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Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds

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Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds
1998 cover art featuring Freddi Fish (foreground) along with Luther, Grandma Grouper, Boss the shark, and the Squidfather (all background)
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment[a]
Publisher(s)Humongous Entertainment[b]
Producer(s)Ron Gilbert
Designer(s)
  • Ron Gilbert
  • Larry Kay
  • Tami Caryl Borowick
Writer(s)Larry Kay
Composer(s)George Sanger
EngineSCUMM
Platform(s)Macintosh, Windows, digiBlast, LCD game, Wii, iOS, Android, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
ReleaseReleased:
  • November 7, 1994 (Mac, Win)
  • 2005 (digiBlast)[1]
  • August 29, 2008 (Wii)[2]
  • October 10, 2010 (iOS)
  • April 3, 2014 (Android)[3]
  • April 17, 2014 (Linux)[4]
  • February 29, 2024 (Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4)[5]
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds is a video game developed and published by Humongous Entertainment and the first game released for the Freddi Fish franchise. It was released on November 7, 1994.[7] In 2008, it was released on the Wii under the title Freddi Fish in Kelp Seed Mystery[8] as well as Windows and Macintosh,[9] and on Android with a shortened title Freddi Fish and the Missing Kelp Seeds. The Wii version's availability was limited by legal problems concerning its development.[10] A spin-off handheld LCD game titled Freddi Fish: Jellyfish Jamboree was also released in 1999 that was based on a minigame from Kelp Seeds.[11] Ports for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 were released in February 2024.[12][13]

Plot

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Freddi Fish visits the house of Grandma Grouper, where she learns that someone stole Grandma's treasure chest of kelp seeds, which provides the food for the whole ocean. Freddi cheers Grandma Grouper up by promising to find the treasure for her and gives her the last peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich. After leaving Grandma's house, Freddi and her friend, Luther, discover a bottle with a note lodged inside that gives a clue to the treasure's location and they set out to look for more clues.

Unbeknownst to the two, it was two sharks named Boss and Spongehead who stole the treasure as part of their plan to help their boss, the Squidfather, grow kelp; Spongehead had hidden four bottles in random locations to lead his way back to the treasure. Eventually, Freddi and Luther find the fourth and final bottle, revealing that the treasure is hidden in a sunken ship.

At the sunken ship, Freddi and Luther spot the treasure and attempt to grab it, but they are stopped by Boss and Spongehead, who order the two to hand it over. Freddi courageously refuses and states that everyone can grow kelp if they share it, which the sharks agree on. Freddi and Luther then take the treasure chest home and plant the kelp in Grandma Grouper's garden. Grandma then invites the two into her home so they can tell her about their adventure.

Gameplay

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The game makes use of a simplified adventure system where a single click on a certain spot allows the player to pick up items, go to another location, talk to characters, and play fun animations, although the player needs to think carefully about what certain actions or items are needed to access certain areas or obtain certain items and progress through the story. Clicking on an item from the inventory bar and then choosing the right place to put it in a certain scene allows Freddi to make use of it to take every step closer to recovering the lost kelp seeds.

There are also a few minigames, such as "Jellyfish Jamboree", where Freddi must feed hungry sea creatures by throwing food at them before they get too close, with Luther keeping score. This minigame forms the basis of the LCD handheld game.

Development

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Development of Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds started sometime in 1993; it was initially intended to feature pixelated graphics and be released on the MS-DOS, similar to the style of previous games developed by Humongous.[14] Halfway through production of the game, Humongous Entertainment co-founder Ron Gilbert went to a conference and saw examples of hand-drawn animation; this prompted Humongous Entertainment to scrap the pixelated animation and start over with hand-drawn graphics.[15]

Another significant change that occurred during development was the decision to change Freddi from a boy to a girl. Game designer Tami Borowick justified it because she sought to challenge the common trend at the time that girls would play male characters, but not the other way around, thus making Freddi the only playable female Junior Adventure heroine. As the dialogue script already had male pronouns written down for the character by that time, the script writer was forced to change them to female for the final product. When the writer also added a few more lines seeming to imply weakness whenever she came across an obstacle that wasn't easily overcome, Borowick pushed back and cut such lines out, believing that it would not reflect her character. Due to the common practice of adult women voicing children of both genders, Borowick added a line for Freddi in the sequel that clarifies and ascertains that she is a girl.[16] Despite efforts to properly update the script during development to reflect Freddi's true gender, she is occasionally referred to as a boy in error, such as a line from Grandma Grouper addressing her and Luther as "boys".

