SNES game about Bill Clinton’s cat may finally get released pending crowdfunding

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill

[Update: The owner of the prototype Tom Curtain reach out to me to provide some corrections and more information with the following statement: “The top backer does not get the prototype. There will be a funding amount (undetermined) to get the Proto. Also, the $50 is for a cart only, CIB will likely be at the $75 mark. Most importantly, I’m not using Kickstarter to make money per se. The game will be released regardless of amount backed. Kickstarter is the best way for us to determine the demand/print run.”]

Just the other day I was asked, “What game that was cancelled and never released do you most wish you could play?” Without hesitation, I answered Socks the Cat.

You see, I’m a big fan of collecting and playing unreleased games mostly in the form of ROMs to be played via emulators. I was overjoyed when critically acclaimed The California Raisins: The Grape Escape for NES was finally released online for all to play since it was cancelled just before release and got as far as having reviews written for it. 

Now, I might get to play the cancelled but nearly finished SNES prototype of the game that stars Bill Clinton’s famous cat, Socks, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Tom Curtin not only found a functioning prototype of the game but also acquired the trademark for Socks the Cat and plans to release the game after a Kickstarter campaign. The details of how much Curtin will be asking for aren’t known, but he did say the prototype cost him as much as “a decent used car” so I’d expect it to at least be tens of thousands of dollars. The team plans to have reward tiers for its campaign that include a Super Nintendo cartridge including a box and a manual for $50 while a digital copy of the game is expected to be $20 to $30. The top backer of the Kickstarter gets the original prototype itself, so surely Curtin will make some bank.

I can’t wait until the game releases, as I’m big into politics and satire of which this game is chock full of. Can you think of a single other video game where you get to fight former presidents of the United States as a cartoon cat? I can’t. Now, if only we could get Metal Wolf Chaos localized, a game about the president donning a mech to fight a corrupt military led by his vice president.

The Return of ‘Socks The Cat Rocks The Hill’ [We Are Mel]