Video Game / Cookie's Bustle

(Cookie's a tiny, little girl)
Oh, yeah, Cookie's a tiny, little girl
(But she believes she's a baby bear)
Did she find that in the mirror?
(Come on, Cookie!) Hold that jump!
(Come on, Cookie!) Try again!
Everybody's looking for a hero, oh, yeah!

Cookie's Bustle: Mysterious Bombo World is a 1999 Japanese point-and-click Adventure Game created by Keisuke Harigai and published by Rodik as their first and only release for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. The game saw limited sales and remained obscure for the most part until it was ripped and uploaded onto the Internet in 2018. The game is notable for its Mood Whiplash in the first five minutes of the game, followed by dark and surreal humor. It later reached notoriety in December 2022 after uploads from the game was removed due to (fraudulent) copyright claims.

A hundred years ago, aliens invaded a South Pacific country called Bombo World, and the president at the time agreed to give them the northern part of the country (now known as the alien civilization Derocity) in exchange for their technology. However, in the passing years, anti-government tension grew worse. In the midst of this, the game follows Cookie Blair, a 5-year-old girl from New Jersey who imagines herself to be a bear. Cookie travels to Bombo City to participate in the Bombo Games, a sports festival taking place every four years, but she finds herself caught up in a war that may mean the end of humanity.

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Cookie's Bustle provides examples of:

