|
Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise
 I haven't looked at a Putt-Putt game for a while, not since Putt-Putt Travels in Time, so I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It's a simpler adventure aimed at a narrower age group, children 3 to 6. The advantages are two fold. Aiming specifically at this pre school group allows for the game to be more manageable by younger players with perhaps less need for parental help. It also means that there is now a more targeted range of Humongous Interactive Learning Adventures to train up future adventure game players :-) Putt-Putt for the youngest, Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam for the next step up and, of course, Spy Fox for big kids. Something for everyone!
The story opens with Putt-Putt and Pep returning home from a birthday party. Putt-Putt is happy, Pep is sad. Of course Putt-Putt wants to know why Pep doesn't share her joy. It transpires that the reason for Pep's sadness is because he's never had a Birthday Party of his own. We don't even know the date of Pep's birthday because he was lost when he was found.
But all is not lost, however, Putt-Putt soon meets up with Mr Kibble and together they plan a birthday surprise. It just happens that tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Pep was found, a good excuse for a celebration. Of course there's now work to be done to organise a fabulous party.
 Well Mrs Widget is around to offer some good advice here. She is the owner of the Party Supply store and she's a bumper car so she bounces off doorways and walls. She gets the game on the road by giving Putt-Putt a bag with a handy illustrated list of goodies to collect. On the shopping list are five items: a birthday cake, a gift for Pep, some balloons, confirmation from a magician to entertain at the party, and a happy birthday banner.
Of course getting hold of these things is going to be fun because it isn't perfectly straightforward. Each item will present the player with a small challenge, for instance Marvin the Magician has the wrong hat so he can't do magic ... where could his hat be? Reggie Windbag can't tie up his balloons because he has no string, and Mrs Goodbake has run out of ingredients to bake a cake.
Pep's Birthday Surprise might be a bit simpler than other Humongous games but it's just as delightful with a couple of friendly sing-along songs to entertain younger children and a gameworld that isn't too big so no one will get lost.
It follows a similar format to other Humongous games. Children are encouraged to explore the gameworld and solve problems as they go. And there are, of course, variations in the gameplay. The rubber bands for Hank to make the biggest rubber band ball in the world might be hiding in different places in different games, or Mrs Goodbake might have run out of milk and sugar, or it might be flour and eggs. This means that the story changes and there are some new challenges when the game is replayed.
As is usual with this series there are some mini-games to play including a simple strategy type game to move the cows and clear a pathway to the milk, and collecting the eggs is tricky too, involving a simple arcade game. Added to this there is a cake to decorate and there are also many clickable hotspots sprinkled around to surprise players when they are diligent in their searching.
Pep's Birthday Surprise can be played in full screen or in a window and installation is easily taken care of from the initial splash screen. It is familiar point and click with a small inventory integrated into Putt-Putt's dashboard where all inventory items are clearly pictured. On the dashboard there's also a radio with some good hints for solving the problems, a horn to wake up the gameworld, and a button to go to the main menu for saving and loading or adjusting a few game options.
Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise is vibrant and colourful with a collection of equally colourful characters to meet on the journey. It's a worthy challenge for pre-schoolers and a particularly good game choice for a young first time adventure game player.
Copyright © Rosemary Young 2003.
All rights reserved.
System requirements:
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Pentium II 350 MHz or higher, 48 MB RAM (64 MB for XP)
160 MB Free hard disk space, 8 Speed CD-ROM Drive, 4 MB SVGA video card,
sound card, DirectX(r) version 9.0 (included) or higher.
|
