Video Game / Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland

If you're still here, chances are you're not American.

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland is a quirky little game developed by Vanpool and published by Nintendo for the DS, starring Tingle from The Legend of Zelda. In it, Tingle is an ordinary 35-year-old man living in what may or may not be Hyrule. One day, a mysterious Rupee-shaped character promises him entrance to Rupeeland if he collects enough Rupees, and changes his name to Tingle, giving him his classic green suit.

It was released in Japan in 2006 and in Europe a year later, but not in North America because Americans Hate Tingle (if you want to play it, import it - it's region-free!). It received a sequel in 2009, Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love, which revolves around women instead of money; this was never released outside of Japan, but fortunately(?), an English-language Fan Translation is now available. Tingle's Balloon Fight, a Balloon Fight Clone-Spin-Off featuring Tingle was released in 2007, in-between the two.

---

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland contains examples of the following tropes:

• Aliens Steal Cattle: Aliens have abducted the cows of Lon Lon Meadow and brought them back (a possible reference to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask). The cows Tingle encounters all sport grey alien heads.
• Anti-Hero: Tingle may go around helping people and ultimately save the world, but he's roped into the adventure in the first place by promises of all the money, food, and women he could ever want. The quest hasn't changed him, either; after the final battle, he daydreams about doing all of the things he was promised now that he has loads of rupees. The Grand Fairy asks if he's no better than the villain was.
• Artificial Stupidity: Bodyguards come in three flavors: "Passive", meaning they won't initiate combat except in self-defense or (sometimes) if ordered to; "Aggressive", meaning they will simply attack everything nearby, even if it's beneficial not to do so; or "Assertive", meaning they'll only attack if ordered to, or if Tingle initiates combat.
• Beam-O-War: In part of the final battle, the boss shoots a beam of energy at you that you can stop and repel with a beam of rupees.
• Bee People: One area has giant, intelligent bees.
• Big Ball of Violence: How Tingle fights enemies (except for the bosses).

• Boss Subtitles: Beetle Lord Death Bug, Captain Stalfos, Tri-Force Colored Plant: Bana Bana, Beetle King Ultra Death Bug, Undiscovered Parasitic Insect Gargantu-Bug, Fire Monster Dora Dora, [[spoiler: Ultimate Boss Uncle Rupee, and Super Powered Uncle Grand Rupee. In Legend of Zelda tradition, Uncle Rupee's final form lacks subtitles, simply being called Rupee.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Part of the overall humour and messages. Notable cases are Tingle's uncle and the Port Town kids.
• Broken Bridge: Although most of them don't lead anywhere that you couldn't get to without them, so paying to fix them is usually for convenience.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Gooey Swamp and a bit of Steamy Marsh.
• But Thou Must!: Two significant iterations in the game: declining Uncle Rupee's offer at the beginning will make him explain once again Rupeeland's utopia. In the same vein, refusing to help the Grand Fairy will make her explain once again Rupeeland's dystopia.
• Canine Companion: For part of the game, Barkle. There's also a dog in each set of Bodyguards one can hire.
• Cash Gate: Both figurative ones (the point of the entire main quest) and literal gates which are activated by throwing Rupees into them.
• The Chief's Daughter: Mamba, though she doesn't develop anything romantically with Tingle, not even in the good ending.
• The Chosen Zero: Tingle. He is not exactly heroic, but is still the last hope of everyone in the game.
• Clam Trap: Oysters give you a valuable pearl in Sunshine Seashore and vitamin plants in Deku Forest give you forest vitamin, which is both valuable and a good medicine. It's unavoidable for the trap to close, so it's a matter of getting out as soon as possible and keeping the damage low.
• Continuity Snarl: Being a spinoff, it isn't included in Hyrule Historia's official timeline, and with references to the rest of the Zelda series being sparse, it's clear that a relationship to other Zelda games was not a priority of the developers. Still, Canon Discontinuity has not been established, so it's been postulated by fans that it takes place somewhere after The Wind Waker after the Deku Tree from that game succeeds in terraforming the Great Sea and creating continents.
• Crapsack World:
  • One where people charge Rupees for advice, opening their shop, and letting others enter a town, and where people haggle and keep the money if they don't like the offer... It's no wonder that you succumb to Uncle Rupee in the beginning. There is no sign of any hero like Link... The few heroes charge Rupees to be heroic!
  • Rupeeland is worse, as everyone is forced to gather Rupees or die... and most of the Rupees go to Uncle Rupee.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Salona, the hooded beings who run the bodyguard salons. Long ago, they helped a hero defeat an ancient demon. Because they acted as the hero's shadows, the demon cursed them to live as shadows and turn into dust if exposed to light.
• Death Mountain: Mount Desma.
  Old book:^note When read backwards. Mount Desma is also known as the Mountain of Death.
• Destructible Projectiles: The Final Boss also shoots black Rupees at you which you often have to shoot to not get hit by them.
• Do You Want to Haggle?: You're not gonna get through this game if you have no feel for it (or a guide).
• Elemental Powers: The Super Sentai-ish fairy squad corresponds to the elements of Metal, Aqua, Leaf, Earth and Magma. There's also a collection of Super Rupees based on these elements.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Pinkle gives you extra support in the final battle if you've found all the Rupee Goods and freed her.

