Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland
Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland is a spin-off game from the Zelda Series for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, developed by the Japanese company Vanpool and published by Nintendo. The popularity of the character Tingle in Japan prompted the development of his own game released on the 2nd of September, 2006. The game was granted a release in PAL format on the 14th of September, 2007 but never received a North American release, most likely due to the unpopularity of Tingle among western audiences.
Story
A pretty normal, 35 year old man was sitting at home until a voice from above tells him he can have money and women in Rupeeland. The voice tells him to go to the pond next to his house. The 35 year old does this, and comes upon Uncle Rupee. Uncle Rupee dresses up the 35 year old, and tells him from then on his name would be Tingle. He then tells him that if he can collect and toss enough rupees in that pool, he will come to Rupeeland. Tingle does this, but only to find that Uncle Rupee wanted the riches for himself. Tingle then battles Uncle Rupee as he lied and Rupeeland is not a paradise, but more of the opposite.
Rupees
The game places heavy emphasis on Rupees, the main goal of the game is to collect as many as possible as dictated by the games main antagonist Uncle Rupee. To progress in the game, the rupees collected must eventually be thrown into the Western Pool next to Tingle's house. When a certain amount has been thrown in, the Western Pool will grow into a huge tower, Tingle can climb to the top and launch himself off with the assistance of his balloon, to reach lands that were previously inaccessible. As more rupees are thrown in, the higher the tower grows allowing Tingle to access far away continents.
Rupees can also be spent on items, bodyguards or when bargaining.
Rupees also represent Tingle's health in this game unlike the traditional Heart Containers in mainstream Zelda games.
Rupee Goods
Tingle can come across hidden treasures throughout his quest, these treasures are Rupee Goods and 30 can be found scattered throughout the game.
Rupee Goods cannot be sold, instead Tingle keeps them in the attic at his house.
If Tingle collects all 30 Rupee Goods he will get a "special" reward.
Items and Recipes
Tingle can obtain many items in the game, most of which can be sold but many items have other uses.
Many items are treasures, usually weapons, Tingle can't use the weapons but he can sell them for a high price. Other items include ingredients for cooking at Tingle's house, you can experiment with ingredients or follow a recipe earned by completing quests. Tingle can only carry his prepared recipes in Empty Jars, 23 of which can be found in the game.
Mapping
Tingle's map-making skills also come in handy in the game, on each land Tingle can find a kid with a map of the land you are currently in, known as the "Look-What-I-Found Kid", who is normally hidden somewhere on the land and will charge Tingle for the map.
Upon obtaining a map Tingle can begin mapping certain landmarks, these landmarks can normally be interacted with to receive items or treasure. Mapping can be done by pulling out your map and circling the area on the map with the stylus where the landmark is located.
Upon completing a map with every landmark, Tingle can sell the completed map to the town-map seller at Hometown Prairie.
Bargaining
Another unique feature of this game is bargaining. Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland features a plethora of non-playable characters that Tingle can interact with and all of them have one desire, rupees and lots of them.
Tingle will have to very frequently throughout the game have to pay characters in order to progress or to gain information, this is where bargaining comes in. Very rarely will any character ask for a set price, instead Tingle has to make an offer and hope that the character will accept, this can be very tricky as the characters normally give no indication of how much they will accept, if you offer too little they will refuse and they will also take all of the rupees you made in the offer. If you offer too much, they will accept and take all of the rupees but you may have paid far more then what you needed too, it comes down to trial and error to determine the best price.
Combat
The combat for Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland is very different from the mainstream Zelda games.
Tingle's health is not represented by hearts, instead his health is determined by the amount of Rupees he is carrying, every time Tingle takes damage, he loses rupees, if Tingle loses all of his rupees the game is over.
Tingle carries no weapons, upon encountering an enemy, Tingle will fight automatically represented by a fight cloud, the player must then tap repeatedly on the fight cloud with the stylus to win. It's virtually impossible to not lose rupees during a fight.
Tingle can also hire bodyguards which range in strength to fight for him, Tingle can either leave the bodyguard to fight solo or join in the fight.
Upon defeat, an enemy will normally drop items or rupees, items can be sold or perhaps used as ingredients in recipes.
Bodyguards
Scattered around each land are salons where Tingle can hire bodyguards, hiring bodyguards is optional but makes the game far easier. There are 30 bodyguards in the game, 27 are salon bodyguards and the remaining 3 are special drifter bodyguards. There are also 2 quest bodyguards.
Bodyguards come in 3 types: Small, Medium and Large
Small: These bodyguards are fairly weak with low health, attack and defence but are capable of entering small holes to find treasure.
Medium: These have average price, health, attack and defence and come with the ability to pick locks in dungeons.
Large: The most expensive with high health, attack and defence and are capable of moving huge boulders.
Bodyguards also come with 1 of 3 behaviours: Aggressive, Assertive and Passive
Aggressive: These bodyguards will attack any enemy they see regardless of their current health.
Assertive: These will attack only when you command them too or when Tingle enters a battle himself.
Passive: These bodyguards will not fight unless Tingle gets into a fight and moves the fight cloud over them.
Salons can be found on each continent and the bodyguards within become progressively more expensive. Before Tingle can even talk to the bodyguards he has to pay commission which costs 10 Rupees on the 1st continent, 50 on the 2nd and 100 on the 3rd. If Tingle doesn't like the bodyguards on offer he can ring the bell to change the line-up.
A contract made with a bodyguard will remain until the bodyguard's health is drained, at this point Tingle can choose to either leave the bodyguard or revive them by renewing the contract, which means spending more rupees. Tingle can hire only 1 bodyguard at a time, any other contract made with another bodyguard will terminate the previous contract. Bodyguards can also only be used on the continents where they were hired. Entering the Hero's Shrine will also terminate a contract.
There are 3 drifter bodyguards in the game, they can not be found in salons, instead they can be encountered in hidden locations around the land. These bodyguards are very powerful and also very expensive, unlike salon bodyguards they can not be re-hired when they lose all their health, instead they must be re-found.
There are also 2 quest bodyguards which are mandatory as the story progresses.