Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise

Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Humongous Entertainment. It is the second game by Humongous Entertainment, the first being Putt-Putt Joins the Parade. It is also the first and only installment of the Fatty Bear point-and-click games, although the character was also used in the mini-game compilations Fatty Bear's Fun Pack and the crossover spin-off Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack. In July 2013, Tommo bought the Fatty Bear license for the Atari bankruptcy proceedings.

Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise
Cover art
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)Humongous Entertainment[lower-alpha 1]
Designer(s)
Writer(s)
  • Laurie Bauman
  • Annie Fox
Composer(s)Tom McMail
EngineSCUMM
Platform(s)DOS, 3DO, Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android
Release
  • 1993 (MS-DOS, Mac)[1]
  • 1993 (3DO)
  • 1995 (Win, Mac, DOS)
  • Oct. 23, 2014 (Linux)
  • Oct. 23, 2014 (Steam)
  • 2014 (iOS/Google Play)
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

A girl named Kayla falls asleep the night before her birthday. While she sleeps, her toys and stuffed animals come to life to prepare for her party. Fatty Bear decides to make a chocolate chip cake for the party and accepts the help of Kayla's stuffed bunny, Matilda Rabbit, in baking it. Kayla's doll, Gretchen, volunteers to decorate Kayla's room for the party, including making a sign on Kayla's bulletin board saying, "Happy Birthday". Fatty Bear and Matilda Rabbit then head to the kitchen in order to start making the cake.

In the kitchen, Fatty Bear discovers a present box and becomes curious as to what could be in it. Much to his surprise, a puppy bursts out of the box and starts causing havoc around the house. When Fatty Bear returns to Kayla's room, Gretchen tells him that the puppy stole three of the letters to the Happy Birthday sign and tasks the bear with finding them, as well as blowing five balloons for her, which he does.

Using a bone and a ribbon he found, Fatty Bear lures the puppy back into her present box and wraps the box back up. After baking the cake for the party and returning the missing letters, Fatty Bear jumps onto Kayla's bed and goes back to stuffed animal form as morning comes. Kayla then awakens and expresses delight with how beautiful her room looks. Her father then comes in to deliver her surprise, which turns out to be the puppy. Kayla appreciates her birthday party and thanks everyone for it, especially Fatty Bear, whom she gives a big hug to. Fatty Bear then winks at the player, ending the game.

Reception

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the 3DO version a 7.2 out of 10, saying that it is very similar to the Putt-Putt games, but that, given the choice between the two games, gamers should get one of the Putt-Putt games instead.[2] Computer Gaming World approved of the "delightful" PC version's interactivity and lack of need to complete the game, describing it as "a wonderful introduction to the computer for beginning users and a delightful game for more experienced youngsters".[5]

References
  1. "PC Zone Magazine". PC Zone. No. 1. April 1993. p. 12. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  2. "Review Crew: Fatty Bear's Birthday". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 55. EGM Media, LLC. February 1994. p. 46.
  3. LeVitus, Bob (December 1995). "The Game Room". MacUser. Archived from the original on January 22, 2000. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  4. "Humongous Entertainment® Hall of Fame 1993-2000": 10. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Mann, Richard O.; McCauley, Dennis; Eiser, Leslie; Haverstock, Mark; Donovan, Felicia; Giovetti, Alfred C.; Savetz, Kevin; Germain, Jack (January 1994). "Reviews". Computer Gaming World. pp. 137–142.
  1. The 3DO version was published by Marubeni.
    The Steam release was co-published by Tommo and Night Dive Studios.
    The iOS/Android release was published by Tommo.
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