Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day is a puzzle-platform game released by Viacom New Media for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Based on the Nickelodeon series Rocko's Modern Life (1993–1996), it is the first project of Viacom New Media, the interactive entertainment software division of Viacom International, who owned Nickelodeon. In each of the game's sections, the player acts as the titular character guiding his dog Spunky to a golden fire hydrant. To do this, he alters the level environment and fights enemies.
Produced by Dave Marsh, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day was developed in under 12 months during the show's creation, and the only source material to reference were rough sketches sent by artists working on the TV series. Viacom New Media published the game in North America in April 1994 to generally favorable reviews from professional critics, although some reviewers suggested the difficulty would be too much for the game's young target demographic and was artificially increased by the difficult and unresponsive controls. The presentation was well-received for how it reflected the series.
Limited Run Games re-released the game on modern platforms in a collection called the Nickelodeon Splat Pack alongside Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (1995) and GUTS (1994) on January 30, 2026.
Gameplay
thumb|left|The beach level of Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day. Rocko uses the level environment to move Spunky to safe areas. In this case, he jumps on the chair to spring Spunky onto the higher deck.|alt=A screenshot of a beach level from the game. Pictured on screen are the playable character Rocko, and his dog Spunky. A deck is elevated above ground level, below which there is water. To the left of the deck is a chair.
Spunky's Dangerous Day is a puzzle-platform game similar to Lemmings (1991), Mario & Wario (1993) and The Lost Vikings (1993). In each section, Spunky gets distracted by objects such as mops, frisbees, and ice cream vendors and goes after them without any awareness of the hazards around him; the player acts as Rocko manipulating parts of the level environment to safely guide Spunky to a golden fire hydrant. The backgrounds and colors were created in an improvisational manner. Although the titular character would appear in other Nickelodeon ensemble games, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day is the only video game as of 2020 to be primarily about the show. Stephen Gass was credited as creative director, and Michele Jabloner as creative consultant.
Reception
Critics regarded Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day as a promising and strong first effort from Viacom New Media, getting them excited for the developer's later projects, such as Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity (1995). Another major criticism was the controls, which were generally deemed difficult, unresponsive, and artificially increasing the difficulty. Fish and Lawrence of Arcadia highlighted the exaggerated movements, facial expressions, and look of the characters, and Joe D. noted its "bright colors, great artwork, good animation and nice multi-scrolling backgrounds".