I did quite a lot of things in this Tomba! session, but for some reason, my memory about it is a bit fuzzy. Because of that, I’ll try and reconstruct it from screenshots this time.
All of this happened it’s not important when. This is a silly feature I tried to put in this blog and it’s too difficult to keep track of, so you won’t be seeing it from now on.
A Whole New World
Last time, I got to the Phoenix Nest, but couldn’t figure out what to do. I scoured through my inventory and found those strange flowers I’ve been picking up throughout the Lava Caves. Apparently, the flowers are the Phoenix’s favorite food, but I didn’t have enough, so I had to go back and get one more. Once I did, I gave them to the Phoenix and he woke up. He took me to a new area of the game – The Masakari Jungle.
This time, the phoenix didn’t crash.
The Masakari Jungle
This was a tough new area, with enemies hitting me for two life bars at a time, and flesh eating plants taking close to a half of my health. Luckily, there was a save point nearby, so I was able to reload after every life loss.
The Masakari Jungle is a tough area to get through.
I used the Jewel of Fire, the Funky Parasol and the Grapple to navigate around and soon, I found the entrance to the next pig fight – the Deep Jungle Pig. This one was far more annoying compared to the first pig. The arena was a tall, but narrow area this time and the bag was going up and down on one side of the central part of the area. It was surrounded by platforms, so it was extremely difficult to throw the pig in it. Even worse, the Evil Pig kept summoning giant boulders which took a lot of my health. Eventually, after a few tries, I managed to beat the pig and somehow throw it in the bag. This removed the curse from Baccuss Village, so I immediately put visiting the village on my to-do list.
Learning How to Swim
I then explored the Masakari Jungle completely and found Charles at the right end of it. He offered to teach me how to swim, but only after I find him something to drink. He also gave me a mining helmet which a guy at start of the jungle was looking for.
Charles is a very useful monkey.
I gave the helmet to him and he allowed me to enter the Village of Civilization, or at least the Clock Tower part of it. I went there and found him again. This time, he offered to make me some banana juice if I provide the bananas. Lucky for me, I already had some from the jungle, so this wasn’t an issue.
I brought the banana juice back to Charles and he finally taught Tomba how to swim. From now on, I can navigate water with ease. That is, I probably can, but I ended up dying while jumping into water several times after this, so either I’m not completely understanding the deal here, or the game is a bit buggy.
Old Tree Hill
Since I could swim, I jumped in the river and got to the next area – the Old Tree Hill. There was a parrot there and there was the Tree of Knowledge. I got one of the fruits for Baron and then spoke to the parrot. It told me the tree is dying and needs nourishment, which is stored in large “Pump Rocks” scattered around the world. I need to jump on them to release the nourishment. I knew there was one of these rocks back near the lookout point close to the Dwarf Village, so I made a mental note to go there.
I did the usual thing with the parrot – I jumped on it.
Back to the Old World
The Dwarf Village
I went back to the dwarf village by using the 100 Year Old Bell and delivered the fruit to Baron. The quest advanced, but I still needed one more thing – some seaweed from the beach below the starting Mansion.
I knew exactly where the seaweed would be. I just didn’t know you can only get to it from one side.
Before I went there, I tried stomping the Pump Rock near the lookout, but I didn’t know how to do it. I’m guessing I either need an item or an ability to do that. Since it didn’t work, I went to the Charity Square to deliver a few more Leaf Butterflies, since I can now gather them in the Masakari Jungle.
Helping Baron
After that, I decided to go and get the Seaweed, but it turns out you can only get to the beach from the Mushroom Forest – you can’t enter the mansion through the front door. I went back to the Charity Square and used the Leaf Slide to finally get to the beach and collect the weed. I brought it back to Baron and this series of events was finally completed.
This is what Baron’s flying menu looks like.
It turns out Baron is a flying dog, so he can now take me to any area I’ve already been to. The problem is, I now had no idea where to go next. I went back and forth and managed to complete a few more events, but nothing major.
This is what it looks like when you pick a location to fly to.
Eventually, I got back to the Mushroom Forest, because I feel I haven’t fully explored it yet and this is where the train ride I was on was over, so I had to save my game and take a break.
