Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill

Last updated
Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill
Socks Rocks the Hill.jpg
Preliminary cover art featuring Bill Clinton and Socks
Developer(s) Realtime Associates
Publisher(s) Kaneko (Canceled)
Second Dimension (2018)
Platform(s) Super NES
Sega Genesis
ReleaseSuper NES
  • WW: February 1, 2018
Genre(s) Platforming
Mode(s) Single-player

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill is an unreleased platform video game developed by Realtime Associates for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game stars Socks, the real-life presidential pet cat of the Clinton family during Bill Clinton's tenure in office. Originally scheduled for release in 1993, Socks the Cat experienced delays until it was ultimately canceled due to the closure of publisher Kaneko's U.S. branch. A prototype copy eventually entered the hands of private collectors, and following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the ROM image was released to the public in 2018.

Contents

Set in Washington D.C., Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill follows the title character as he makes his way past spies, politicians, and the news media to warn the Clinton family of a stolen nuclear missile launch device. The game makes heavy use of political satire, including bosses designed as caricatures of former U.S. presidents and other political figures. Nintendo reportedly liked the game despite their censorship policies during the era which condemned games with political content. The political satire was also praised by contemporary critics, although the game was otherwise found to be average.

Synopsis

The game begins with Socks observing foreign spies stealing a nuclear missile launch unit in the basement of a foreign embassy. [1] He embarks on a journey through eleven stages through landmarks in the Washington D.C. area like The Pentagon to return to the Oval Office in the White House and alert the Clinton family. [2] [3] Throughout the game, Socks must overcome the likes of foreign spies, politicians, the United States Secret Service, and the news media. [3] The bosses are caricatures of political figures, such as Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ross Perot. [2] [4] In one situation, Socks must push Millie the dog, pet of former president George H. W. Bush, out the front door to avoid Arab terrorist felines. [5] Also, Richard Nixon calls in bomb raids and Ted Kennedy is seen driving a car on a bridge. [6]

History

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill features caricatures of political figures, such as Richard Nixon SNES Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill.png
Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill features caricatures of political figures, such as Richard Nixon

Kaneko originally planned two entirely different games to feature Socks, one for the Super NES to be developed by Realtime Associates, and the other by an undisclosed developer for the Genesis. [6] The SNES and Genesis games were both occasionally referred to as Socks the Cat Rocks the House in some early publications; however, this title would later refer to the Genesis game only. [5] [6] The "Socks the Cat" license was not owned by the Clinton family, but rather a fan club known as the Presidential Socks Partnership. [7] Kaneko purchased the license from the fan club, with some of the profits given to The Humane Society of the United States and the Children's Defense Fund, one of Hillary Clinton's favorite charities. [8]

Socks the Cat was first unveiled and demonstrated by Kaneko on June 2, 1993, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. [6] The first release window provided was for late 1993, but was repeatedly delayed, pushing its release into mid-1994. [1] [3] [6] [9] [10] Shortly before its scheduled release, Socks the Cat was canceled due to the closure of Kaneko's U.S. division. Although Nintendo's censorship policies during the late 1980s and early 1990s condemned games that had "subliminal political messages or overt political statements", Nintendo reportedly liked the game. [6] [11] Former Realtime Associates employees have stated the game was finished. One former developer, David Warhol, stated the game "was very irreverent...maybe it's better it didn't come out after all!" [6]

Some time after its cancellation, a prototype copy was sold by a former Kaneko employee to video game collector Jason Wilson. [12] In 2011, a five-minute video was uploaded to YouTube showing gameplay from the cartridge, giving proof of the game's existence. [12] [13] In 2012, Wilson sold the game to collector Tom Curtin for the same amount as a "decent used car". The sale was made in part because Curtin wished to release the game. He acquired the rights to the "Socks the Cat" trademark in 2015 and planned to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to fund a release of the game. [12] The campaign was launched on October 10, 2016 and finished 110% funded on November 8, 2016, the same day as the 2016 US presidential election (in which Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee). The campaign anticipated a 2017 release; [14] the game finally released on February 1, 2018. [15]

