Tombi! was a revolutionary platformer videogame series releasing between 1997 and 2000
on the original Sony Playstation.
After the release of the second game however, the developer, known as Whoopee Camp,
disbanded shortly after its launch. So... what the hell happened?
This is what I'm going to investigate and find answers throughout the video.
This, is the rise and fall of Tombi!
Before I begin I would like to clarify that in Europe, these games are listed under the name Tombi!
However, in North America and Japan, the series is named Tomba!
Being that I reside in Europe, I will refer to the game series as Tombi! instead.
So, where did it all begin? Allow me to introduce Tokuro Fujiwara:
the director, producer and creator of Tombi!
Fujiwara's career began in 1982 when he joined Konami as a game director and developer.
While at Konami Fujiwara worked on titles such as Pooyan, an arcade shooter in 1982
and Roc'n Rope an arcade platformer in 1983.
Later in 1983, Fujiwara decides to leave Konami in
favor of Capcom, where he was able to truly make a name
for himself in the gaming industry. Fujiwara directed many early Capcom titles,
most notably the run-and gun shooter Commando in 1985,
the platformer Ghosts 'n Goblins in 1985,
Bionic Commando in 1987
and the survival horror game Sweet Home, in 1989.
He was also the main producer for the Mega Man series,
a working associate with the game Strider in 1989,
a general producer for the original Resident Evil in 1996
and he also worked as a general manager of the Capcom Console Games Division, from 1988 to 1996.
However in 1996, after 13 years of work in Capcom, he quits the company to start his own
gaming company Whoopee Camp, and this, is where the creation of Tombi! begins.
While successful at Capcom, Fujiwara was not given the freedom to create games that he truly desired.
He felt that Whoopee Camp would finally give him the room to realize his dreams in gaming.
With many years of experience under his belt
and a reputation of being an excellent director, producer and developer,
many were confused by this change.
However a quote from the Japanese Playstation Magazine in 1997
encapsulates his motives clearly.
Fujiwara states: "Basically, I guess I just needed to make an action-style game."
It was evident Fujiwara was looking to take the best aspects of past projects
and implement those into a new and exciting two-dimensional side-scroller, Tombi!
Fujiwara decided to set Tombi! apart from other timing-based action games
by placing an emphasis on high skill,
nuanced, decision-based gameplay. Through this he was able to cultivate a highly
flexible and free environment unique to Tombi! This foundation, coupled
with non-linear events and the gradual growth of in-game abilities and
resources, there were not too many games that could
compete with what Tombi! had to offer. Tombi!'s soundtrack was composed by Harumi Fujita,
with some help from Nao Hatsutani.
The team also had four programmers, ten designers and three planners working
on the game, as well as staff in administration and
marketing divisions with total of twenty-five employees.
After a year of development Tombi! was released on December 25th 1997 in Japan,
July 16th 1998 in North America and finally,
on August 28 1998, it was released on Europe.
Tombi! was met with resounding positivity. The non-linear and variations of the
event system was praised, although some did feel they took away
from the main story of the game at times. Nonetheless Tombi! received even more
praise for the controls, vibrant visuals, and crisp character
animations in both 2D characters and the 3D polygonal environments.
While Tombi! was praised for many things the audio left a lot to be desired.
While some people enjoyed it, many reported the audio was primitive or minimalist
in comparison to the vibrant game world and action-oriented gameplay.
Post-release it was obvious Tombi! stood out from the pack. Fujiwara knew this and he even stated
as follows in the Japanese Playstation Magazine 1997 interview:
"It's got the pure fun of an action game,
combined with the way the stage is changed after certain story beats or events...
...as your goals or your objectives change,
you accordingly think, I should do this, or I should do that...
so instead of the kind of timing-based action games that we've seen so far,
it's like there's a high degree of flexibility and freedom,
which includes thinking and decision making. And that's what I think makes it different."
While successful in its own right, Tombi!
did not reach mainstream status. This is most evident through the sales
figures for the game: 150,000 copies sold in North America
100,000 copies sold in Europe and 20,000 copies sold in various other regions.
This brings us to a total of 260,000 copies sold worldwide,
not including the estimated 60 to 80,000 copies sold in its homeland of Japan,
as these figures are not verifiable as Tombi! was self-published
by Whoopee Camp in Japan. The overall low game sales were a let down for Fujiwara,
but he still felt that Tombi! sold well enough to justify a sequel.
So the Whoopee Camp team started working on the sequel,
Tombi! 2.
After the full release of Tombi! Fujiwara turned his attention towards
the development of the sequel Tombi! 2 or Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return.
This time, however, Fujiwara passed the
role of director to Kuniaki Kakuwa, but retained his responsibilities as a
developer to focus his full attention on creating another unique and
revolutionary experience in the Tombi! universe.
This time Fujiwara implemented a three-dimensional polygonal design to allow for even
greater expressive freedom. Using this method, Fujiwara was able to
realize various systems and mechanics not possible using the two-dimensional
framework of the original Tombi! such as dynamic camera movement during cutscenes.
During the platforming and action sections,
the original 2D design was kept in order not to alienate those who enjoyed the previous game.
Only the town sections found in the game
featured fully 3D oriented gameplay. Tombi! 2 featured brand new composers as well.
