The ClueFinders: The Incredible Toy Store Adventure!
The ClueFinders: The Incredible Toy Store Adventure! | |
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Developer(s) | The Learning Company |
Publisher(s) | The Learning Company |
Platform(s) | PC (Windows, Macintosh) |
Release date(s) | August 31, 2001 |
Genre(s) | Educational/adventure/science fiction/mystery |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
The ClueFinders: The Incredible Toy Store Adventure is a personal computer game in The Learning Company's ClueFinders series of educational software. In the game, the ClueFinders are trapped in a toy store after hours and Joni, Owen, and LapTrap have mysteriously shrunk to three inches tall. While Leslie and Santiago attempt to reach their friends trapped on the sixth floor, Joni and Owen search for items to build an Unshrinker and discover a diabolical plan surrounding the store.
Premise
The ClueFinders are heading on a San Francisco cable car to the recently built toy store, Ultimate Toys. When they get there, Owen realizes that he lost his wallet, so Joni, Owen, and LapTrap return to the cable car to retrieve it, while Leslie, Santiago and AliTrap (a smaller "second LapTrap" who appears to be one of the LittleTraps from The ClueFinders Reading Adventures) head into the store. However, just as they find it, they are shot by an energy ray which shrinks them, the wallet, and the cable car, to the point that Joni and Owen become only three inches tall. They are then scooped up by an unknown hand and placed in a sack. Once they escape from the sack, they realize they've been taken to the sixth floor. Using Owen's red video phone, they contact Leslie and Santiago and inform them of their plight, prompting Leslie and Santiago to try to get to them. Unfortunately, as it is by this time after-hours, they are barred from using the elevator unless they solve puzzles involving math problems. In addition to this, LapTrap has managed to scan the device that emitted the energy ray, allowing him to determine what parts they require in order to make a machine to undo the ray's shrinkage affects. Gameplay alternates between Joni, Owen and LapTrap exploring the sixth floor and playing games in order to gather the parts they need and Leslie, Santiago and AliTrap solving math problems in order to go up floors until they reach the sixth. On the floors they visit, they also look for parts for the "unshrinker", as LapTrap has uploaded his discoveries about necessary parts to AliTrap as well. After successfully building the Unshrinker, the tiny ClueFinders watch Mr. Swiffel confront Pericles again and the store manager reveals his intentions of shrinking the city and aims the Shrinking Device at his boss. Mr. Swiffel ducks as the beam hits the ClueFinder's Unshrinker. Santiago picks up their now small-enough-to-use device and aims it at the Shrinker in Pericles' hand, which causes it to grow exponentially in size and pin Pericles to the floor. The ClueFinders return to their normal sizes and Mr. Swiffel thanks them for saving San Francisco. At the very end of the game, Joni, Santiago, and Leslie wait for Owen, who emerges from the store carrying an enormous lollipop.
Notes
- This is the first game where entirely different voice actors were used for the ClueFinders themselves.
- It marks the first appearance of AliTrap, who looks exactly like the Little Traps from The ClueFinders Reading Advenutres. She functions as a secondary LapTrap that follows Lelsie and Santiago on their journey to the sixth floor.
- This game is neither grade-based (such as 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th) or subject based (such as Math, Reading, or Search and Solve). It covers all the basic subjects from the games over the 3rd and 4th grades.
- For the first time, both Joni and Leslie have worn backpacks to serve as inventory storage during the game.