Shobon no Action (しょぼんのアクション, lit. “Shobon's Action Game”), also known as Shobon Action¹⁾ or Cat Mario, is the 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 original game only contained four levels. However, its incredibly basic game engine and unexpected appeal to children, especially through old playthroughs on Niconico or YouTube, has led to it having inaccurate Flash clones, level mods, and unauthorized sequel hacks.

You play as the AA character, Shobon, and encounter many AA-themed enemies. There are four levels, that resemble a Super Mario Bros. world, but they are not easy as trial-and-error games will normally have numerous unexpected traps in them. The lives counter can go below zero, meaning players have infinite tries, and lines can be uttered by the protagonist or the enemies upon death.

The history of Shobon no Action began when Tiku's friend, “willowlet”, showed him an early version of Jinsei Owata no Daibouken in 2007. Later that year, four days before his university's cultural festival, he began considering what he could quickly develop in three days and remembered Jinsei Owata no Daibouken. As he didn't want to make a clone, he took the premise and applied it to another well-known game.

On the first day, he finished programming a basic Super Mario Bros. clone. The next day, he considered what elements to add and put in the Cheetahmen theme from Action 52, as it was a well-known kusoge. For the third day, he added in color, traps, and included death messages. In the end, the demo had one playable level and it did surprisingly well at the festival.

About two or three days later, he uploaded a video of said game to Niconico Douga on November 3, 2007,³⁾ which gathered a thousand views. Since it seemed popular, he proceeded to develop three more levels, spending about two weeks for each level, and uploading previews of them.⁴⁾⁵⁾⁶⁾ The final version of the game was completed and eventually released in February 2008 as an executable in a ZIP file.⁷⁾

• Eryi's Action (2013) - The action-platforming game by “Xtal(Crystal) Sword”. Tiku was involved with the game's planning and programming, advertising the game on his Niconico Douga account.⁸⁾
• NekoGame (2015) - The auto-runner platforming game. Tiku advertised this on his website and his Niconico Douga account.⁹⁾ It used to have an Android version, but has since been taken down.¹⁰⁾

• In the original game, you can select a level by pressing 2/3/4 on the title screen.
• However, if you press 0 on the title screen, you can play a glitch-like but playable version of the game.
  • It is possible to win with the sword, but you need flooring and can die from the autoscroll.
  • You can also get softlocked with Defrag-san under a block, causing you to be thrown indefinitely.
• Push 'space' to speed up, '0' to die, 'F1' to return to title screen, and 'Esc' to exit the game.
• The warp zone area that says 'Owata Zone' in Level 2 is direct reference to Jinsei Owata no Daibouken.
• Yes, there was a Something Awful Let's Play by “TaxidermistPasta” who called it, “dongs.exe”.¹¹⁾¹²⁾

• Jinsei Owata no Daibouken - Main inspiration.
• Shobon Action/Message Boxes - A translation of the message boxes.

• Rainbow Road [Archive] - The official page for Shobon no Action, on Geocities.
  • @tikuX on Twitter - The developer's Twitter account. It hasn't been touched since 2015.
• Shobon no Action on Pixiv Encyclopedia
• Shobon no Action on Niconico Encyclopedia