Reception

Although never fully released at the time of development, Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill was reviewed by multiple publications who generally saw it as an average platformer albeit with excellent boss design and political satire. Nintendo Power found the boss characters to be humorous but criticized the poor controls. [1] GamePro also praised the bosses and the satire, but were more critical with the flat graphics and poor sound. They provided scores of 3.0 for graphics, 2.5 for sound, 3.5 for controls, and 3.5 for "fun factor" (out of 5). [2] Nintendo Power believed poor controls made the game challenging, but GamePro found the game easy and thought the controls "take practice but prove effective." [1] [2] Electronic Gaming Monthly dubbed it "a cute run-and-jump, claw the enemies game." [16]

Notes

  1. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly's individual scores were 7, 6, 6, 5, and 5. [16]
  2. ↑ Nintendo Power's individual review scores were 3.4, 3.2, 3.1, and 3.1. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Super Street Fighter II</i> 1993 video game

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is a competitive fighting game produced by Capcom and originally released as an arcade game in 1993. It is the fourth game in the Street Fighter II sub-series of Street Fighter games, following Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting. It refines and balances the existing character roster from the previous versions, and introduces four new characters. It is the first game on Capcom's CP System II hardware, with more sophisticated graphics and audio over the original CP System hardware used in previous versions of Street Fighter II.

<i>Kirbys Avalanche</i> 1995 video game

Kirby's Avalanche, known in Europe as Kirby's Ghost Trap, is a puzzle video game developed by Compile and Banpresto and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released on February 1, 1995 in Europe and on April 25, 1995 in North America. It is a Western release of the Japanese Super Puyo Puyo featuring characters from the Kirby series. There was not a Japanese release, and the game remains the only Kirby title not released there. In Europe and Australia, the game was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console service on July 27, 2007 and in North America on September 24, 2007. The game was re-released for the Nintendo Switch Online service on July 21, 2022.

<i>Sunset Riders</i> 1991 video game

Sunset Riders is a side-scrolling run and gun video game developed and released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1991. It is set in the American Old West, where the player(s) take control of bounty hunters who are seeking the rewards offered for various criminals.

<i>Battletoads/Double Dragon</i> 1993 video game

Battletoads/Double Dragon is a 1993 beat 'em up developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. It was originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, and Game Boy. Retro-bit Publishing has re-released the 8-bit NES version in early 2022 with plans to release the 16-bit versions later this year.

<i>Fatal Fury 2</i> 1992 video game

Fatal Fury 2, known as Garō Densetsu 2: Aratanaru Tatakai in Japan, is a 1992 fighting video game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms, and later ported to several other home systems. It is the sequel to Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1991) and the second game in the Fatal Fury franchise. Its updated version, Fatal Fury Special, was released in 1993.

<i>Shadowrun</i> (1993 video game) 1993 video game

Shadowrun is a cyberpunk-fantasy action role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, adapted from the tabletop role-playing game Shadowrun by FASA. The video game was developed by Australian company Beam Software and first released in 1993 by Data East.

<i>Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage</i> 1994 video game

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Mega Drive/Genesis, developed by Software Creations and published by Acclaim Entertainment and its subsidiary LJN in 1994. The game, based on the comic book story arc of the same name, features numerous heroes, including Spider-Man, Venom, and their allies from the Marvel Comics fictional universe like Captain America, Black Cat, Iron Fist, Cloak and Dagger, Deathlok, Morbius and Firestar, all teaming up to battle an onslaught of villains led by Carnage, including Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Carrion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sega Genesis</span> Home video game console

The Sega Genesis, also known as the Mega Drive outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive, and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis. In 1990, it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tectoy in Brazil. In South Korea, it was distributed by Samsung Electronics as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socks (cat)</span> Cat belonging to Bill Clinton and family

Socks Clinton was the pet cat of the Clinton family, the first family of the United States from 1993 to 2001. An adopted stray cat, he was the only pet of the Clintons during the early years of the administration, and his likeness hosted the children's version of the White House website. After Clinton left office, Socks resided with former Clinton secretary Betty Currie and her husband, owing to continuing conflicts with the Clintons' dog Buddy.

<i>Joe & Mac</i> 1991 video game

Joe & Mac, also known as Caveman Ninja and Caveman Ninja: Joe & Mac, is a run and gun platform game released as an arcade video game by Data East in 1991. It was adapted for the Super NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Amiga, Zeebo, Nintendo Switch, and IBM PC compatibles.

