Tomato Adventure

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Tomato Adventure
The Tomato Adventure box art.
Developer(s) AlphaDream
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Designer(s) Toshiharu Izuno (producer)[1]
Chihiro Fujioka (director)[1]
Platform(s) Game Boy Advance
Release date JPN January 25, 2002
Genre(s) Action command RPG
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer (only in Gimica)
Media Cartridge

Tomato Adventure (トマトアドベンチャー Tomato Adobenchā?) is an RPG developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance on January 25, 2002 only in Japan. It was directed by Chihiro Fujioka and produced by Toshiharu Izuno[1].

Contents

[edit] History

DeMille at his house in Gimmick Land.
DeMille at his house in Gimmick Land.

After AlphaDream developed and released their very first video game title, Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito for the Nintendo Game Boy Color only in Japan, Nintendo wanted AlphaDream's permission to develop an entirely new RPG with them, titled Gimmick Land (ギミックランド Gimikku Rando?)[1]. It was finished and almost ready to be released for the Game Boy Color in Japan, until Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance to make the Game Boy Color obsolete. After noticing that, AlphaDream decided to redevelop and rename Gimmick Land as Tomato Adventure for the Game Boy Advance. The differences between Tomato Adventure and Gimmick Land are the names and the quality of the graphics and audio. Only two screenshots of Gimmick Land (one of them shown on the left) were released to the public by the developers. On the release date of Tomato Adventure, Nintendo and AlphaDream announced a contest where twenty lucky winners won themselves 1 kg of famously sweet tomatoes from the Kochi Virtue Valley area[2]. The contest ended on February 28, 2002[2].

[edit] Prologue

The Ketchup Kingdom.
The Ketchup Kingdom.

The story takes place in a land ruled by and intended for young characters: the Ketchup Kingdom. The protagonist is a hare-like boy in the blue clothing name DeMille, who lives in a school bus with no wheels in a village on the outskirts of the Ketchup Kingdom called Kobora Village. DeMille is an outcast because he dislikes tomatoes. As a result, DeMille and other kids in Kobora who dislike tomatoes are referred to by people who like tomatoes as "Droppers", which are people who are banned and left locked up in Kobora Village until they like tomatoes. When he was watching television, he saw that the main antagonist, King Abira, was celebrating a holiday called Tomato Day, while showing his project he created called the Super Cara-Cooker, a laser-like gun that transforms people, places, and things into dolls, toys, and playgrounds. Then, DeMille's television became severely damaged, while he went to his neighbor and friend, Seremo, and asked him if he would fix his television set. Then Seremo said he will, while he gave DeMille his first Gimmick, called the Gear Yo-Yo. After Seremo taught DeMille how to use it, DeMille's girlfriend in the pink clothing, Patharan, came to tell him that she wanted to show him her gift she got from someone at the top of the Toy Ruins, the Gimmick Robo, but then it wasn't there when they arrived.

DeMille and Patharan inside the Carorna No.2 with Burikki and Gorikki.
DeMille and Patharan inside the Carorna No.2 with Burikki and Gorikki.

Then, two purple creatures with zippers on them, Gorikki and Burikki, captured Patharan with a hook, DeMille grabbed on to her while being pulled up to the airship, called the Carorna No.2, piloted by Gorikki and Burikki. As soon as DeMille and Patharan came aboard the airship, Gorikki and Burikki received a call from King Abira, who told them to bring Patharan to the palace and drop DeMille out of the airship. After DeMille fought Gorikki and Burikki, they dropped DeMille from the airship into the Tomato Pond, then he walked and noticed that he was standing near King Abira's home, the Gimmick Palace, a tall, red, tower with a tomato-shaped top. When he decided to enter and save Patharan, he encountered a wall that he cannot pass through. Then, a mole named Rereku told him that in order to pass through the wall, DeMille had to defeat the six Super Kids and obtain the six key items called Toy Parts. While DeMille went on his adventure, he encountered some people who joined forces with him to defeat King Abira, and save Patharan and the entire Ketchup Kingdom. His parters in order of joining him are Aretha, Sofubi, and finally, Rereku.

[edit] Major Characters

  • DeMille (デミル Demiru?) - The protagonist. You play as him. He is a rabbit wearing blue clothing. As an outcast, he dislikes tomatoes[3]. He and the other kids who dislike tomatoes known as the "Droppers" are locked up in Kobora Village until they like tomatoes.
  • Patharan (パサラン Pasaran?) - DeMille's girlfriend. She has been captured by King Abira. DeMille and his friends work their way to save her and the entire Ketchup Kingdom. She is a rabbit wearing pink clothing. Like DeMille, she also hates tomatoes[3].
  • Seremo (セレモ?) - DeMille's friend and neighbor. He helped DeMille learn about Gimmicks, items, and other things.
  • Aretha (アレサ Aresa?) - DeMille's first partner. She loves creating and playing electronic devices. She also used to work for King Abira. She is a rabbit wearing orange clothing.
  • Sofubi (ソフビー Sofubī?) - DeMille's second partner. When DeMille and his partners first encountered him, he was stuck in a snake-like tunnel in Ois Town. He is a heavy frog wearing a black suit and a derby hat, but he joins DeMille because he considers adventuring to be good exercise.
  • Rereku (レレク?) - DeMille's third and final partner. He is a ninja-like mole who showed DeMille video disc recordings of King Abira and Patharan near the top of the Gimmick Palace. Part of the Ketchup Kingdom's secret service. His agent nr is 007, which is a reference to James Bond.
  • Burikki (ブリッキ?) and Gorikki (ゴリッキ?) - King Abira's minions. They spoil several things in Ketchup Kingdom throughout the RPG. They are two purple creatures with zippers on them. They travel in an aircraft called the Carorna No.2.
  • King Abira (アビーラ王 Abīra-Ō?) - The main antagonist of this title. King Abira is a baby tomato who captured Patharan to obtain her entire Heart Energy, which is a combination of five different energies: Laugh Energy, Sad Energy, Anger Energy, Excitement Energy, and Love Energy. His goal is to insert Patharan's Heart Energy to his Super Cara-Cooker so he can turn everyone and everything into toys.