• Evil Mentor: Uncle Rupee.
• Expy:
  • Oinkers of Moblins, both being pig-like enemies.
  • Dora Dora of Volvagia, both being fire dragon bosses. Dora Dora also bears a passing resemblance to Fracktail.
• Faux Affably Evil: Uncle Rupee, while obviously evil the second or third time you meet him, still acts rather nice to Tingle... until Rupeeland is almost a reality.
• Fetch Quest: Most aren't mandatory, but doing them earns you a good amount of rupees.
• Fairy Sexy: The Great Fairy and Pinkle are the game's main source of fanservice.
• Gaia's Lament: The Deku Tree is dying due to pollution.
• Girls with Moustaches: Duko's moustache is just as luxurious as her brothers'.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The 30 Rupee Goods qualify as either crucial or optional, because you don't need them to complete the game, but not having them all will get you the bad ending. There's also semi-important collections consisting of 23 Empty Jars, 11 maps with each a varying number of landmarks to be noted on, 31 Recipes, and one optional sidequest involving having hired and acquired the profile of all 30 official Bodyguards.
• Guide Dang It!: A frustrating example are the phases where you have to pay NPCs or vice versa. Another is finding the recipe for Tasty Stew.
• Happily Adopted: Aba by Junglo. When Aba reunites and goes to live with her biological father, she and Junglo have a short, but heartwarming goodbye.
  Aba: Bye, Forest Dad!
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Played with: You can name the protagonist everything except Tingle, because that's the name he'll be given less than five minutes into the game. There's a few special NPCs that call you your real (i.e. chosen) name.
• Imagine Spot: When the Grand Fairy reveals to Tingle what Rupeeland will really be like, Tingle has a brief hallucination of a Bad Future called "Bad Uncle Rupee's Ashen Rupeeland".
• Item Get!: Yep, Tingle triumphantly holds up items that he obtains too.
• Karmic Death: The final boss of the game gets one of these. The avaricious Uncle Rupee is killed by Tingle shooting him with all of the rupees that Uncle Rupee has tricked him into collecting.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Duko is the elder sister of Macho Camp bridge builders Duke and Judge... but shares a Strong Family Resemblance with them, acts the same way, and even has the most impressive moustache of the three.
• Large and in Charge: The Grand Fairy, Captain Stalfos, the Yamatami chief and the Oinker boss are all much larger than their minions. Uncle Rupee's final form, too.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Paul Moneybags, because he thinks showing off his expensive possessions is a good way to make friends with the locals (the children in Port Town). It isn't, but when Paul leaves crying over being rejected, one of the kids does follow him to reveal money is for grownups and not interesting to them, but that they'd love to hear the stories of his travels around the globe and what it's like to fly in a balloon. Paul subsequently befriends them on those terms.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Captain Stalfos.
  "Your screams as I strip the flesh from your bones will mark your birth as a pirate! As one of us!"
• Macho Camp: Duke, Judge, Duko and their father, the Foreman, all are based on this image. Just watch them thrust their pelves.
• Magic Music: The Bone Ocarina, which summons the Stalfos Pirates and opens their secret treasure chests.
• The Maze: Junglo puts signs revealing the right path throughout the forest for a certain amount of Rupees. There's also a hidden chest in there, but that one you'll have to find on your own.
• The Medic: Missy at Hometown Prairie, the doctor at Steamy Marsh and the Shaman at Desma Mountain.
• Metal Detector Puzzle: Using the Bone Ocarina to find the hidden pirate chests (not required) and opening them (required).
• Mineral MacGuffin: Aside from collecting the regular rupees, you also have to get the Super Rupees that act as the game's dungeon counters, and the final Master Rupee.
• Multiple Endings: There's a bad ending and a good ending. Oddly, the bad ending is actually much more interesting and philosophical than the good ending, although you'll still feel cheated out of your victory.
• Mythology Gag: A few locations in the game are homages to the main series (Deku Forest, Lon Lon Meadows, Desma Mountain), and the Salona also look a lot like the Subrosians from Oracle of Seasons.
• Ninja: Yamori, one of the Drifter Bodyguards. Being able to hire him involves a miniquest of finding him a bunch of times and eventually explaining him why he keeps failing at ninja-ism.
• Obviously Evil: Uncle Rupee, who tells Tingle that throwing rupees into the pond will grant a life of luxury and comfort, isn't that clearly the villain when you first meet him. By the second story-proceeding donation though, you'll notice that Uncle Rupee's living more luxuriously than when you first met him.
• Only in It for the Money: Tingle, with the sidenote that money doubles as his life energy. So is everyone else, because they're all greedy.
• Optional Boss: Baron, who can only be fought if you have one of the wandering bodyguards with you.
• Our Fairies Are Different: They're the spirits of altruism and generosity, or simply the anti-Uncle Rupee(s).
• Palette Swap: The regular Bodyguards. There is a set of nine sprites per continent, so each continent utilizes different colours to set their Bodyguards apart.

