Tomato Adventure
| Tomato Adventure | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mario & Luigi before it even became a thing.
| ||||||||||||||
|
Tomato Adventure is a role-playing video game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance on January 25, 2002 exclusively in Japan.
Plot
The game takes place in a land known as the Ketchup Kingdom, being ruled by young characters. The game's main antagonist, King Abira, presents a new device called the "Super Cara-Cooker", which promised to allow the residents to stay as children, but in reality, it actually turned them into dolls, toys, and playgrounds. Then, the game's main protagonist, DeMille, a resident of the Cobore Village due to his dislike of tomatoes, which is refered as "Droppers", was watching his television, which turns itself off. After failing to get it to work, he visits his neightbour and friend Selemo, who promises to fix his TV and gives him the Gear Yo-Yo. After being taught how to use it, DeMille's girlfriend, Pasaran, comes to tell him that she wanted him and her to go to the Toy Ruins to get her toy, the Gimmick Robo, but as they arrive, it is nowhere to be find. Shortly after, two of the game's other antagonists, Brikky and Grikky, capture Patharan with a hook, but DeMille manages to grab Pasaran and goes into Brikky and Grikky's airship, the Carorna No.2. King Abira tells Brikky and Grikky to bring Pasaran to his palace and drop DeMille out of the ship, and after the latter defeats Brikky and Grikky, they drop him out of the airship into the Tomato Pond, which later reveals that it's near King Abira's home, the Gimmick Palace, a tall, red, tower with a tomato-shaped top. DeMille then goes there but is stopped by a wall he cannot pass through. Shortly after, a mole named Relek comes out of the floor and tells DeMille that in order to pass through this wall and save Pasaran, he must defeat the six Super Kids and obtain their Toy Parts to get rid of the wall. During his adventure, DeMille is joined by Alesa, Sofubi, and Relek himself, who help him defeat King Abira and save Pasaran.
Why It Deserves a Fresh Tomato
- The graphics are colourful and awesome for 2002 standards. Each sprite is has a good choice of colours, the enemies' design is great, the backgrounds are impressive and the effects overall look great. The game feels like it was a very early version of Mario & Luigi in terms of graphics, despite both games having different ones.
- The soundtrack is amazing and has a lot of great themes. When you are in the Cobora Village, for example, the music makes you feel like you want to explore the village and talk to NPCs. The battle theme is exciting and makes you stay in the battle longer just to listen to its theme, while the boss and Super Kids themes are both amazing and fit them perfectly. Additionally, you can even listen to the game's soundtrack after you complete the game in the Cobore Village by watching DeMille's TV.
- Many, many likable characters that have an awesome design, such as King Abira, Pasaran, Relek, Sofubi, and of course the game's main protagonist, DeMille.
- Gimmicks, the game's main way of fighting, are very great, with each having an interesting design. Not to mention, before you could fully use them, you need to play a minigame, where winning it will deal more damage to the opponents, while failing the minigame will result in less damage. The minigames range from pressing a button at the right time, to trying to solve a puzzle.
- Interestingly, the game's credits show how many times the gimmick were used, the difficulty of the gimmicks' minigames, and other stuff.
- The AWE! moves, which are basically stronger attacks that are obtained when Alesa joins DeMille, are creative, as they can be used to deal more damage to an opponent, which can be useful in a boss battle if you're fighting with them for too long. One of Alesa's AWE! moves can heal you when it is performed. The only way they can be performed is to receive stars by completing the gimmicks' minigames, and if the minigame is lost, the AWE! bar is completely empty and you have to fill it again. Additionally, the harder the gimmicks' minigames are, the more stars you earn.
- Relek himself has an AWE! move that makes him and DeMille invincible when used, called "Invincibility Song". Once performed, DeMille and Relek are invincible for three turns, and if the opponent tries to damage them, they'll receive 0 damage.