Sheena Ozawa composed the soundtrack for the Japanese version,
while Ashif Hakik composed the soundtrack for the international version of the game.
Tombi! 2 also featured full voice acting, something not seen in the first game.
This coupled with all of the positive changes would make Tombi! 2 a true
standout in the genre. Released on October 28th 1999 in Japan
North America on January 18th 2000 and in
Europe on June 16th 2000 Tombi! 2 had quite a lot going for it and received positive reviews
from critics praising its intricate, yet accessible
challenging gameplay and variations in the game's side stories and item quests.
With improvements made to the controls, inventory, user interface and the right
amount of consistency with the previous title,
Tombi! 2 was beloved by its fans. While it was well received by the fan base,
the sales numbers tell a different story.
Tombi! 2 sold 160,000 copies in North America
110,000 copies in Europe 20,000 copies in other regions
and an estimated 60 to 80,000 copies in Japan,
which is slightly more than the original game sold. These numbers are not healthy
in financial terms to keep making more sequels
and unfortunately, this led to the eventual disbanding of Whoopee Camp
and much of its staff moved to Access Games that specializes in the
planning, development and distribution of video games.
Still the question remains: how did a team led by Tokuro Fujiwara,
someone with a decade and half of development experience,
released two commercially unsuccessful video games.
Let's break things down, step by step.
Both Tombi! games had low budgets estimated at five to six figures.
This low budget could have limited the marketing and promotion needed to spread
the word about a new IP. If you compare this budget to one of the
bigger PS1 games at the time, Final Fantasy VII, which had an estimated
budget of 40 million dollars we can begin to understand how such a
limited budget can influence the reach of Tombi! and Tombi! 2.
While both games did have a limited marketing campaign, it's safe to assume
that the majority of the budget allocated was spent on development of the games.
Marketing and advertising are crucial to the success when promoting a new IP.
There was a promotional Tombi! VHS tape shown in Japanese stores
and various merchandise such as Tombi! and pig plushies,
t-shirts, phone cards, postcards etc. It's hard to say what positive effect
those attempts had on the game overall.
So, as you know by now, these games were under the name Tombi! in Europe and
Tomba! in both North America and Japan. There was a speculation by Erik Engström
of Hardcore Gaming 101, stating that the name change was
motivated by the fact that Tomba is an Italian word meaning grave,
thus prompting alternative branding to Tombi! Although understandable to an extent,
it's hard to count out the possibility of this confusing many potential customers.
Not a deal breaker but I do not think it helped the situation any further.
Like imagine if Mario was called Murio in Europe and Mario in other continents;
that would be confusing, right?
Tombi! as an intellectual property is an interesting one.
Many people regarded it as too wacky and maybe even a bit weird which made it a hard sell.
There were many other competitors at the time in the realm of similar platform type games, both 2D and 3D
such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Mega Man and Rayman and who you can truly blame?
From the consumer's perspective I think
the choice was obvious for many potential buyers.
Would you rather buy a game starring a cool looking dragon,
a funky bandicoot or a half naked boy with a pink hair?
The design choice was risky for Tombi! and thus,
it alienated a lot of potential customers to spend their money on other games instead.
Many speculate the timing for both Tombi! games was questionable at best.
In the late 1990s true 3D games were rising in popularity.
While Tombi! 2 did feature some 3D aspects and sections,
both of the games were still 2.5D titles.
It's worth considering if Tombi! and Tombi! 2 would have seen more success if
not surrounded by so many great 3D experiences in a time when many
consumers were more interested in that overall.
This is further emphasized by the release of Rayman released on September 1st 1995
selling over 3 million copies on the original Playstation alone.
There was always a possibility that Whoopee Camp could've collaborated
together with Capcom for better success with the Tombi! IP.
Other game companies like Arika had a strong relationship with Capcom as for example:
they were able to use Street Fighter IP
and characters in their Street Fighter EX series of games for the Playstation,
which helped their sales numbers. Fujiwara however had this to say about
collaborating with Capcom: "Fundamentally, I have left Capcom and as
such have completely cut all business relations with them.
That's not to say that we can't ever do any business with them...
after having just gone through the trouble of leaving though I'd like to
try going it alone. It's possible that we might do something
with Capcom in the future but we have no plans to do so now."
To summarize, the Tombi! series was beloved fans,
ambitious and revolutionary to an extent.
There were obvious problems along the way such a slow marketing budget,
renaming the game per region, the release timing, lack of collaborations
and the drastic leaps into 3D video games many of its competitors were already taking.
You may wonder how Tokuro Fujiwara has done since the release of Tombi! and Tombi! 2.
I am happy to say he has gone on to work on a variety of other projects,
such as directing Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins developed by TOSE in 2006,
original game design on MadWorld, developed by Platinum Games in 2009
and many others. We have even seen a revival of Fujiwara's company Whoopee Camp
to allow him to become a consultant for various companies and projects
throughout the gaming industry. Also the 2020 release of Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection,
had the Whoopee Camp logo found in the credits, which is a cool
thing to see after all these years. Despite the lack of commercial success
of Tombi! and Tombi! 2, Tokuro Fujiwara has gone on to make a
lifelong career working on many of the games we have come love,
and in 2021, the man, the legend is now 60 years old
and is still one of the most beloved people known in the gaming industry as a whole.