If you are a big fan of Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball on the Nintendo 3DS, then you must be excited to know about Pappy Van Poodle – a character in the game and Rusty’s old mentor.
This character has remained mysterious for a long time because the game seller, Rusty Slugger, allowed customers to haggle, enabling them to access mini-games without paying the full price. Unfortunately, Pappy Van Poodle only appears if you pay the full price. Continue reading to know everything about Pappy Van Poodle.
Who Is Pappy Van Poodle?
Image source: Instagram
As mentioned above, Pappy Van Poodle is one of the main characters in Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball video game released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in 2014. In the game, Pappy serves as a mentor to Rusty, advising him on what to do.
When this game was released, its seller, Rusty Slugger, allowed customers to haggle by purchasing mini-games at $4.00 only. Unfortunately, this package could not allow Pappy Van Poodle to show up in the game.
Therefore, not many players know about Pappy Van Poodle. Only those who pay the full price are allowed to see him at different stages of the game. So, if you don’t pay the full amount, you won’t be able to give Rusty all the products he needs to continue the story, which would normally be completed by haggling with Rusty.
In this instance, Pappy Van Poodle appears towards the end of the game to provide Rusty with the products you are supposed to give him in the bargaining operation.
Although Pappy Van Poodle is highlighted several times by Rusty in the game, he hardly ever shows up except under the exact instances mentioned above. In his later scenes, Pappy can be found among Rusty’s pups asleep in an alley. He will give the pup to Rusty to advance the story.
What is Pappy Van Poodle’s Personality?
Image source: Instagram
As Rusty’s best friend and mentor for more than two human decades, Pappy Van Poodle is designated to act as the biggest supporter and follower of the Rusty’s Sluggers’ baseball team. Also, he once tossed away his back cheering. In fact, Rusty refers to him as an unofficial team symbol. Basically, Pappy Van poodle is an old, joyful, overweight dog.
Pappy Van Poodle, on the other hand, describes Rusty as his son and also gives him flowers just to show him kindness. In the Japanese version of Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball, Pappy Van Poodle is referred to as Inuz Toip and has a distinctive outfit and backstory.
In fact, he was hardly seen or heard of in the Japanese version of the game due to its unfamiliar playing technique.
How Pappy Van Poodle Went Missing
Since the launch of Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball game in 2014, there was no information about Pappy Van Poodle that existed online. This means that no one knew that such a character existed in the video game, not even the big fans of Nintendo. Since nobody saw or posted about him on the internet, the joyful dog went unnoticed for more than five years.
As mentioned earlier, the game’s seller allowed people to pay for the game in bits, which made it possible for them to access mini-games. Unfortunately, Pappy Van Poodle couldn’t show up in these mini-games.
Only those who had paid the full amount could see him at different stages of the game as he gave Rusty products to advance the story.
And because most people preferred to haggle with Rusty by paying for the mini-games, Pappy Van Poodle went unnoticed for a long time. In his YouTube video, Nick Robinson claimed that he also discovered this character by accident.
He adds that there are six separate cut scenes in the game that feature Pappy, all of them totally exclusive to a small percentage of players who have never haggled with Rusty.
So, if you haggle with Rusty for his mini-games, you are going to miss out on the six cut scenes, which provide a surprising amount of backstory for Pappy Van Poodle and Rusty’s relationship.
This explains why a lot of people who play this game haven’t heard of or seen Pappy. In one of the cut scenes, Pappy talks about how he cooked boiled parsnips for his daughter and she hated it so much that she gave him a coupon for a remedial cooking class.
But because his pride won’t allow him to use that coupon, he gave it to Rusty. In another scene, Pappy tells Rusty how he values him as his son. He even gives him a bouquet, which Rusty gives to his wife.
However, the most interesting thing about Pappy is that nobody seemed to know that he existed until Nick Robinson discovered him.
Discovery of Pappy Van Poodle
Pappy Van Poodle was first referenced on a Japanese blog in 2013, a few days after Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball game was unveiled in Japan. He was later mentioned in a few places online, but his full discovery happened when Nick Robinson – a famous YouTuber – created a video describing how he coincidentally came across Pappy Van Poodle.
Before Robinson’s YouTube video, the phrase Pappy Van Poodle had a zero listing on Google and other search engines.
Apart from the search engines, he was also never mentioned on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others. In fact, Robinson claimed that there was no trace of Pappy Van Poodle on any of Nintendo wikis.
It’s quite weird to find a modern first-party Nintendo game, which has been accepted in different parts of the world, with a hidden character in it.
With literary no information about this character on the internet, Robinson had to turn to some weird places to be able to put together everything there is to know about Pappy Van Poodle for his YouTube video. In his search for details about Pappy, Robinson discovered some pretty interesting things about the character.
For instance, beyond the six cut scenes where Pappy can be found, there are three additional mentions of Pappy Van Poodle in the game, all of them contained in the optional epilogue content. This means that even a smaller percentage of players show it.
After you’ve gone through all the key stories, visiting Rusty results in a new post-game dialogue where he updates you on his life and his new career as the team manager for his kid’s baseball team.
In Summary
If you have been playing Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball game and hadn’t heard or come across a character known as Pappy Van Poodle, this article should compel you to search and learn more about him. Finding and understanding this character will make the game even more interesting.
Featured image source: Instagram
