Retro Gaming Australia

Localisation specialist MonkeyPaw Games will be bringing the cult-classic PSOne game, Tombi! (or Tomba!) to PlayStation Network later this year.

According to MonkeyPaw CEO John Greiner, it took more than a year for the rights to the game to be negotiated, in spite of the fact that it was one of the most highly requested games for the PSOne Classics line. The deal does not include the rights for Tombi 2, however.

Tombi! was the brainchild of Ghosts n Goblins creator Tokuro Fujiwara, and developed at his studio Whoopee Camp. Despite both Tombi! games being published by Sony outside of Japan, they didn’t sell in the numbers expected, and Whoopee Camp closed up shop afterwards.

In spite of its lack of retail success, Tombi! developed a reputation for being one of the best platformers on the PlayStation, which combined with high demand and a low print run has led to the game’s price reaching ridiculous heights ($AU200+) on eBay.