Creaking Bones

As another Steam sale draws to a close, it’s nice to take some time and reflect on all the great deals this year. Undertale, Disco Elysium, and House Flipper were all under £4 bargains. Despite this what do I find myself playing? Yes, it’s Tomato Jones. Another year passes by and as tradition dictates I look at the very cheapest games and pick the first title that draws my eye.

And at the whooping 44p, the game certainly isn’t breaking the bank. However, even with currrent inflation and cost of living crisis in the UK, I could still afford several actual, medium-sized tomatoes for that price. Let’s find out if Tomato Jones is ripe for the picking or is destined to become so much supermarket own-brand ketchup.

Premise

It’s a tomato wearing a very familar looking hat. However, beyond the hat, the font choice, and a penchant for robbing indigenous peoples of valuable artefacts, there is little resemblance to any famous fictional archeologists. Disney’s lawyers will not be in touch.

Developed by HA Studio and published by SA Industry in 2016, Tomato Jones is a physics-based 3D platformer where you guide this tomato past traps and enemies, picking up coins with the aim of collecting the prized artefact at the end of each level. Presumely this is because it belongs in a museum in the country of it’s origin, though the game strangely skips over the thrilling world of registrar work and moves straight to the next level.

First Impressions

Well, it’s the main menu and I’m already being sworn at by a …potato? Obviously these are the natural enemy of the tomato, though I’d never really thought about it before. This is indicative of the level of humour throughout the game, and the first sign that it’s being designed to be deliberately irritating.

The options menu is sparse but everything works fine enough, and starting a game shows the world map with 20 different levels to unlock.

Gameplay

Each level takes place within a vaguely jungle-themed set of ruins which are floating in the infinite void. Controls are limited to WASD keys to move plus spacebar to jump, but this is enough to cover the main challenge of the game- controlling your momentum. The tomato protagonist looks disturbingly squishy, but luckily does not bruise easily as you navigate traps and precision jumps while trying to avoid being hurtled into the void.

I died a lot, and given the death screen’s Dark Souls references I think this is by design (combined with some skill issues I’m sure). Luckily, the checkpoints are generous and rebooting each time takes only seconds, so the regular deaths aren’t too disheartening.

While there’s no variety in the visuals, the game does do a good job of introducing new trap and puzzle elements, with the minecarts sections being the highlight. Spears, sawblades and fire traps will all require precision timing to avoid, but as with so many platformers the true enemy is the lack of adequate handrails.

There were a couple of instances I found where my tomato clipped through scenery, or a trap’s hitbox seemed unreasonable. For the most part though the mechanics worked as intended, the camera behaved itself and the deaths seemed fair.

What I can’t abide is the choice of music. The bizarre circus themes loop over and over with a disturbingly cheerful cadence. It’s wildly out of place, and while the tomato does make a satisfying splat noise on death, I’d highly recommend muting the audio if you want to maintain some level of sanity.

Conclusion

This isn’t a huge game and I finished it in a single sitting, knowing I’d probably lack the will to return if I didn’t. While the ending level was a pleasant surprise and the final screen informed me that I had won, this felt like something of a hollow victory without much reward for the time spent.

Overall, I’d say the game is fine, but could be much better if there had been a higher priority in making it fun over just irritating. However, there is a sequel (also only 44p at time of writing) which I will probably check out sometime to see what improvements have been made. Undertale can wait another year.