If Nintendo was going to reveal that one of the characters from the Zelda universe would be spun-off and given their own game, there would be cheers of joy. No one would pick Tingle to be this character. In a way, this essence is the very spirit of the game - Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. There is nothing conventional about the game, and just when you think you have it worked out, the game flips on its head and surprises you in amazing (and bizarre) ways.

For starters, Tingle was never released in Australia, so I had to jump through some hoops to get hold of it. Luckily DS titles are multi-region, so with the assistance of a volunteer on VGChartz I managed to import a copy from Europe. Normally I would never go through such lengths to get hold of a game, but what little I had heard and seen of Tingle had caught my attention. Firstly, the game had Tingle starring in a leading role, in a spin-off of the Zelda universe. No sign of Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, or any other characters. Secondly, the game play involves a unique element - a single collectible represents both money and health. Run out of money and you die. And finally, the game employs what can only be described as a very 'camp' character and graphic style.

The story of 'Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland' goes something like this: At the start of the game you are a middle-aged, bored and broke fellow that seems to have lost the very spirit to live. Your dreams of hot chicks, holidaying in the sun, and vast riches, are as far away from your current life as they could be. Enter "Uncle Rupee" who appears to you as a God. He promises that if you collect enough Rupees for him, he will take you to Rupeeland, where all your dreams will come true. Next thing you know, you are dressed in a funny green suit, collecting rupees, and tossing them into a giant pool.

The game is effectively a 2D adventure game (not dissimilar to say Zelda:LTTP) controlled entirely with the stylus. You walk around, exploring environments, clicking on objects of interest. Some objects reveal money, some reward Tingle with ingredients, some reveal special objects or reveal hidden objects on your map. Combat is a key element in TRR. There are lots of things to attack/combat, and all you have to do is make Tingle walk over (or near) the creature(s) and a battle will start. You have only indirect control over a combat - you can move Tingle around while fighting, and you can click like mad on the fight/smoke cloud. The more you click, the better Tingle is at fighting, and the fewer rupees you lose during combat. It's a little odd, but it actually works quite well, and the enemies are well balanced. The game rewards you significantly for fighting several things at once - once something is sucked into your fight cloud, the fight gets bigger and more intense. The rewards get exponentially better. Suck too many things in, and lose focus for too long clicking on Tingle, and before you know it you are out of Rupees and it's game over.

A key feature of the game is hiring 'Bodyguards'. Bodyguards follow you around (only ever one at a time), and jump into fights before you do (or with you). They hang around until they run out of life, at which point you either pay them again (which magically makes them interested in helping you again) or they run off. You have to initially hire (pay) them, and it's not long before progressing further in the game is almost impossible without a bodyguard.

The key to the game is money. You barter at every opportunity - buying objects, selling ingredients or cooked food, hiring bodyguards, buying & selling maps, purchasing hints and so on. The bartering is unnecessarily mean, and in my opinion this is the biggest weakness in the game (I found myself saving, bartering until I found a reasonable figure, then reloading). The problem is this: say you want to buy a cookpot, and it costs a minimum of 1000 rupees. Apart from some facial expressions from the NPCs, there are no hints you are given until you bid an amount. You might bid 900 rupees - the NPC will reject you, AND they will keep ALL the money you gave them. They still want another 1000. As a result, it could end up costing you 2-3x (in total) the actual cost of something when buying it. The game is fairly tight with money. In order to complete a level, the game requires you to 'feed' the magic rupee pool with a lot of money. But money is also health - so feed it too much and you risk running out of health and dying. As you complete a level, the tower gets taller and Tingle is able to reach new lands by floating off the top with his balloons.

The first region has a village with lots of weird characters that help Tingle out during his adventure. Initially most of them need Tingle to help them out - then they will open shops, and sell (rip-off?) various items to Tingle. As the adventure progresses, more characters turn up and populate the village. Tingle finds himself regularly coming back to visit, especially to buy medicine, maps and sell his cooking. Cooking is a remarkably big part of the game. There are a lot of ingredients that Tingle can collect - mainly from defeated enemies, but sometimes from other sources as well. With these ingredients, and with the help of recipes that Tingle has found or bought, Tingle can 'cook'. The cooking minigame is quite easy (probably too easy - I only failed one dish over my entire adventure). You select the ingredients, toss them into a pot (of the right size), then stir the cook pot rapidly with the stylus. If you get the recipe right, you can bottle the results and use them later. Cooking is a key part of the game, because in many ways it's the easiest way to make money. You collect a lot of 'cheap' ingredients, that when sold on their own make little money. Cook them up into a delicious dish, and you can make 10x (or more!) money from selling the cooked equivalent.

The other 'easy' way to make money (in fact the only real way to make enough money to finish a level) is to complete a dungeon. Most levels have a dungeon, which are similar to Zelda dungeons, just smaller and more combat based. The puzzles are usually pretty simple, although many of them require you to have the right (sized) bodyguard to get access to certain rooms. This provides a certain level of replayability, as to really clear a dungeon you need to visit it 2-3 times with multiple bodyguards. Every dungeon has a boss, and this is where the game surprises and shines. Every boss is different, and has been coded individually. They aren't particularly hard, but you might find yourself replaying a few times before mastering them.

One annoying issue within the game that is worth mentioning - saving. You can only save from your "home" which is located at the start of the first level. Getting back there isn't too hard (there are bridges and return points). The problem is returning to where you came from. Not all levels link to the magic rupee pool, and sometimes it can take a lot of work to return to where you started from. A quicksave feature would have been great. At least once I lost progress because my DS ran out of battery!

The graphics of the game get the job done without being spectacular, but the art style is unique, and very funny. It's like some weird, warped version the Zelda universe (many of the elements such as bottles, bombs, potions, digging, and maps). Pinkle (your personal assistant/'fairy') pretty much sums it up. The music is well suited and varied, the sound effects distinct and enjoyable. There are actually a lot of levels, and they get very large and quite difficult. There is minimal reuse between the levels - and some of the later ones such as the volcano and desert actually play, look and sound considerably different from the others.

In truth, I could talk a lot more about Tingle. Medicine, digging, cookpots, mapping, special items... there is a lot of variety, and a lot of content in the game. It's very long (I would have clocked at least 20hrs on it - and I never got the 'good' ending), and the game gets remarkably hard towards the end. Tingles Rosy Rupeeland is a single player game, so if you don't get into the adventure, there isn't much else to keep you busy. There are no external mini-games, and it's not the sort of game you can pass around. It also has 'grinding' elements - in both the combat and cooking. Sometimes you need to replay previous levels to look for elusive ingredients, so that you can complete some mega-cooking recipe.

This is not a game for everyone - but it is a game for someone looking for a truly different experience that is long and challenging. It's unique in many ways, and it's definitely cemented in my top 10 DS game list.

Dive in, and follow Tingle towards true happiness. You might just find this leads to your true Rupeeland.