Cheese

A recurring consumable item in retro video games used to restore health, stamina, or serve as a collectible objective.

Role-playing (RPG)

Games

1992–2000

Years

Platforms

$45.22

Ø CIB

-8.4%

24M change

About

In cartoon-based platformers like Tom & Jerry and the Speedy Gonzales series, cheese is primarily gathered as a collectible or health recovery item. It also appears as a consumable food item with restorative properties in role-playing and simulation titles such as Breath of Fire III, Koudelka, and Harvest Moon.

In the 1992 platformer Tom & Jerry, players control Jerry mouse, who must navigate hazard-filled stages to secure cheese wedges before confronting Tom. This mechanic evolved in the 2000 release Tom and Jerry, where the item serves as a crucial stage objective. For the Speedy Gonzales franchise, Speedy Gonzales Los Gatos Bandidos (1995) and Speedy Gonzales Aztec Adventure (2000) utilize cheese as a level-progression metric, scattered across environments to guide players toward trapped mice.

Within role-playing and simulation titles, the item's utility varies by economy. In Ultima Runes of Virtue II (1994), players acquire cheese to sustain their characters during dungeon crawls. Breath of Fire 3 (1998) integrates cheese into its companion mechanics, allowing players to obtain it through the Faerie Village minigame. In the simulation title Harvest Moon (1999), cheese represents an advanced agricultural commodity; players must process raw milk using specialized farm machinery to produce it, significantly increasing their shipping profits. Meanwhile, the gothic RPG Koudelka (1999) places cheese in a darker context, where it is managed within a limited grid inventory to sustain characters exploring the haunted Nemeton Monastery.