Reception

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Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds received generally positive reviews from critics. Allgame gave a 4-star rating,[21] GameZone rated 7 out of 10,[18] Adventure Gamers gave a 3-star rating,[17] and Unikgamer gave a 7 out 10 score.[19] It also received over 20 awards.[22]

The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds won Electronic Entertainment's 1994 "Best Edutainment Title" award. The editors wrote that the game features well-made original characters, a strong storyline, appropriately challenging puzzles, and beautiful animation.[23]

The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds was a commercial success, with sales of 250,000 units by 1999.[24] During 2001 alone, Freddi Fish sold 54,447 retail units in North America, according to PC Data.[25]

References

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  1. ^ "Freddi Fish". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Freddi Fish:Kelp Seed Mystery on Wii". Nintendo of America Inc. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  3. ^ "Freddi Fish and the Missing Kelp Seeds - Android Apps on Google Play". Google Play. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  4. ^ "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds on Steam". Steam. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  5. ^ "Freddi Fish and The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds". HE. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  6. ^ "Mistic Software Inc". Mistic Software Inc. 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  7. ^ "Freddi Fish". Archived from the original on February 10, 1998. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  8. ^ "Freddi Fish: Kelp Seed Mystery". GameFAQs. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  9. ^ "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds – Box Scan". GameFAQs. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  10. ^ Moss, Richard (January 16, 2012). "Maniac Tentacle Mindbenders: How ScummVM's unpaid coders kept adventure gaming alive". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  11. ^ "FREDDI FISH JELLYFISH JAMBOREE - 1999 HUMONGOUS - ELECTRONIC HAND HELD (12/14/2012)". Worthpoint. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  12. ^ "Freddi Fish and The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds". HE. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  13. ^ "Freddi Fish and The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds". HE. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  14. ^ Fuwfuwa (May 6, 2021). "That's Edutainment: Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds". The Avocado. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  15. ^ Storytime with Ron Gilbert - PAX Australia 2013 Keynote. Retrieved April 5, 2024 – via www.youtube.com.
  16. ^ Clark, Nicole (May 9, 2019). "From 'Putt Putt' to 'Freddi Fish'—How Humongous Entertainment Made Edutainment Fun". Vice. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  17. ^ a b Joe Keeley (June 11, 2010). "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds Information, Screenshots & Media". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  18. ^ a b jkdmedia (May 4, 2012). "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds - Wii - Review". GameZone. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  19. ^ a b "Freddi Fish series on Unikgamer". Unikgamer. Archived from the original on June 15, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Humongous Entertainment Handcrafts Another Junior Adventure(tm)". Farlex, Inc. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  21. ^ Brad Cook. "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds - Review - allgame". Allgame. Archived from the original on December 11, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  22. ^ "Microsoft and Humongous Entertainment Pair EasyBall and Freddi Fish to Deliver Unbeatable Value for Families in Time for the Holidays". Microsoft. October 15, 1996. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  23. ^ Staff (March 1995). "The Second Annual Electronic Entertainment Editors' Choice Awards". Electronic Entertainment (15): 45–51.
  24. ^ Haring, Bruce (February 28, 1999). "The story of a Humongous project". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 6, 1999. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  25. ^ Sluganski, Randy (March 2002). "State of Adventure Gaming - March 2002 - 2001 Sales Table". Just Adventure. Archived from the original on June 19, 2002. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  1. ^ Ported to digiBlast by Transposia and the Wii by Mistic Software (Wii).[6]
  2. ^ The digiBlast and 2010 iOS ports were published by Atari. The Wii version was published by Majesco Entertainment in the United States[2] and Atari Europe in Europe. The iOS re-release and Android version were published by Tommo. The Steam release was co-published by Tommo and Night Dive Studios.
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