• Playboy Bunny: One of Uncle Rupee's servants during the final fight.
• The Power of Love: That which enables the Guard to thwart the evil lurking in the cemetery and save his wife.
• The Promised Land: Rupeeland is described as a paradise by Uncle Rupee. It's not. In fact, it's even worse than the Rupee-driven Crapsack World Tingle lives in — those who live in Rupeeland have to gather Rupees or die, and most of the Rupees go to Uncle Rupee, who wants to get even richer and make Tingle and everyone else a slave.

• Robbing the Dead: Want the Icy Bouillon recipe? Start digging! There's also a couple of dead adventurers' bodies to take loot from, but they aren't in graves.
• Save Point: The computer at Tingle's house.
• Self-Made Man: Tingle upon getting the good ending gets to keep his hard earned cash.
• Sequential Boss: Uncle Rupee has a normal form, a green powered up form, an orange powered up form, a red powered up form and finally a giant Rupee head form.
• Sexophone: Pinkle's jazzy theme, complete with exaggerated female sighs.
• Shout-Out: One of the boss battles is a parody of Punch-Out!!.
• Snowed-In: Getting the recipe for Ultra Sleep Spray involves finding the remains of an adventurer who couldn't leave his secluded spot because of the snow storms. Poor guy had to cook with what he had and never woke up...
• Spikes of Doom: Spikes that shoot out of the floor are a recurring hazard in dungeons. Particularly bad in the Insect Cavern.
• Stalking Mission: A recurring sidequest to find out what Dave's "Big Bro" is up to involves following him from a distance without being seen.
• Stripperiffic: Pinkle's outfit consists of a bikini, boots and fishnets. There's also one scantily clad female warrior in each set of Bodyguards one can hire.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Junglo's pet Mandrill has a little bow on her head.
• Tomboy: Aba. She teaches Tingle the basics of combat and she picks a fight with the Armorer during her sidequest.
• Treacherous Advisor: Uncle Rupee, who advises Tingle to collect Rupees to enter a utopia, but actually plans to get rich and make Tingle a slave.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Pinkle, Tingles love interest, is significantly more attractive than Tingle himself.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Pinkle and her mother can only be told apart by the fact the mother wears a crown. As per tradition, Tingle's uncle is pretty much him with glasses.
• Unexpected Shmup Level: The Final Boss fight against Uncle Rupee is this, with all the million (and then some) Rupees that you've ever thrown into the tower being used as bullets.
• Unwitting Pawn: Tingle, who is promised riches and a utopia by Uncle Rupee, who wants to get Rupees for himself at Tingle's expense.

---