Rocky Rodent is a fairly obscure game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993, developed and published by Irem. It seems to jump on the bandwagon of Mascot with Attitude cartoon animals, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, that were common at the time.
It has a fairly simple plot: Rocky, who has a stomach like a garbage disposal, must rescue the daughter of a restaurant owner who couldn't make a payment to the mob (due to Rocky eating the protection money), headed by Don Garcia. Rocky does so under the promise of an all-you-can-eat buffet just for him as a reward. He gets there using various power-ups in the form of hairstyles and the help of a bird whose egg he had unintentionally saved.
Rocky Rodent's gameplay can be best described as a fusion of Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog; it is a traditional platformer that rewards exploration of the levels, many of which are riddled with branching passages and alternate routes. Rocky can run through these levels fairly quickly, using certain parts of the environment as if it were Le Parkour. He also gains various hairstyles that can be used to defeat enemies, pass obstacles, and discover secrets. These include his signature red mohawk, which can flip and pick up enemies as well as be used to stick into certain ceilings to climb, a sharp blue mohawk that can be thrown like a boomerang and stuck into walls to scale them, a green ponytail that can be used as a whip and a grappling hook, and a yellow spring-like style that can be used to bounce upside down across gaps and bounce enemies away.
This game provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The fifth area of the game. It's underneath the chili factory, and as such contains dangerous chili sauce everywhere.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: In part of the sewers, you get chased by a subway. It's pretty fast, but you're faster and there are no obstacles in your way.
- Battle Boomerang: The Blue Mohawk lets Rocky throw it as a boomerang projectile. He has to be a little careful using it, though. As he'll die if he gets hit before it returns to him.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The second level combines this with Hell Hotel.
- Big Eater: Rocky himself.
- Breakable Power-Up: Rocky loses his hair and the abilities the come with it whenever he gets hit.
- Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Metro Tower levels feature electric node pairs that regularly shoot out yellow electric bolts between them.
- Egg MacGuffin: The third area of the game has you searching for this, which hatches into a small bird. This bird pecks nearby enemies while you have it, and more eggs can be found in later levels.
- Eternal Engine: The chili factory, which also doubles as a Lethal Chili Sauce Land.
- Fanservice: During the hotel stage, Rocky can break in a room where a girl is taking a bath. She's only visible during a moment before she covers herself for good with the shower curtain, though.
- The Goomba: Small armadillos wearing fedoras.
- Hell Hotel: Well, more like apartments, really.
- High-Speed Battle: You're fighting the first boss on the roof of a moving van while running down the freeway.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Red Hot Co has conveyor belts that are hindrance to the player.
- Law of 100: Getting 100 food items nets you an extra life.
- Lethal Lava Land: But instead of lava, it's chili sauce!
- Mascot with Attitude: You think?
- Mr. Exposition: The skater guy who shows up both to teach you about the game and to advance the plot.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: The hairstyles.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Apparently, the reason the restaurant owner couldn't pay the mob was because Rocky accidentally ate the money.
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Nintendo Hard: Most of the game ranges from easy to quite challenging, but the bouncing gears in the last level are nearly impossible to survive, even after you learn how to proceed. The cheat that allows infinite continues doesn't even help that much. - One-Hit-Point Wonder: Rocky dies in a single hit if he doesn't have any hair.
- Power Up Letdown: The Blue Mohawk lets Rocky throw the mohawk as a boomerang but while the mohawk is flying, Rocky is treated as bald, and thus vulnerable to death if he gets hit before it returns. You can throw the mohawk, then die if something hits you!
- Prehensile Hair: Including mohawks!
- Race Against the Clock
- Recurring Boss: The bat, fought as the third and fifth boss.
- Rise to the Challenge: Part of the sewer level includes rising chili sauce.
- Save the Princess: The general mission. Rocky only volunteers to rescue Melody in exchange for free food as a reward from the Owner.
- Seesaw Catapult: The game features seesaws with an anvil in one end. Jumping on a seesaw makes an anvil bounce slightly upward which, upon landing, launches the player high up in the air.
- Single-Use Shield: Rocky's haircuts shield him from one hit, at the cost of losing his hair and turning bald.
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Red Hot Co has crushers as a level hazard.
- Something Else Also Rises: When the Damsel in Distress kisses Rocky, his red mohawk suddenly springs up from his scalp.
- Springs, Springs Everywhere: Umbrellas and tyres act as springboards. The game also has regular springboards towards the end of the game.
- Take Your Time: Two levels make it seem like you have a time limit, but neither of them really does.
- Traveling-Pipe Bulge: When Rocky enters a pipe, you can tell where he is by the bulges he makes when kicking inside the pipe.
- The Unfought: Don Garcia is never actually fought; the final boss is instead his Dragon, The Bad Bulldozer. Which makes sense when you think about it. I mean, who would you think would put up a better fight? Some irritable, short guy or an evil bulldog flying around with a jetpack and armed with a rocket launcher?
- We Can Rule Together: What Don Garcia offers Rocky when he's finally confronted. Rocky turns it down, of course, leading to...
- We Will Meet Again
- A Winner Is You: The ending.
