A young man named Tomba was living peacefully in the Village of All Beginnings with Charles the Monkey when all of a sudden a letter arrived. Tomba opened it and his old friend Zippo appeared. Zippo informs Tomba that his girlfriend, Tabby, has been kidnapped by the Evil Pigs who have sworn revenge on Tomba for defeating them.

As Tomba ventures through the world around him, he will meet many different people who will ask various things of him. These tasks include using your bite to free chicks from eggs and making fish sandwiches. Tomba needs to clear all the missions people offer him to clear the game.

The game is mainly 2.5D. It's rendered in 3D but you can only move left and right. The exceptions are two places where the game goes into free-roaming mode, but only on one plane; Tomba cannot climb off the floor