Welcome to another blast from the past (and Future)! It’s Freddi Fish And The Case Of The Stolen Shell (formerly known as stolen Conch Shell); For practical reasons, I will refer to it as just Freddi Fish in the review. Like I said in my review of Putt-Putt, I was super hyped when they announced both Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish for the Nintendo Switch since I grew up on both titles on my parent’s Packard Bell Home Computer System. Let’s dive in!
For those that read my review of Putt-Putt already, this part is skippable;
Humongous Entertainment
Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, and Spy Fox, which, combined, sold over 15 million copies and earned more than 400 awards of excellence.
GT Interactive acquired humongous Entertainment (later renamed Infogrames, Inc., then Atari, Inc.) in July 1996. By October 2000, sales of Humongous games had surpassed 16 million copies. GT sold Humongous to its parent company, Infogrames (later renamed Atari SA), in August 2005, as a result of which the company was shut down a few months after. Infogrames transitioned the label to a new company, Humongous, Inc., which continued publishing games under the Humongous label until 2013 when it faced bankruptcy. As part of the bankruptcy agreement of the Atari SA subsidiary Atari, Inc., Humongous, Inc., and Atari Interactive, Tommo acquired the Humongous brand and all of its assets. In addition, it re-releases some of its games into digital distribution channels with Night Dive Studios.
Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell is a 1998 video game and the third of five adventure games in the Freddi Fish series developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. It was my all-time favorite Freddi game, so I was happy it got re-released on the Nintendo Switch. Since the Freddi games have more context than Putt-Putt, I’ll give you a quick summary of the game.
Stolen Shell!
Freddi and Luther take a summer vacation to the Founder’s Day Festival in the Hawaiian Sea. As they enter the festival, they find that the Conch Shell used to signal the beginning of the festival has been stolen. The shell is vital to the festival as it cannot start without it. To make matters worse, Luther’s Uncle Blenny, the “Grand Exalted Keeper of the Conch,” is in jail for the mess. Now Freddi and Luther have to find the three golden pipes that fell out and look for the real thief. They search and investigate the suspicious characters to find out who really “did it.” Once the pipes are found, Old Soggy, Uncle Blenny’s dogfish, will smell the scent and find the culprit. Freddi and Luther follow Old Soggy to an Aztec temple in the Sea off the coast of Mexico.
The Aztec temple spot the thief with a bag and the conch shell outside. Old Soggy swims off to catch the thief. When Luther starts losing control and grabs a jewel, the gate closes, and he gets trapped in a cage. Freddi has to get the key to get it open. After Freddi frees Luther and puts the jewel back in place, the gate opens, and the bag drops into the temple. They catch the bag and tell everyone that Uncle Blenny is innocent. Inside the bag is one of six items: a microphone, a foreign language world map, a boxing glove, a cane, a spool of thread, or a toothbrush. One of the suspects depends on the evidence from the item. They do not believe Freddi and Luther when the suspect is chosen, but Old Soggy bites its tail or back. Finally, the culprit confesses and explains the whole situation to everyone.
After the culprit gives Uncle Blenny the conch shell, everyone apologizes to Uncle Blenny for blaming him. He forgives the town and has his “Grand Exalted Keeper of the Conch” title reinstated. Luther places the pipes in the shell, and Uncle Blenny blows out the signal to open the festival, and everyone celebrates. The dialogue shows what will happen to the thief as the narrator mentions it, then he says “case closed,” meaning the player finished the game. There are six possible suspects, and each one has a different reason for stealing the Conch Shell.
Gameplay
The game uses the same mechanics as its predecessors. In each playthrough, the puzzles, collectible and usable items, character encounters, locations, minigames, and trivial click spots change to randomly determine which of the six suspects stole the Conch Shell. Each time you start a playthrough, the game randomizes the location of the items you need – and randomizes the suspect, which gives a lot of playthrough options and endings before you have seen them all! Just like Putt-Putt, the game runs smooth and offers an excellent throwback for both adults and fresh wind for the little kids that never experienced the awesomeness of Freddi and Luther (or Loebas as he was called in Dutch/Flemish).
Conclusion
So, to conclude! Well, the same as my Putt-Putt review, but there’s so much more to do in this game. If you’re an adult that wants to relive their childhood or a kid that never heard of Putt-Putt, this might be just the release for you. And it works surprisingly well on the Nintendo Switch. Even in docked mode, the game reacts great – so triple-A titles, look at how it’s done! Its price point is decent, currently sitting at 12 euros, instead of the 15 it will be in a few weeks. I hope they add other languages to help market the game in the Netherlands and Belgium.
