| Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo | |
| Developer: | Humongous Entertainment |
| Publisher: | Humongous Entertainment |
| Producer: | Ron Gilbert |
| Engine: | SCUMM |
| Composer: | George Alistair Sanger |
| Artist: | Todd Lubsen[1] |
| Released: | Released: |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Platforms: | Android, Macintosh, Windows, DVD player, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 |
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo is a 1995 video game and the third of seven adventure games in the Putt-Putt series of games developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. The animation style also changed with this game to hand-drawn animation, in contrast to the pixel art graphics of the previous two games, following the studio's jump from DOS to Windows with Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds the previous year. The game was reissued on April 19, 1999. In November 2011, the game became the first Humongous Entertainment game to be rereleased for iOS and Google Play.[7] Developed by Nimbus Games Inc., the iOS version of this game released by Atari was discontinued. A Nintendo Switch version was released in February 2022, followed by the PlayStation 4 version on the PlayStation Store in November the same year.[8]
Putt-Putt is excited for the grand opening of the Cartown Zoo. He visits Mr. Baldini's grocery store, who tasks him with delivering zoo chow to zookeeper Outback Al. Upon arriving at the zoo, Putt-Putt learns that six baby animals have gone missing: Baby Jambo the elephant; Masai the giraffe; Kenya the lion cub; Zanzibar the hippopotamus; Sammy the seal; and Little Skeeter the boa constrictor. Putt-Putt volunteers to search for the animals, which Outback Al agrees to as he starts repairs on the zoo.
After finding and rescuing all six baby animals, Putt-Putt notifies Outback Al of his success, and Al excitedly thanks him. At the zoo's opening ceremony, Outback Al gives Putt-Putt a Junior Zookeeper award for his help and allows him the honor of cutting the ribbon. The zoo is then opened to everyone as they all enter to explore, ending the game.
The game mechanics are almost the same as its predecessors including the glove box inventory, horn, radio and accelerator, though one addition is an ignition key shown on the bottom left side of Putt-Putt's dashboard, which allows the player to quit the game. A few mini games are also playable. Unlike other games, Putt-Putt can acquire a camera so the player can take pictures of the animals and other characters and print them out.[9]
The combined sales of Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, Putt-Putt Joins the Parade and Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon surpassed one million units by June 1997.[10] During the year 2001 alone, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo sold 100,972 retail units in North America, according to PC Data.[11]