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I used to feel bad about it even before I played it because of the plot. It felt like it ruined my Action Peps stories (see Putt-Putt Time Travels and Putt-Putt Circus reviews). But when we got it from the library, it was great! But it's real different. Putt-Putt's voice is different. Putt's voice changed a lot because it also changed in Putt-Putt Joins the Circus. Also, different glovebox and image of Pep in glovebox. (Why does he keep Pep in his glovebox anyway? I don't think it's good to put ALIVE DOGS in gloveboxes.) Well, let's say it's not all that bad, just different. But, just because it's different dosen't mean it dosen't remember when it wasn't different; in the preview where he's telling Mr. Kibble, the pet feed shop owner, about Pep not having any parties, Putt-Putt thinks and the thinking bubble has a preview from Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, the first Putt-Putt ever, where he gets Pep, and in the invatation song two cards slide across with 2 previews on them, one from Putt-Putt Time and one from Race. (We only played Race once @ friend's house). Only I have a TERRIBLE complaint: I reccomend you put it window by clicking Menu>Options because Windows Logo key and Alt+Ctrl+Del dosen't help! Only Alt+F4 and in the credits young kids could get frustrated cuz' they can't quit! They don't know bout' Alt+F4! Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"
My children (3& 5) are huge Putt-Putt fans. My older one has 'graduated' to Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, the most challenging and imho,best designed of them all.
Putt Putt : Pep's Birthday Surprise is slow, clunky and poorly designed.
It is as if marketing over-compensated for the complex _Travels through Time_ game (which has received complaints for it's complexity) and removed anything remotely challenging.
Putt-Putt must complete serveral tasks to prepare for Pep's birthday surprise. Before he completes each task he must distract Pep so he can talk in private with the other characters.
The most annoying example of this is when Putt Putt brings the ingredients for the cake to the baker. Putt Putt must ask Pep to fetch hot chocolate each time he wants to give the baker an ingredient and before he decorates the cake.
This is a waste of time, and is sloppy programming.
There are also a few glaring bugs. For example, after Putt Putt catches run away rabbits at the firestation(he must return them to their home, the magician's hat), they inexplicably are still running around until he gives the hat back to the magician.
This is a simple bug which should have been caught in testing.
I highly recommend Putt Putt goes to the Moon for 3-5 year olds (the apartment matrix is ingenious! It introduces the concept of a matrix in a fun way!), Putt Putt Enters the Race for 3-5 year olds, Putt Putt Saves the Zoo for 3-4 year olds, Putt Putt saves the Circus for 3-5 year olds and Putt Putt Travels Through Time for 5-7 year olds.
Check out the Freddi Fish series as well.
I recommend you don't waste your money on this game!
My daughter (and I) have loved Putt-Putt. Particularly "goes to the zoo" and "racetrack" games. This game just does not run as well. It is slow and the speech is choppy. The voice of Putt-Putt has changed and not really for the better. I wish I would have read the reviews here before purchasing it. Everything the previous reviewers have said is true.
Pep's Birthday Surprise is a definite let-down from Putt-Putt Enters the Race! The major flaw in the software is that the game is less open-ended and too full of animated scenes ... the charm of the Putt-Putt games is that kids are encouraged to use critical thinking skills and to figure out (sometimes obscure) problems. These features are curtailed in this particular game, as if the designers have lost faith in their audience's ability to problem solve and to do multi-step reasoning ... A minor but disconcerting feature is that Putt-Putt's voice has dropped in pitch, which will prove very distracting to Putt-Putt parent veterans!
We had to install this on an XP account with privileges, and we still have no confidence it will not bomb. We gave up trying to install on Windows 2000 and 98 systems. It takes forever to get through the scene chat. Our children are really patient; this is the first time we've felt compelled to use the Enter key to end the character chats. The bonhomie is missing. Even down to the choice of Putt's voice. Putt used to seem about 7 years old, and now he sounds like his voice is about to change. Putt used to be an innocent little guy, helpful and kind, but in this game, he must constantly get rid of Pep in order to discuss the party with co-conspirators. In most scenes, you must first click on Pep so that Putt-Putt can tell him to "go play with your friend", out the door, unsupervised... Better to buy "Enters the Race" first, then try "Zoo", "Circus", "Moon", and "Parade".
Well the old Humongous Entertainment games, the ones before Atari took them over, took 0 MB, lets say that out loud, ZERO MegaBytes of space on your hard drive. This takes 600MB on your hard drive alone. In addition it is a memory hog!!! 256MB of RAM just for itself, so if you run a bunch of things in the background, like most of us do, Anti-virus, firewalls, any update program, Etc... and you don't have gobs of memory to just give to the 3 year to 8 old who might use this program, forget it.
I am so, so very disappointed with Atari!!! Their first attempt was with Pajama Sam (#4) Life Rough When You Lose Your Stuff. I bought this when it first came out thinking it was one of the great humongous entertainment new games, little did I know. I tried to install it on my sons system and it totally froze up, then I actually read the product specs. It looked like my son's computer had the minimum but the program didn't like his computer.
I had several computers at the time and tried it on another which rejected it also. I then decided to put it on my main computer, this is what a work with, which was the fastest and largest in the house at the time. It did install and worked but took the majority of my memory at the time. The voice was no longer the cute voice of Pajama Sam but a deeper more mature voice. I could probably get over the new voice if I didn't have to use the best computer in the house to get it to work. Truly I didn't play out the game nor did my son since it was on my computer. So I cannot say if it is fun or not but I can be almost certain that it is changed, not the same old Putt-Putt or Pajama Sam.
I am now re-ordering the old Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, and Pajama Sam, that I have lost misplaced or given away, for my youngest. They are wonderful!! Some of the Putt-Putt's are so old that the quality is a bit rough, like Putt-Putt goes to the moon.
The before Atari games are--
Putt-Putt
goes to the moon
joins the parade
travels through Time
joins the circus
enters the race
save the zoo
Freddi Fish-The case of
The Missing Kelp Seed
The Haunted School House
The Stolen Conch Shell
The Hogfish Hustlers of Briny Gulch
The Creature of Coral Cove
Pajama Sam
No Need To Hide When It Is Dark Outside
Thunder and Lightening Aren't So Frightening
You Are What You Eat From Your Head To Your Feet
Backyard-
Baseball
Soccer
Football [I'm not sure of BasketBall or Hockey I think they are OK]
Spy Fox (visually not as nice, but a little harder for older kids)
Dry Cereal
Some Assembly Required
Operation Ozone
If your child is young and you want some nice games they can just slip into the drive and play, get the old ones. They are wonderful, entertaining and educational. The kids have to figure things out and put things together all the while they travel through a great environment.
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