Final thoughts and conclusion
But the thing is, the more and more I think about it, the more I’ve convinced I’ve completely missed the point of Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland. I’ve had a quick scan around the web and everyone else seems to like it but for the life of my I can’t see why. Interestingly, no-one seems to have any screens from any further into the game than me, so either their all just stuck or they couldn’t be bothered to play any further…But even if I am missing the point of Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland, with the point possibly being some sort of oblique social commentary on the plight of workers struggling against a world weighted against them ever achieving their goals, there’s no forgiving a game mechanic that gets in the way of you playing the damn game.
The touchscreen controls are unresponsive at best and the amount of poking, prodding and then irate ramming of my stylus into my touchscreen in an effort to get anything done leaves me wondering just why I’m bothering playing… In fact, the only reason I kept going back to Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland was to see whether or not it was really that bad or if it was just me. And I have to conclude that it really is that bad.
Sadly, try as I might, there’s very little to recommend Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland to anyone. Ok, on the upside, the fighting mechanic is simple enough, you just walk into a monster and the fight kicks off. The inventory system is simple enough to use and see everything in your back-pack but using stuff is another matter altogether. And um, well, that’s about as positive as I can be.
You see, other than the ease of the controls to make Tingle move around, I can’t think of anything more positive. The so-called bartering system is nothing more than guess work which, if you get it wrong, costs you precious, and in this game very hard earned, Rupees. In fact, most often you’ll be practically haemorrhaging Rupees with bugger all to show for it and even when you’ve collected a decent amount the game insists you lob most of them into the pool or it’ll reset it back down a level, making all your previous efforts in vain.
So, unless you like to be frustrated beyond belief, if you like to trek for miles across game screens, if you like to throw hard earned cash away for no reward and if you like a game that appears to actively work against you not just within the game itself but also in how it’s controlled, then Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland is definitely for you.
For anyone else that like’s a fair challenge then I suggest playing street hockey on the M1 as a worthy alternative. Ok, you could probably be killed or seriously maimed but at least you stand some sort chance, something that Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland just doesn’t give you.
Pros
Easy, if simplistic, fight system
Erm.. that’s it.
Cons
Unfair ‘bartering’ system
Unresponsive touchscreen controls
No quick-jumps between locations
Tortuously slow to progress
Physically less painful than beating yourself with a brick but equally as pointless.
