| Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom | |
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NES North American boxart |
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| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Platform(s) | NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, FM-7, MSX, NES/Famicom, Virtual Console |
| Release date(s) | NES/Famicom
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| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) |
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| Media/distribution | Cartridge |
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (サラダの国のトマト姫 Salada no Kuni no Tomato Hime) is a video game by Hudson Soft originally released in 1984 for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, FM-7 and MSX Japanese home computers.
It was ported on May 27, 1988 to the Famicom, and February 8, 1991[1] for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. It was also released on the Wii's Virtual Console in Japan on January 19, 2010 and in North America on February 8, 2010.
The characters are primarily cartoon-like anthropomorphic fruit & vegetables. In recent years the game has developed a small cult following through the use of NES emulators. The game cartridge is increasingly difficult to find, and has been sold on sites such as eBay for as much as $30 U.S. but can be found at short prices such as $2.50.
Contents |
Taking the role of Sir Cucumber, a knight, the player is assigned by King Broccoli (now deceased) to defeat the evil Minister Pumpkin who has kidnapped Princess Tomato. Early on, Sir Cucumber gains a sidekick, Percy the baby persimmon, who offers advice and helps throughout the quest (and always calls Sir Cucumber "Boss").
"Many growing seasons ago, there was a place where vegetables lived happily, and in perfect harmony. One day, Minister Pumpkin betrayed King Broccoli. He kidnapped Princess Tomato and stole the Turnip Emblem. He took them to his castle in the Zucchini Mountains. He sent his cruel Farmies out to terrorize all the vegetables in the Salad Kingdom. Shortly thereafter, the poor King died from the loss of his beautiful daughter. But he promised you, brave Sir Cucumber, the Princess' hand and the kingdom if you bring them back safely. God speed Sir Cucumber! Hurry! Saladoria is down this path. The Zucchini Mountains are over yonder."
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom plays similarly to a text adventure, though due to the NES's lack of a keyboard accessory, the possible commands are represented by buttons which line both sides of the screen. The commands are fixed and do not change during gameplay. Primarily, the game consists of still screens with the exception of the "finger wars", mazes and occasional animated character, such as the octoberry and fern birds.
Commands within the game are: MOVE, LOOK, CHECK (used to examine things), TALK, TAKE, USE, GIVE, BUY, HIT, FIGHT (also called "finger wars", challenges enemies to rock-paper-scissors), PRAISE (for flattery), DUMP (for getting rid of inventory items, since you can only carry a limited number), ITEM and PERCY (to get help from your sidekick Percy Persimmon after rescuing him; he always refers to you as "boss"). The only way to "lose" is by not being able to determine which action is required to advance (i.e.: there is no way for the player, Sir Cucumber, to "die" except for in one specific "finger wars" battle).
The game uses a password-based system to return to different levels. The levels in the game are as follows:
1. The Field/Spinach Heights
2. Orange Park
3. Saladoria Prison
4. Return to Spinach Heights
5. Resistance Base
6. Peanut Plateau
7. Sopville
8. Minister Pumpkin's Castle
9. Return to Orange Park/Cabaret Celery
Giovani Akira Faganello in association with Pixeltemple has created a PHP/HTML fan version of Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom called "Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom - REMIX". This version, which is currently offline has updated graphics for the first level, and are made to match the original game graphics. Graphics for all other levels are the same as the original NES version and it mostly retains the same dialog from the original game.