Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom is an obscure 1984 Adventure Game by Hudson Soft, originally released for certain Japanese home computers and later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom. It stars Sir Cucumber, a knight of King Broccoli, whose kingdom has been usurped by the evil Minister Pumpkin and his cruel farmies. The king charges Sir Cucumber to rescue Princess Tomato and regain the turnip emblem, promising her hand as his reward.
Gameplay alternated between a puzzle Point-and-Click interface, a few mazes, and "battle" sequences that are actually games of Rock–Paper–Scissors. Although a few sequences can leave the player stumped, it's impossible to make the game unwinnable and only one round of Rock–Paper–Scissors actually has negative consequences for losing. Obscure, quirky, and a bit short, the game's nothing if not unique.
Despite its obscurity, it was uploaded to the Wii Virtual Console, and Princess Tomato was converted into Bomber form to be playable in Super Bomberman R.
This game contains examples of:
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Minister Pumpkin's plan for Princess Tomato has her marry his son.
- Bag of Spilling: At the end of every chapter, Percy will accidentally drop, be stripped of, or intentionally throw away some of the items you've gathered. Fortunately, it's never anything you need to keep.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: At one point in the game, you find a statue of a bee. Percy explains that the "Hudson Bee means 'BONUS' in other games. Sorry, not this time, Boss."
- Damsel in Distress: The eponymous Princess Tomato, who most of the game is spent trying to find in order to rescue her.
- Death Trap: At one point you're thrown in a sealed room filling... not actually all that quickly full of water.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Aspirin is the wonder drug that works wonders!
- Frothy Mugs of Water: Cigarettes were changed to coffee, and alcohol to juice.
- Global Currency Exception: It's easy enough to collect "gold," but almost every single shopkeeper in the game only accepts coins.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The city gate guard sees through your borrowed ID, but falls asleep at his post; the prison guards can't tell you're not one of them if you're carrying a paper lantern and their warden mistakes a carved piece of soap for a grenade; the palace guard is easily distracted; and the guard to Minister Pumpkin's room makes you fight him but after you win apparently decides you're pals.
- Heroic Mime: Sir Cucumber, who never says a word. Percy provides all the observations when addressing the player.
- Humongous Mecha: The Dice-O-Matics, although you don't get much of a sense of this with how they're fought via rock-paper-scissors like every other enemy.
- Interface Spoiler: Not that the game's box art hides his presence at all, but you have a "Percy" option before he joins up with you; if you use it, the game merely asks, "Who's Percy?"
- Kid Sidekick: Percy, the persimmon toddler.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Somewhat unusually for its genre, the game actively discouraged this type of behavior: Your inventory space is very limited, Percy constantly loses things in between chapters, and quite a number of items (mostly purchasable from stores) are completely useless.
- The Klutz: Percy. The explanation for why you lose stuff between chapters is usually because he tripped and dropped it.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Lisa, for reasons never mentioned let alone explained, is human despite being Princess Tomato's sister.
- Plant Person: Most of the characters in the game, being anthropomorphic vegetables and all.
- Punny Name: "Bananda," the bandit banana, and Sgt. Pepper.
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: Battles are a combination of Rock–Paper–Scissors and "Look Away".
- Rouge Angles of Satin: A few instances, such as "you can get passed the gate guard".
- Secondary Character Title: The protagonist and player character is Sir Cucumber, who must rescue the eponymous princess.
- Shop Fodder: Clover and carrots can be picked and sold, but are otherwise useless.
- Shout-Out: If you talk to Percy at a specific part of the game, he will boast that he beat Milon's Secret Castle in one day. If you talk to him again, he will say that he was kidding. Milon's Secret Castle is another Hudson game and is notorious for being nearly impossible to figure out.
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Spiritual Predecessor: To Veggie Tales - Standard Hero Reward: Sir Cucumber is promised Princess Tomato's hand in marriage.
- Stealth Pun: Lisa is Princess Tomato's sister, and "tomato" is a colloquial word for an attractive girl.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: "Hit" is one of your options. The game will often chide you for attempting to use it on helpful people, but it will occasionally allow you to deck someone for no purpose but your own amusement.
- What the Hell, Player?: Loves this one. You'll be scolded for everything from trying to "take" people to entering Lisa's room without knocking.
