Socks the Cat Rocks the House/History

Socks the Cat was one of Kaneko USA's centerpiece mascots.

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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, 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, with little known about Sega's version of the game.

Promotion

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.

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.