[edit] Gameplay

The type of RPG this defines is an action-command RPG. It is clear that this game does away with many of the traditional and sometimes annoying aspects of RPGs. Instead of wandering endlessly inside dungeons or entering battles randomly, Tomato Adventure displays your enemy moving around on the screen, taking its inspiration from the MOTHER/EarthBound franchise, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Paper Mario. Players enter a battle by bumping DeMille into an enemy. This simple feature really adds to the fluidity of the game. When players remember they forgot something, to be able to avoid the enemies and move around an area makes everything much easier. On the same note, players can also let their characters run faster by holding the B button down. In addition, the story is cleverly crafted so that players never have to walk out of dungeons. For example, at the mountain area called Tall Tall Valley, after completing it, instead of getting back by the way players came from in the first place, players are treated to an air-boarding mini-game that doubles as a shortcut, in which DeMille glides down the mountain trying to collect pearls for currency. This mini-game can also be played in the dome area called Balsami Dome.

[edit] Battle system

DeMille using his first Gimmick, the Gear Yo-Yo, during a battle scene.
DeMille using his first Gimmick, the Gear Yo-Yo, during a battle scene.

The most significant part of this game is its battle system. Instead of the traditional fight and magic commands, players would fight using toy-like weapons called Gimmicks.

There are four types of Gimmicks:
  • Time - This type makes you finish a mini game that requires timing, like pressing a button whenever something comes to a certain part.
  • Speed - This type makes you finish a mini game that requires you to finish a task correctly before time runs out.
  • Excite (or Doki-Doki) - This type makes you finish miscellaneous mini games.
  • Input - This type makes you finish a mini game that either requires you to repeatedly hit the proper button(s) or to insert the information in a certain order or amount of times.

Every Gimmick has their own mini-game. For example, when using the "Gear Yo-Yo" Gimmick, which belongs to the Time category, players have to press a button when the edge of the bar is in the red mark within the given time limit. If players successfully implement the maneuver, they'll inflict a critical hit. Players can also adjust the difficulty of the Gimmicks they have to inflict more damage. As another example, in order to correctly use the "Snea-Car" Gimmick (which looks like a shoe-shaped car), players have to press the right combinations of directions and buttons the game shows. In the easiest mode, players are thrown a sequence of 4 icons consisting of directions and buttons at a relatively slow pace. When players bump the difficulty up to max, its feeds the players 6 icons at blazing speeds in a very narrow window. Most weapons and items in several other RPGs can be overused by players, but in Tomato Adventure, Gimmicks have a limited amount of usage similar to most weapons and items in the Fire Emblem series; however, once players use up a Gimmick, the usage count won’t reset until all of the Gimmicks equipped by a character are completely used up. In addition, when DeMille's first partner Aretha joins him, a gauge feature that fills every time a Gimmick is successfully used becomes available to use. If players successfully charge up the gauge while passing an arrow in it, they will be able to do a special extreme attack when a gear lights up. When fully charged, two gears light up, making players have the choice to use another special extreme attack; however, if players fail to use a Gimmick correctly, the gauge will become empty, while players will have to start it all over.

[edit] Gimica

Screenshot of Gimica.
Screenshot of Gimica.

Gimica is a special card game that can only be available when the player talks to Gimicamania at the stadium in Ois Town after the player defeats the third Super Kid. However, there are also some other characters that the player can either duel with or receive a new Gimica Card from.

The object of this card game is to make the opponent have less HP than the player's HP, or drop it to zero. There are two kinds of cards:

  • Gimmick Cards - These cards are based on the real Gimmicks. They are used for both players to attack each other with them.
  • Character Cards - These cards do certain things depending on who is on the card. The earliest character cards are two cards that would increase or decrease your Gimmick Cards' attack points, two cards that would move your Gimmick Card up or down one color rank, two cards that would increase or decrease the attack points of your opponent's Gimmick Cards, and one card that would increase your HP by 25.

Player must put his/her Gimmick Cards at a higher color rank than his/her opponent, however, green beats blue. If both players have their Gimmick Cards on the same color rank, the player who has more attack points in his/her Gimmick Card will attack the opponent. If both Gimmick Cards' attack points are equal, it becomes a draw. If the player's opponent is at a higher rank, the player must either make his/her Gimmick Card's attack points the same (or nearly the same) as the opponent's in order to receive a small amount of damage, or move their Gimmick Cards up to the same color rank as the opponent's Gimmick Cards.

[edit] Reception

[edit] Notes

  • A couple of Tomato Adventure soundtracks were found hidden in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga after people dumped its entire track list into GSF files. They are both emulations of the title screen opening of Tomato Adventure, but their quality is different. They sound similar to the sound of Game Boy Color music.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d 『トマトアドベンチャー』開発者インタビュー. Nintendo Online Magazine (January 2002). Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  2. ^ a b Harnest, Michael (2005-02-06). Get Your Tomatoes!. RPGamer. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  3. ^ a b Ketchup on Tomato Adventure Plot Details. RPGamer (2001-11-17). Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  4. ^ Tomato Adventure GBA Game, Tomato Adventure Game Boy Advance. 1UP.com (December, 24, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-24.

[edit] External links

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