- Very great humour, with some moments even making you want to laugh or just put a smile, such as the moment where DeMille hits Alesa and then reveals that it was because he didn't bounce correctly, or the part when you defeat one of the Super Kids, What, where Relek will repeatedly jump out of the floor due to it being too sticky for him.
- The boss battles are very fun, especially since sometimes they have different strategies, such as some having parts that must be different for them to receive more damage, or something changing in them. Even the simple ones can be fun to fight against, and they can provide slightly more challenge.
- The plot itself is interesting, where the main protagonist's girlfriend gets kidnapped by the king of a kingdom they reside in, which is also revealed that the king himself is the antagonist and DeMille and his party have to prevent him from turning the children of the Ketchup Kingdom into other things.
- Many areas in the game have nice and creative design, such as the REM Maze having two versions, where they were coloured in red and green, or the place where DeMille is at during his sleep time. Thanks to the aforementioned awesome graphics, they do not get old to look at.
- Some minigames that do not involve gimmicks are very interesting and fun, such as the minigame where you need to collect all eggs to finish it. Sometimes they could be even used for speedruns to show how fast you can collect them.
- While the game is easy for the most part, the final boss, Abiwrath, is noticeably more challenging, dealing more damage to DeMille and his friends. When his face changes into looking more villainous, it makes it look more challenging, with also having an attack that deals more damage to DeMille and any of his friends.
Bad Qualities
- Alesa, while likable, can act like a brat sometimes.
- The game ended on a huge cliffhanger. DeMille and his friends travel to the Pepper Kingdom after defeating King Abira, and then, Alesa gets kidnapped by the king of the latter kingdom, Pimara. While this sounded like a great idea for the game's sequel, AlphaDream went bankrupt on October 1, 2019, and as a result, it's extremely unlikely the game's sequel will be made.
- However, with the reveal that some people from AlphaDream return to work on the newest Mario & Luigi installment, Brothership, it's likely that Acquire, Brothership's developer, might gain an interest in Tomato Adventure in the future following Brothership's positive reception, which might be a possibility for the game to finally get a sequel.
- Some of the gimmicks' minigames can be quite tedious, such as pressing a button at the right time or having to mash the buttons way too fast with little time limit.
Reception
Upon release, Tomato Adventure received mixed-to-positive reviews. On release, Famitsu gave the game a 29/40. However, the game's reception today is much more positive, with some calling it a "hidden gem" of RPGs on the GBA. Many people even consider it to be another great role-playing game in AlphaDream's lineup.
Legacy
After Tomato Adventure's release, AlphaDream began working on the Mario & Luigi series, starting with Superstar Saga, which was released in November 2003, one year after Tomato Adventure. The former managed to gain western players' interest in AlphaDream, which allowed them to discover two of AlphaDream's older games, with them being Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito for the Game Boy Color, and of course, Tomato Adventure. Said interest in Tomato Adventure allowed the game to develop a fanbase overseas. Following the positive reception of Superstar Saga, AlphaDream began working on sequels for the Mario & Luigi franchise, with them being Partners in Time, Bowser's Inside Story, Dream Team and Paper Jam, with also giving Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story their own remakes for the 3DS, named Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions and Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, respectively.
Fan Translation
As mentioned before, Tomato Adventure never saw an release outside of Japan. However, on July 17, 2021, an unofficial fan translation was released. If the ROM of the game is applied with the patch, all text in the game will be translated into English.
The translation can be downloaded here.
Videos
Trivia
- Originally, the game was going to be called Gimmick Land and was supposed to be released for the Game Boy Color, but after the release of the Game Boy Advance, AlphaDream remade the game for the GBA.
- The reason why the game was not released outside of Japan is due to the developers having some problems with the battle system, the targeted age group being considered too low and overall the weaker reception of the game than it is today.
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, there are two unused themes which are remixes of "Gimmick Chase", Tomato Adventure's title theme.
- DeMille and the Tomatrio appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as spirits.
- Additionally, some were expecting DeMille to appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl due to him being included in a poll twice. However, he has not made an official apperance outside of Tomato Adventure yet.