Socks the Cat Rocks the House
From Sega Retro
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| Socks the Cat Rocks the House |
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive |
| Publisher: Kaneko USA[1] |
| Licensor: Presidential Socks Partnership[1] |
| Planned release date(s): 1993-11[2], 1994-03[3][4], 1994-04[5] |
| Genre: Action |
| Number of players: 1-2[1] |
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Socks the Cat Rocks the House, also known by its Super Nintendo name Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill[2], is an unreleased Sega Mega Drive action platform game developed by an unknown studio[6] and scheduled to be published by Kaneko USA.[1] Starring the titular Socks Clinton[1] (pet cat of 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton) in an attitude-colored mascot platformer role, it was first advertised for a November 1993 release date[2], only to be eventually pushed back to March 1994[3], with the final possibility of a launch the following month[5] being missed entirely.
Contents
Story
| “ | Socks, the White House cat, discovers the missing portable nuclear missile launch unit in his favorite napping spot, the basement of a foreign embassy. To avoid mass destruction he must return it to the White House and alert the first family. But, a foreign spy ring has their own political agenda. They want to see Socks run, and not for political office!
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„ |
— Print advertisement[1] | ||
Gameplay
Socks the Cat Rocks the House features straightforward action platform gameplay with light puzzle platforming elements. Socks has the ability to claw at enemies in a basic melee attack, and can later acquire a power up which grants him a simple projectile attack. Overall, more emphasis is placed on the game's political satire than its actual mechanics, under the likely assumption that its star feline and the title's unique premise would be enough to carry its sales.
While the Mega Drive version remains undumped, and was developed by an entirely different company, the two were working off the same shared design document and overall premise, and if released would have resulted in two very similarly-playing games.
History
As one of the Western world's more high-profile unreleased games, Socks the Cat Rocks the House saw a significant amount of investment from Kaneko USA, and is assumed to have neared completion before the publisher's closure caused its late cancellation. Since then, the mascot platformer's unique history has provided the gaming community with a particular amount of intrigue over its content and current whereabouts.
Background
Partly due to the ongoing media coverage of 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton and his affable personality, the first family's pet cat Socks Clinton also found himself thrust into the limelight. Socks' frequent appearances on the Press Briefing Room's lectern eventually bestowed him with enough household name recognition to be sought out by Kaneko USA for an officially-licensed video game tie-in. Seeking to capitalize on the cat's newfound popularity, and inspired by the success of previous mascot platform games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Kaneko USA began production of a similar title - one starring Socks himself.
After acquiring the respective license from the Presidential Socks Partnership[1], an independent Socks Clinton fanclub and owners of the cat's licensing rights, Kaneko USA set about developing two separate games under the Socks the Cat banner - one for the Super Famicom, and another for the Mega Drive. Both were planned as action platform games starring the titular feline, with the company contracting development of the former to Realtime Associates; while both were unreleased, the Nintendo version was eventually located and dumped. The latter was contracted out to an unknown Western development studio[6], with little known about Sega's version of the game.
Prerelease
File:GamePro US 051.pdf Socks the Cat Rocks the House was one of the Western game industry's more high-profile mascot platformers; one of few to star a real animal, and one that already had a fair amount of household name recognition. Due to this, Kaneko USA was able to base the game's promotion directly on this recognition, banking on the assumption that many Americans were already familiar with Socks from his appearances in contemporary political coverage, and leaning heavily on the cat's association with his photogenic owners, the Clinton family.
The game's prototype cover artwork, and the vast majority of its marketing, features a caricaturized Socks donning black sunglasses and flashing an attitude-laden grin at the viewer. The cat appears rising out of a saxophone played by Bill Clinton, an accomplished saxophonist also known for his well-televised saxophone performances.
The game made appearances at both Summer CES 1993[7][8] and Winter CES 1994.[9][10]
Cancellation
Along with its Super Famicom counterpart, Socks the Cat Rocks the House is thought to have been cancelled following the closure of publisher Kaneko USA. It would remain unheard of for the next 25 years, until an aftermarket reproduction seller acquired a prototype copy of the Super Famicom version and released it on a run of physical cartridges. While that version's ROM was soon dumped, the Mega Drive version's whereabouts remain unknown.
Physical scans
| Mega Drive, US (prototype) |
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 Cover
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Magazine articles
- Main article: Socks the Cat Rocks the House/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
External links
- Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill article by Evan G. at Snes Central
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 GamePro, "October 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 7 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:GamePro US 051.pdf_p7" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 GamePro, "September 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 141
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mega, "March 1994" (UK; 1994-02-17), page 89
- ↑ Game Informer, "March/April 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 50
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mega, "May 1994" (UK; 1994-04-21), page 81
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://snescentral.com/article.php?id=0094
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 6 No. 8 August 1993" (US; 1993-0x-xx), page 50
- ↑ Sega Power, "August 1993" (UK; 1993-07-01), page 36
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "March 1994" (UK; 1994-01-28), page 14
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "1994 Video Game Preview Guide supplement" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 18
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 7
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