Shobon's Action(Action Game) (しょぼんのアクション, Shobon no Akushon), often called Shobon Action or Cat Mario, is an action-platforming Java game by “Tiku” (ちく, Chiku) that released in full on February 2008 as an executable, then the official applet came sometime after.

The game is mostly notable for being seen in late 2000s playthroughs. However, if you're playing it today, do note that it's not a flash game, several inaccurate clones exist, and it doesn't have an official sequel, but the developer did technically make successors.

You play as the AA character, Shobon, and encounter many enemies also inspired by AA art. There are four stages which resembles a single world in Super Mario Bros., but they're not easy since many unique and unexpected traps are in each stage. The lives counter can go below zero, which means the player has infinite tries, and lines can be uttered by the protagonist or the enemies upon death.

The history of Shobon Action began when Tiku's friend, willowlet, showed Jinsei Owata no Daibouken to him in 2006. Then, four days before his university's cultural festival in 2007, he was thinking of what he could program in three days and thought of Jinsei Owata no Daibouken. It wouldn't really make sense to just make a clone, so he decided to build a game around the concept with another well-known game.

On the first day, he finished programming a basic Super Mario Bros. clone. The next day, he thought about what images and sounds to add in, deciding on the Cheetahmen theme from Action 52 since it was a well-known kusoge. For the third day, he added color, traps, and included death messages. In the end, the demo had one playable stage and it did surprisingly well at the festival.

About two or three days later, he uploaded a video of the game to Niconico Douga on November 3, 2007,¹⁾ which gathered 1000 views. Since it seemed popular, he proceeded to develop the other three stages, spending about two weeks for each one and uploading previews of them.²⁾³⁾⁴⁾ The final version of the game was completed and eventually released in February 2008 as an executable in a ZIP file.⁵⁾

Eryi's Action (エリィのアクション, Eryi no Akushon) is an action-platforming game from “Xtal(Crystal) Sword” that was published by “Nyu Media” on November 19, 2013. It has a rather silly plot about how Eryi was looking forward to eating a melon before she had it stolen. This game is available on Steam for $4.99. As for the connection, Tiku was apparently involved with planning and programming.

Neko Game (ネコゲーム, Nekogēmu) is another platforming game that “Tiku” released on April 25, 2015.⁶⁾ While NekoGame resembles Shobon Action more, the game is more optimized for mobile devices, considering that it's an autoscroller with simple controls. The PC version is available here and the Android version has been removed from the Google Play store for unknown reasons.⁷⁾

• The official version of Shobon Action has five tracks in total:
  • titerman.mp3 - The Cheetahmen theme from Action 52, plays on the overworld stages.
  • spelunk.mp3 - The main theme of Spelunker, plays on the underground stage.
  • star4.mp3 - A bad recording of the starman theme in Super Mario Bros., plays on the sky stage.
  • makaimura.mp3 - The first stage theme of Ghosts n' Goblins, plays on the castle stage.
  • puyo.mp3 - “Morning of Puyo Puyo” from Puyo Puyo,⁸⁾ plays during the credits.
• Level select is just pressing the 2, 3, or 4 key on the title screen.
  • If you press 0, you'll get a randomized, glitch-like but playable version of the game.
    • It's possible to end the game with the sword, but you need flooring and can die by autoscroll.
    • You can also softlock the game if you get thrown by the Giko-like enemy under a block.
• Push “space” to speed up, “0” to die, “F1” to return to title screen, and “Esc” to close out the game.
• The fake warp zone area in Level 2 is a shout-out to Jinsei Owata no Daibouken.
• Yes, there was a Something Awful Let's Play by “TaxidermistPasta” who renamed it, “dongs.exe”.⁹⁾¹⁰⁾

• Kukkuru - The rooster at the end of Stage 4 with the Area 51 pipe.
• Jinsei Owata no Daibouken - Owata Zone?
• Shobon

• Rainbow Road (Archive) - The official page for Shobon Action, hosted on Tiku's website.¹¹⁾ This later closed due to Yahoo! GeoCities Japan shutting down on March 31, 2019.
• @tikuX on Twitter - The developer's Twitter account. It hasn't been touched since 2015.
• Shobon Action on Niconico Encyclopedia
• Shobon Action on Pixiv Encyclopedia