Having appeared in a number of Legend of Zelda games and gaining a cult following along the way, he’s now been gifted his own DS RPG-lite game in Fresh Picked: Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland. It’s a mouthful, but, as the title suggests, it’s all about Tingle and his endless avarice for Rupees, the jewel currency of the Zeldaverse.

As with Link in the Zelda games it’s uncertain which Tingle incarnation features here, but he briefly starts out pre-Tingle and as an ordinary man, sitting in his house dreaming about a life of wealth, luxury and happiness. Out of the clouds descends the enigmatic Uncle Rupee, offering the chance for him to become Tingle and ascend into the heavens to Rupeeland. In this mystical place all his dreams will come true, providing he can gather together enough cash and throw it into the pool that sits atop a magical tower. The more Rupees Tingle tosses in, the higher the tower ascends, taking him closer to his goal of reaching nirvana.

Everything about Freshly Picked from the visuals to the music embodies a colourful mixture of double entendres and distinct homoerotic undertones with an irreverence and flair for the camp that is entirely befitting a solo Tingle outing.

From Tingle himself with his effeminate strut and cheeky facial expressions, to the burly crotch-thrusting construction worker in a hard hat and one-piece thong, right through to Tingle’s helper Pinkle who is a confusing mixture of both masculine and feminine qualities, the list of sexual ambiguity and frivolity is virtually endless. If all these sail blissfully over your head, the game also contains a wry sense of self-referencing humour. One of the boss fights for example sees Tingle floating around on balloons à la previous DS title Tingle's Balloon Fight, while there are numerous Zelda in-jokes and series references that will have fans chuckling.

His quest means Tingle must explore the land and find ways to make lots and lots of Rupees. Not as easy as it sounds given that they’re a valuable commodity and that everyone seems to share his insatiable lust for cash. That means in order to do anything in the game Tingle has to speculate in order to accumulate. If you’re the type of person who enjoys amassing items or money in games then you will struggle here. Despite ultimately being the main aim of the game, hoarding rupees is certainly not an option and it’s a fine balancing act between spending them on items or to progress in levels, tossing them in to the tower pool, or keeping them to act as life force. On becoming Tingle it appears his very life now depends on Rupees so if he runs out of cash then it's Game Over.

As the tower climbs higher Tingle is able to explore new continents and different parts of the world. These contain an assortment of odd creatures that drop items or Rupees when defeated, which is a problem for Tingle as he’s clearly a lover not a fighter. Once in a scuffle (complete with whirling dust cloud and lots of moaning and groaning) he will lose Rupees until he either wins or gets kicked out of the fight. As the game progresses Tingle will improve his fighting skills, but since there is no level of interaction required for combat, this only limits the amount of damage taken and increases his chance of success against the more difficult enemies. To make things easier Tingle can hire bodyguards to help him in a fight. Naturally these don’t come for free so the player has to decide whether to risk it alone or pay for some help. The more you pay, the better the bodyguard will be in a fight.

Aside from exploring the world and helping people, Tingle’s best chance of making Rupees is buying and selling things. Once Tingle knows a particular recipe and has the required ingredients, they can be combined in the cooking pot in his home and then bottled. These items can then be used to restore bodyguards' health or returning to a start of a dungeon, or just sold to the right person to make more Rupees.

The pot stirring sequence is perhaps the one that makes the most use of the DS touch screen and the rest of its use for accessing the inventory, selecting the number of rupees to barter with and highlighting items on the map is tacked on. As Tingle can only be moved with the thumb pad with no option to switch to just controlling him solely with the buttons or the stylus, Freshly Picked is another one of those games where you are forever juggling the DS and the stylus in a clumsy fashion.

With Tingle being a frugal little dumpling the game utilises a bartering system to haggle over payment both in and out of his stash. With Rupees being such a valuable resource the game mercilessly penalises players for making mistakes during this process. When bartering there is no indication of a ballpark figure required to complete the transaction, so it is possible to grossly over-shoot the mark, thereby squandering lots of Rupees unnecessarily. On the flip side it is also possible to undercut too much, resulting in being knocked back and having to try again until you get it right, potentially sapping you of all your cash. In a game which puts so much emphasis on needing to have Rupees to just survive, both results are extremely harsh and the implementation of the system very unforgiving, making it a reoccurring headache for the entirety of the game. It’s understandable (and also recommended) to play through the game using a bartering guide to avoid the cheap feeling of frustration from what feels like the equivalent of bumbling around in the dark and instead being left to enjoy the remainder of the game.

Despite this problem with the bartering system Freshly Picked is an entertaining, journey in to the twisted and shallow world of Tingle. Of course if you disliked Tingle even slightly in any of the Zelda games then this won’t be for you. If you’re one of the few Tingle zealots the game will be a dream come true.