Kaneko Seisakusho (金子製作所), stylized as KANE<O, also referred to as Kaneko Co. Ltd. (カネコ株式会社), was a Japanese video game publisher founded in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan, by Hiroshi Kaneko. It published a number of games both under its brand and other companies, such as Air Buster, Nexzr, Shogun Warriors, DJ Boy, Guts'n, and the Gals Panic series.

<i>Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure</i> 1994 video game

Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure is a 2D platform video game created by Interplay Productions and released for the Sega Genesis in 1994 and later on the Super NES in 1995. The Genesis version was also released on the Wii Virtual Console in North America on November 24, 2008 and in Europe on December 12, 2008. The game's lead character also appears as a playable character and the rival of Earthworm Jim in Interplay's ClayFighter 63⅓.

<i>Claymates</i> 1994 video game

Claymates is a platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is one of Interplay's clay animation titles which also included the ClayFighter series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Realtime Associates</span>

Realtime Associates is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1986 by David Warhol and a group of ex-Mattel Electronics employees originally to create games for the Intellivision system. Since then, the company has developed and published over 90 games for systems including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Super NES, Genesis, Pico, Nintendo Entertainment System, TurboGrafx-16, Game Boy, Game Gear, Game Boy Color, IBM PC compatibles, and Macintosh.

<i>Waynes World</i> (video game) 1993 video game

Wayne's World is an action video game based on the film of the same name and released in 1993 by THQ. Different versions of the game were released; the NES and Game Boy games were developed by Radical Entertainment and feature both protagonists Wayne and Garth as playable characters. The Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis games were developed by Gray Matter and feature only Wayne as a playable character.

<i>Fun n Games</i> 1994 video game

Fun 'n Games is a compilation video game developed by Leland Interactive Media and released for the Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis platforms in 1993 and 1994. In 1995, an updated, redeveloped version of the game was released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and MS-DOS by Williams Entertainment Inc. The North American Super NES version of the game is considered to be one of the more rare games released for the console.

<i>Disneys Aladdin</i> (Capcom video game) 1993 SNES video game

Disney's Aladdin is a 1993 platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, based on the 1992 animated Disney film of the same name. Disney's Aladdin is a 2D side-scrolling video game in which the player controls Aladdin and his monkey Abu. It was designed by Shinji Mikami.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piko Interactive</span> American video game company

Piko Interactive LLC is an American video game publisher based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in early 2013 by Eli Galindo, the company focuses on physical re-releases of games from older video game consoles and digitally released ports to newer systems.

Mega Cat Studios is an American video game development and publishing company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 2015 by James Deighan, Nick Mann, and Zack Manko.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Now Playing". Nintendo Power. Vol. 53. October 1993. pp. 102–103.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "GamePro Reviews". GamePro. Vol. 60. July 1994. p. 100.
  3. 1 2 3 "Socks the Cat Advertisement". GamePro. November 1993.
  4. ↑ "Socks the Cat Preview". Nintendo Power. May 1994.
  5. 1 2 "Socks the Cat". Playthings . June 1993.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 G., Evan (April 1, 2012). "Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill". Snes Central. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  7. ↑ "Welcome to Socks the Cat Fan Club!". 2001-01-28. Retrieved 2015-11-26.
  8. ↑ "Socks the Cat". Chicago Tribune . 20 June 1993.
  9. ↑ "Socks the Cat". USA Today . 15 June 1993.
  10. ↑ "GamePro - Socks The Cat". GamePro. September 1993.
  11. ↑ Schwartz, Steven A.; Schwartz, Janet (1994). The Parent's Guide to Video Games. Prima Lifestyles.
  12. 1 2 3 Stecklow, Sam (2016-03-24). "The Return of 'Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill'". MEL Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-24.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. ↑ "Socks the cat unreleased game GAMEPLAY". YouTube. 2011-06-04. Archived from the original on 2016-02-23. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  14. ↑ "Socks the Cat-The SNES Video Game Based on the Clinton's Cat". Kickstarter. Archived from the original on 2017-09-10. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  15. ↑ "Shipping starts tomorrow!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 21 Aug 2018.
  16. 1 2 3 "Review Crew: Socks the Cat". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 51. EGM Media, LLC. October 1993. p. 33.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.