Putt-Putt can also recover his lost magnet and place it into inventory.
We can mess around with a pachinko-style pin ball game that can be rearranged for fun. All we have to do is honk Putt-Putt's horn to get her out of the way. The first real puzzle involves an obstructive cow in the middle of the road on the way to Cartown.
The design is full of little animations that don't advance the story - the weathervane arrow on top of the garage can be made to zoom wildly around the screen like a rocket, apples on a tree have individual animations as they bounce or rocket or turn into juice boxes before disappearing into a barrel on the other side of the road, flowers kiss, fish leap, and caterpillars cocoon and turn into butterflies. Promoting Toothpaste - no brand, just the concept, which fits Putt-Putt's intentionally old-fashioned universe. Open the curtains and click on the frog to get him to consume theīuzzing fly, but all of this is completely optional. Tire-O's cereal (with oil instead of milk, naturally.) There's a frog hidden behind theĬurtains of Putt-Putt's garage home, and a fly buzzing around we can Putt-Putt was created by Humongous Entertainment co-founder Shelley Day, but as the sun rises, it looks suspiciously like Ron Gilbert:įirst our hero has to get ready to go, brushing his teeth and eating some But as Putt-Putt Joins The Parade is not exactly a challenging game, I understand completely if you simply want to sate your curiosity by proceeding into the. I always encourage interested readers to sample the games I write about here before reading my playthrough notes these games were fairly popular and I often run across them in thrift stores, and some of them have been ported to the iPhone in recent times. Reminds us what's going on - "Maybe I'll go downtown and talk to Trying to use objects where they don't work produces a generic "Thatĭoesn't seem to work" response, probably to minimize confusion and red herrings for the younger set, and clicking on Putt-Putt himself usually To aid pre-readers, Putt-Putt will read any signs encountered out loud, and characters are happy to repeat instructions and plot points. The game also features a MIDI-based score and full voice-over acting, with optional on-screen text. The animation is full-blown cartoon style, colorful and fluid in 320 x 200 VGA, and if you're wondering how an automobile functions as an adventure game protagonist, Putt-Putt has a little arm that emerges from his trunk to manipulate objects. For instance, in the opening scene, clicking on the box of Tire-O's fills Putt-Putt's breakfast bowl immediately, and many of these actions can be repeated just for entertainment's sake. Almost everything in the world is clickable - many objects just produce a little sound or animation and have no role in the story there are puzzles and other activities that don't have to be solved or completed and some interaction is handled semi-automatically to keep the interface simple.
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade is a true adventure game, with puzzles and inventory, but it also provides plenty of simple interactive fun for kids. Gilbert licensed the SCUMM engine he helped create from Lucasarts, and it's interesting to see the same toolset put to use for a younger audience.