Putt-Putt Joins the Circus

Putt-Putt Joins the Circus is a video game and the sixth of adventure game of the Putt-Putt series of games. It was developed and published by Humongous Entertainment in 2000. This is the last of three games to feature Nancy Cartwright as the voice of Putt-Putt.

Putt-Putt Joins the Circus
2002 Cover art
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)Humongous Entertainment[lower-alpha 1]
Programmer(s)Brian Pulliam
Artist(s)Edward Pun
Composer(s)Scott Lloyd Shelly
EngineSCUMM
Platform(s)Macintosh, Windows, iOS, Linux, Steam
Release
  • July 11, 2000[1] (Mac, Win)
  • October 4, 2013 (iOS)
  • May 29, 2014 (Linux)
  • May 29, 2014 (Steam)[2]
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

The game begins with Putt-Putt and Pep travelling to Apple Valley to see B.J. Sweeney's Big Top Circus. They find that a goat is blocking the road to Apple Valley, as well as the train tracks, where Roll-Along Cassidy, the circus train, is trying to deliver sawdust to the circus. Putt-Putt is able to coax the goat off of the train tracks with a flower bush. As Putt-Putt and Cassidy chat, the goat eats Putt-Putt's ticket, leaving Putt-Putt and Pep with seemingly no way to go to the circus. Cassidy, however, decides to give Putt-Putt a ride to the circus to see if B.J. Sweeney can work out a way for Putt-Putt to see the circus without a ticket.

Putt-Putt and Pep arrive early at the circus with the help of Cassidy and meet B.J., who is crying over the fact that all five of his main acts are having problems. He shows Putt-Putt a piece of paper, showing the performers of the five main acts: Honko the Clown, The Flying Porkowskis, Phillipe the Flea, Reginald the Lion and Katie Cannonball. Putt-Putt introduces himself and volunteers to get the five main acts working again.

After giving Honko his clown nose by getting his translation book from fixing Bette's pipes and a juggling club from one of Marvin's cards to give to Sebastian, giving the Flying Porkowskis their safety net by giving Mama Mombasa a bag of peanuts from Bart after he wins the Peanut Challenge, finding a nice umbrella as a tent for Phillipe and his Flea Troup to perform by giving Eunice a new umbrella and finding him in Belobrodnik, giving Reginald the Lion his proper costume given by Francine after fixing a hole in the pool and helping Katie Cannonball set up her cannon and instructions after helping Ivan find the Pectoro's power shake recipe, the circus gets all set to open. As a reward for saving the circus, B.J. Sweeney lets Putt-Putt perform. At the end, Putt-Putt presses the button that opens a curtain, and all the five main acts perform their tricks. Honko then splats a pie on the screen, ending the game.

Gameplay

The game uses the same mechanics as its predecessors including Putt-Putt's dashboard interface and some minigames included. Throughout the game the player must solve characters' problems and unite all five circus actors.

Development

All backgrounds, characters and animations were hand drawn.[3]

Reception

Critical reception

The game was well received and earned a number of awards around its year of release.

Commercial performance

Between May 11 and 13, the game had debuted at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2000 in Los Angeles.[3]

During the year 2001 alone, Putt-Putt Joins the Circus sold 82,400 retail units in North America, according to PC Data.[6]

References
  1. "Putt-Putt® Joins the Circus™ from Humongous Entertainment® Offers Big Top Fun for Children of All Ages" (Press release). Humongous Entertainment. July 11, 2000. Archived from the original on November 20, 2000.
  2. "Putt-Putt Joins the Circus on Steam". Steam. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  3. "Latest Adventure Starring Everyone's Favorite Purple Car Available in June". Humongous Entertainment - News. 2000. Archived from the original on November 20, 2000. Retrieved November 8, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. Angela Graven (October 3, 2000). "Angela Graven reviews Putt-Putt Joins the Circus". PC Magazine. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  5. "Putt-Putt Joins the Circus - Awards". Humongous Entertainment. Archived from the original on April 18, 2001. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  6. Sluganski, Randy (March 2002). "State of Adventure Gaming - March 2002 - 2001 Sales Table". Just Adventure. Archived from the original on June 19, 2002. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  1. The IOS release was published by Tommo.
    The Steam release was co-published by Tommo and Night Dive Studios.
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