With six missing baby zoo animals and a deadline for the grand opening of the Cartown zoo, Outback Al's got a problem, and problem-solving is the name of the game in Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo.
Welcome to the mythical world of Cartown, where automobiles rather then people are the inhabitants. Hero Putt-Putt is a spunky animated purple convertible who guides children through this highly interactive story. Through hand-drawn animation that virtually jump out of the screen, you and your children will experience an exciting adventure in a fantastic place. Your mission is to find all the lost baby animals by exploring each of the three zoo habitats and overcoming completely unavoidable obstacles along the way.
In Antarctic Land, an avalanche blocks the only access route. In Grassland, a dam has closed off water flow to the riverbed. In Jungleland, the bridge is out and a hungry, dental-flossing alligator threatens from below. Putt-Putt's misadventures are sprinkled with an abundance of youthful humor and, when combined with several quality bonus games, provide many hours of entertainment.
The CD-ROM encourages problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Parents can (and should) sit back and let their children explore independently. (The pride of having your child report his/her successes is quite indescribable!)
Be sure to look for intercom speakers dispersed throughout the habitats. Clicking on them provides your child with additional information on pythons, lions, elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and seals.
The activity book provided with the CD-ROM and the nifty photo-print feature, which allows the child to print Putt-Putt's travel photos. Be sure to look for guest appearances by other Humongous alumni Fatti Bear and Freddie Fish (see Freddie Fish review in the Spring 1995 edition of BookPage New Media) who show up at the most unexpected times.
Technically this is an outstanding CD-ROM. If you're familiar with the previous two Putt-Putt titles (Putt-Putt on the Moon and Putt-Putt on Parade), you will be pleased to see that Humongous has rejuvenated this DOS-based character into a more vibrant Windows-based version. This Windows-only CD-ROM game features 640x480 256-color graphics (twice the resolution as other MS-DOS games) and uses the new WinG/Win32 format from Microsoft. This method is more commonly seen in the more competitive field of adult gaming and enhances this game enormously.
Online help is available to diagnose technical problems, minimizing the need for time-consuming and frustrating troubleshooting. The high-end graphics would indicate that users may experience difficulties if their video driver is outdated or if CD-ROM cache settings are set too low.
In comparison to similar graphical programs, you might expect a large drain on hard drive resources to run this program. Wrong! Putt-Putt demands a meager 2 MB. Bravo Humongous!
In addition to state-of-the-art graphics and unlike other point-and-click games, Humongous games provide uninterrupted screen access-there are no waiting periods between mouse clicks. This is especially important for very young (2-3 years old) or first-time players who tend to be frustrated by lack of response to their mouse directives. The mouse pointer, which changes color to indicate the location of hot spots, allows for a large margin of error. Hot spots have several randomly available responses that help keep the game fresh.
Although rated for children 3-8, ages 3-6 will probably benefit most. Putt-Putt puts all the right elements in place for a successful and entertaining addition to your child's CD-ROM library.
