Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland

FRESHLY-PICKED TINGLE'S ROSY RUPEELAND

Today, let's get into some of the more infamous games of the Zelda franchise, namely, the four Tingle games and the three CDi games. We'll get the less bad ones out of the way first, meaning we're starting with Tingle. Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland was a spinoff game starring Tingle, that was honestly more of a "money management simulator" more than anything else, where you had to collect as much rupees as you could, but you had to spend rupees to unlock ways to make more rupees so you had to balance it all.

Your main character is Tingle, whose main combat mechanic is basically "get close enough to an enemy to start a fight cloud animation where you basically have to do nothing." Again, the money management is the important stuff here. However, you do have the ability to launch fireworks, make maps, fly with balloons, and drop bombs. You could also cook, use a shovel to dig, use a bat as a weapon, stretch yourself out in a leap, and fire rupees as projectiles.

As for supporting characters, you have Pinkle, your "girlfriend" who acts as your save option, and your dog Barkle, who mostly just hangs out and acts cute. Then there's Aba, a young swordswoman who teaches you the main battle mechanics. Those battle mechanics are very simple, but they are there. I'd say there's a distinct possibility that either she or Pinkle could act as a gimmick rep. There's also the Grand Fairy, Pinkle's mother, and is basically a Great Fairy.

A major mechanic of the game is that you can hire out a bodyguard to follow you around and give you another body to enter into fight clouds with. Teddy Todo is the first you meet of them and helps present the concept to you, and from there, there's like thirty of them and none of them really do anything all that special. Honestly, they would probably work best as an assist trophy mechanic or a move of whoever gets to be gimmick rep.

Your main villain, and mentor for most of the game until you discover his true intentions, is Uncle Rupee, a man who first presents himself as a wise sage in rags who tells you that to reach the mystical world of Rupeeland, you must collect as many rupees as you can and dump them into a pool. You come to find out there never was a Rupeeland and he was just using you as a pawn to get rich, steadily upgrading his attire and surroundings through various social classes each time you bring him more rupees, until he is basically a wealthy billionaire lounging on a golden sofa. In his boss battle, he flies around on his sofa, shooting lightning, using tables as shields, sending his cats to attack, taking on three forms including a grand form, a green cloud, and a giant head form. He is also protected by two bodyguards with rupee guns.

Since I don't think he can quite take on actual Moblins, Tingle's main adversaries are the Oinkers, smaller pig enemies who are seen throwing bombs, using swords and shields, casting spells, rolling around on balls, spinning with their swords, getting into a circle and raging together, and calling in more Oinkers, while their chief can throw meteors, float, slash, and cast waves of magic. Other enemies are general knockoffs of Zelda enemies or actual animals, like Antlions, Ants, Otters, Crabs, Crocodiles, Squirrels, Bunnies, Catfish, Cockroaches, Cows, Rats, Bats, Spiders, Bears, Moles, Turtles, Sheep, Penguins, Ducks, Sharks, Lizards, Owls, Bees, Camels, and Turkeys.

The bosses include a giant Death Bug, a pirate Captain Stalfos (similar to other versions but with a fireball attack), a Bana Bana plant, a Dora Dora dragon, and an Ultra Death Bug. The mini-bosses include a ghost ringleader, and a floating head called Baron.

The game takes place across three continents with several major dungeons and towns to visit. You start in Tingle's Room just outside of Port Town, with the Western Pool to one side where you deposit all of your Rupees. The dungeons include Hero's Shrine, Pirate Hideaway, Deku Temple, Insect Cavern, and Desma's Labyrinth, with Captain Stalfos's ship acting as a mini-dungeon. Other notable locations include Sunshine Seashore, Cape Treasure, Lon Lon Meadow, Deku Forest, Gooey Swamp, Mount Desma, Fairy Garden, and the Auros Ruins.

I think we've covered just about everything, here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Tingle: fight cloud, money management, fireworks, make maps, fly with balloons, drop bombs, cook, shovel, bat, stretch and leap, rupee blast

Pinkle: potential echo fighter or gimmick rep

Aba: potential gimmick rep

Teddy Todo/other bodyguards

Uncle Rupee: sofa, lightning, table shields, cats, grand form, green cloud, giant head, bodyguards with rupee guns

Oinker: bombs, swords, shields, lances, spells, rolling around on balls, sword spin, rage circle, more Oinkers, meteors, float, slash, waves of magic

Captain Stalfos: fireball, swords

Bosses:

Death Bug

Bana Bana

Dora Dora

Baron

Stages:

Tingle's Room

Port Town

Western Pool

Hero's Shrine

Pirate Hideaway

Deku Temple

Insect Cavern

Desma's Labyrinth

Captain Stalfos's Ship

Cape Treasure

Deku Forest

Gooey Swamp

Mount Desma

Fairy Garden

Auros Ruins

Thanks for reading! Next up, we cover Tingle's Balloon Fight!