Saturday Morning RPG is an episodic RPG set in a world heavily inspired by 1980s Saturday morning cartoons and pop culture, with a soundtrack by Vince DiCola (The Transformers: The Movie, Rocky IV) and Kenny Meriedeth. It was developed by Mighty Rabbit Studios, and published by Actigame Publishing Corp. After an initial release on iOS in 2012, it was subsequently ported to Android, Steam, PlayStation 4, and Play Station Vita (the latter two as limited-edition physical copies), with a Nintendo Switch version released in 2018.
The game stars Marty, a teenage boy living in the town of Shadow Valley. Marty is pretty much every teenage kid protagonist from every 80s movie. The awkward, shy, kinda nerdy kid crushing in a girl who's dating the guy who seems to have been put on this Earth just to make him suffer, with nothing really going for him.
One night, however, he has a dream. In this dream, the girl of Marty's dreams is being wed to Commander Hood, the villainous leader of the powerful terrorist organization "H.O.O.D.". He tries to fight Commander Hood, but is given a beat down by Hood's forces. Then, Marty is approached by the Wizard, a really cool dude who gives him a notebook of power full of scratch and sniff stickers and various other items that grant him amazing powers. After his dream, he wakes up and discovers the notebook of power in bed with him, much to his surprise. That is but the beginning of the greatest adventure of Marty's life.
This game provides examples of:
- The '80s: The game is based around this, with a hint of The '90s.
- Action Commands: Certain attacks use these to either function at all or boost their power. You can also diminish damage from enemies in the same fashion.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Commander Hood's plan for Samantha in episode 1.
- Big Bad: Commander Hood.
- The Bully: Billy from episode 2 is this for Marty, cornering him in the school hallway, and then taking him outside intending to beat him to a pulp in front of everyone. Thankfully, by then, Marty has his notebook, and immediately turns the tables on Billy (even if he does accidentally prematurely launch Commander Hood's giant death ray in the process).
- Button Mashing: Required to use scratch-and-sniff stickers (though certain control schemes have you rock the stick back and forth instead).
- Captain Ersatz:
- Share Bear is obviously based on the Care Bears (as are all the bear characters in the game).
- Commander Hood and his soldiers are based on Cobra.
- Billy bears a striking resemblance to a certain Cobra Kai student.
- The Botchangers are, naturally, Transformers in all but name.
- Does one even need to say anything for Charles Cheezer?
- Chapter 3 has Marty going to the Jean-Claude Van Dam, where he meets The Snoozers, who never sleep because if they do, the Frakkles will come and eat the dam.
- Chapter 4 introduces us to Shadow Valley's mayor, Mayor Burgerman, who has a giant hamburger for a head.
- In chapter 3, you can enter a cave containing a computer called SPNKR.
- One character you start encountering in chapter 3 is a Bounty Hunter named Bobby Jett, who wears a very particular-looking helmet.
- If you set Blake up with Sarah, he'll admit to her that he collects "My Tiny Horses". He also says "Friendship is magic!".
- Christmas Episode: Episode 4, "Ho Ho Hood", is set at Christmastime. The main plot of the episode involves Marty getting everyone's Christmas presents back after Commander Hood stole them all.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Marty's main attack. Time the punch just right, and Marty will deal more damage.
- Narm Charm: The game aims for this, deliberately hewing close to its Saturday morning inspiration for an endless barrage of cheese.
- Or Was It a Dream?: The end of episode 1 — after waking up from a dream where he received a magic binder, Marty discovers it on his lap, unsure of where it came from.
- Reference Overdosed: The game is filled with 1980s references.
- Retraux: The game's graphics are styled after 16-bit JRPGs.
- Sheathe Your Sword: The only way to beat the War Game Quest is to basically do nothing against the computer. Never take your turn, never power up. The computer will eventually disintegrate by itself, giving you a SSS rank at the end of the battle.
- Shout-Out: See here.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: Characters are sprites, while the environments are low-poly models.
- Status Buff: The scratch-and-sniff stickers on Marty's magic binder can give him these (or debuff his enemies), provided the player manages to scratch them completely in time.
- Stock Scream: H.O.O.D. Soldiers defeated by the Bot Changer let out a Wilhelm Scream.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: It's pretty obvious that all the staff at Marty's school are H.O.O.D. soldiers, despite all their denying it (they even have posters which state that the teachers are NOT soldiers).
- This Loser Is You: Marty. His room is messy, it's implied he doesn't do very well at school, he can't get the girl, and he's a frequent target of bullies.
- Visual Pun:
- Episode 3 has what appears to be a bush turn out to be someone named Stan. His subsequent quoting of "The Touch" is only the icing on the cake.
- Chapter 3 has Marty going to the Jean-Claude Van Dam.
- In the park, you meet a talking rock named Chris.
- In episode 4, the Ghost Of Christmas Present's a ghostly gift-wrapped box.
