standing near Mizuno's cauldron. This may allude to ingredients for other candy recipes.

Alternate Watch Tower Cutscene

Most gamers completed the event "Look and See" in the Watch Tower of the Forest of 100 Flowers fairly early in the game. Upon using the telescope at the Watch Tower, you're treated to a cutscene of a pig island off in the distance. However, if you look through the telescope again during the Seven Friends event, you're treated to a slightly different scene showing pigs hauling treasure by boat to this island.

Kainen the Old Wise Man

Along Tomba's travels in Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return, he has frequent encounters with an eccentric old man, Kainen. After Kainen saves Tomba in Donglin Forest by magically exorcizing ghosts, Tomba's companion, Zippo, rightfully questions Kainen true identity.

Near the end of Tomba 2, as you're entering the The Last Evil Pig's lair, Kainen makes his final appearance with a new yet familiar wardobe. Maybe I'm a bit slow, but this is where it became evident that Kainen's role in Tomba! 2 was similar to that of the Wise Old Men from Tomba! Although Kainen didn't provide Evil Pig Bags, he provided other useful support throughout the game.

The most interesting thing to me is that Kainen is dressed in a similar fashion to the Million Year Old Wise Man, complete with a bejeweled cane. It's not confirmed that Kainen and the Million Year Old Wise Man are one in the same, but one thing's for sure: Kainen is an old wise man.

There are likely other mysteries and oddities lurking about Tomba! and Tomba! 2. Keep an eye out for more information like this in future installments of Trivial Trivia.