• Affectionate Nickname: The manual states that Cookie's father calls her "little bear." Because of this, Cookie thinks of herself as an actual baby bear.
• Artifact of Death: Picking up the book The Law of Devil's Land in the haunted house will summon the devil if Cookie goes to Mt. Bombo. The devil locks the doors behind her, and, if he sees her, he swoops in to drop her to her death.
• Backtracking: Cookie may have to revisit certain locations to find Plot Coupons. This is only because said Plot Coupon only becomes available after she talks to certain NPCs that need the item. She also has to participate in the Bombo Games again for a gold medal in order to reach later parts of Derocity.
• Big Damn Heroes: Mu, the groundhog that Cookie frees in the west part of the Southern Territory, returns the favor by freeing her from prison when she is locked up for three days.
• Blackout Basement: The haunted house segment is completely dark and Cookie must navigate it using a torch that only lights up a small radius around her.
• Bring My Red Jacket: Nancy wears a red scarf, and she is shot when the police find her and Cookie.
• Broken Bridge:
  • The entrance to Derocity can be found early on, but a purple fog is blocking it. Unmo Sable tells Cookie that she has to "strengthen her heart" (and get the entry card) before she is able to enter
  • A boulder is blocking the entrance to the pyramid. Cookie has to get a bomb before she can progress.
• Catchphrase: "I'm Cookie Blair. And this is Grey Rabbit!"
• Creator Cameo: The player can unlock a scene where Cookie can find Keisuke Harigai in a Bizarro World.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Cookie can die in a number of unsettling ways, including being shot, falling (even during the Bombo Sports), summoning a devil, being run over by a tractor, being too close to a bomb, smoking too many cigarettes, you name it. Even worse, sometimes she screams phrases that indicating her death, such as "I'm going to die!" or "I can't breathe!"
• Dirty Old Man: There's a policeman in Bombo World patrolling the fountain who insists that Cookie must be accompanied by an adult at all times. However, once he realizes her parents are nowhere to be found, he picks her up and hugs her closely against her will, with creepy laughing to boot. The unfortunate part is that this interaction is required to progress the game, since this will cause Cookie to drop Dr. Right's vibra box into the fountain to fix it and get the battery in exchange.
• Distressed Dude: Dr. Right is kidnapped by the aliens some time after Cookie is able to enter Derocity.
• Expressive Health Bar: Occasionally, Cookie will announce that she's lonely, hungry, tired, thirsty, or needs to use the bathroom. You have to kiss her and bring her to places like food stands or bathrooms in time, otherwise she will angrily exclaim that she's going back home. After this point, it's a game over.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Cookie is never seen without Grey, a rabbit plushie.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Cookie is wearing a dress that only covers most of the top half of her body.
• Her Heart Will Go On: Laura gave up on dancing after her lover died, but Cookie inspires her to dance again and gives her the red shoes to dance in.
• It Is Beyond Saving: The aliens reveal that they came to Earth to observe humanity, and because humans are constantly divided by politics and religion, they decide that the only solution is to destroy Earth.
• MacGuffin-Person Reveal: Dr. Right tells Cookie on his deathbed that the passcode to deactivating the alien's bomb is "Nancy", the name of Cookie's grandmother.
• Mistaken for Related: In Bombo World, there's a woman in a green hat who mistakes Cookie for her dead daughter, Elizabeth. After she reveals this to Cookie, Cookie cheers her up by promising to visit her every now and then.
• Mood Whiplash: The game infamously starts off with bright, cute graphics and Cookie on her way to see her grandmother. After she is unable to take the bus due to losing her bus pass, the bus drives off without her. A second later, a jeep pulls up and two men blow up the bus with a bazooka, followed by a helicopter dropping by and shooting the men dead.
• The Narrator: The narrator, voiced by Chris Peppler, is heard telling the story in Japanese during the opening of the game and also speaks whenever Cookie receives a new item.
• The Ojou: When visiting the Southern Territory for the first time, Cookie will find a rich girl in a pink dress who is looking for her cat Leonard.
• Ominous Save Prompt: In Derocity, right before Cookie reaches the final rooms in the game leading up to the bomb chamber, she will say, "I have a bad feeling about this. It seems like it'd be a good idea to save here."
• Plot Coupon: The ghost of John Simpson tells Cookie that he had stolen the N66 bomb from the aliens and asks her to find it and pass it onto his allies in Derocity. Cookie finds it from the goblins, but the N66 serves no real purpose and is only used as the key to enter the second part of the game, Derocity. The aliens confiscate it from her immediately before she enters.
• Pre-Rendered Graphics: The game uses 3D graphics but the gameplay is 2D.
• Random Event: Events and dialogue for plot-irrelevant Non Player Characters are all randomized and spawn in random locations.
  • In the infamous scene in the beginning of the game, the bus driver may be male or female. The helicopter may either fly away unharmed or be shot down by the terrorists.
  • In Bombo World, Cookie may encounter a sword-swallowing clown who disappears in a burst of flame, guerilla warfare (which can end in a game over if she gets shot), or a terrorist from John Simpson's faction trying to rally an audience into taking a stand against the aliens. Also, a streaker may run across the bottom of the screen.
  • In the swimming and track sports mini games, if Cookie catches up to a contestant, they may be doing something random, such as, well, BDSM.
  • Sometimes when Cookie enters the girls' restroom, there will be a pervert in there, and she will quickly exit.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the pyramid, Cookie will find the corpse of a person who resembles Lara Croft and even picks up a gun. However, Cookie claims that she "doesn't need it" and promptly throws it away.
  • There's an old professor named Dr. Right, who somewhat resembles Dr. Light.
• Warp Whistle: After Cookie frees Mu, Mu teaches her a special chant that allows her to call a bird that will fly her to whatever flag that has an image of a bird on it.
• We Hardly Knew Ye:
  • If Cookie talks to one of the men shot by the helicopter, he will mention someone named John Simpson. Later on, when walking around the Southern Territory, one of Simpson's followers will appear and announce that Simpson was killed by aliens in order to rally support against them. Later on, in the west part of the Southern Territory, Cookie is able to communicate with Simpson's ghost after lifting his cross, where he tells her that he has stolen a bomb called N66 from the aliens and orders her to pass it onto his allies inside Derocity.
  • Nancy's voice is first heard during the game's prologue, where she tells Cookie to see her as soon as she gets to Bombo World. She does not show up in person until the very end of the game, where afterwards she is shot by the police.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The golden robot workers at Derocity are promptly disposed when they are no longer able to work.
• You Shall Not Pass!: At the end of the game, Nancy finds Cookie and gives her the card key needed to enter the bomb chamber. In doing so, Nancy is shot by the police and she urges Cookie to go on without her.

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