Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland -- Taking A Stab At Tingle's Combat.

Tingle's not a fighter. And let's face it, he can't be called a lover either. He's thirty-five and single and this is Nintendo after all. So there is no premarital sex and there might not even be sex after marriage. Tingle is an action adventure title where some combat does come in to play. If tingle comes into contact with an enemy there is a very cartoonish scuffle. You see a dust cloud and a lot of squiggles and sound effects and the like representing a brawl taking place. You also see Tingle taking damage in the form of lost Rupees. You can tap the cloud with your stylus to help Tingle out. The faster you tap the harder tingle fights and the quicker the battle will be over. Otherwise the battle will just play itself out. You're able to move the scuffle around as you would Tingle himself. Why would you want to do that? Because you'll be receiving some sort of item or monitory reward from the battle. And the more enemies you can get into the brawl the better your rewards will be. One crab gives you one type of meat. But get two crabs into the fray and you'll end up with three pieces of meat and so on down the line. The more the better. Of course you'll also take more damage potentially. That's why Tingle can hire a bodyguard. The bodyguards are hired out of salons and there is one salon per map. There are three basic types of bodyguards and each one has its own special ability. They are small, medium, and large. Small bodyguards can crawl into holes and the like. Medium bodyguards can pick locks while the large type can move obstructions like boulders. They also differ in their power and defense levels. And there are three trait types of lazy, combative, and smart. Lazy will only fight when the fight is brought to him. Combative will start a fight with anything that gets near him. And smart will only fight when told to attack or when Tingle is being attacked. They each come with their own fee. Of course smart will cost the most, with combative in the middle and lazy as the cheapest. You're able to control the bodyguards slightly by tapping them with the stylus and then an enemy. They're react based on their trait. Tapping the battle cloud of a bodyguard will also help them and speed things along. Joining Tingle in with the bodyguard during the battle and tapping away will help things along the most. Bodyguards can't die. But they can become exhausted. They'll have to be rehired at larger cost if they've become exhausted. You can drop healing potions for them to keep them in fighting form. Overall the fighting in Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland is very simplistic but actually quite fun. Of course the combat is just an aside as the game's focus lies elsewhere in the adventure aspects. And more on that next time.