Rocky Rodent

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, 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 enviroment 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.

Tropes used in Rocky Rodent include:

• 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.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The second level combines this with Hell Hotel.
• Big Eater: Rocky himself.
• Demonic Spider: Not so much an enemy as an obstacle, the bouncing gears in the final level.
• Egg McGuffin: 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.
• The Goomba: Small armadillos wearing fedoras.
• Hell Hotel: Well, more like apartments, really.
• High Speed Battle: The first boss is a case of this.
• Law of One Hundred: 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 Powerups: The hairstyles.
• Nice Hat: The little fedoras worn by the armadillos.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Apparently, the reason the restaurant owner couldn't pay the mob was because Rocky accidentally ate the money.
• 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.
• 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.
• Something Else Also Rises: When the Distressed Damsel kisses Rocky, his red mohawk suddenly springs up from his scalp.
• Take Your Time: Two levels make it seem like you have a time limit, but neither of them really does.
• The Unfought: Don Garcia is never actually fought; the final boss is instead his Dragon, The Bad Bulldozer.
• 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.