Putt Putt Saves the Zoo

$2.99, iPad

Teaches: logic, problem solving, music, memory

CTR Rating: 86%

CTR Review

He's back! Nearly 20 years after the first Putt Putt tile (1993) this iPad rendition of Putt Putt Saves the Zoo is just like you remembered it, with a great story line and good music. This title has been rereleased several times over the years (this is the 16th Putt Putt title in our database). In 2008, it was sold at retail computers. In case you missed it the first time around, this is a cartoonish scavenger hunt-style program that lets you drive Putt-Putt (a car) around the paths in three zoo regions (the jungle, the arctic and the grasslands) in search of six missing baby animals. As you explore, you find special items necessary to help the animals. For example, a rope found in an arctic snow bank must be taken into the jungle and lowered down a waterfall to rescue a trapped lion cub. Freeing a stranded hippo requires building a bridge of uniquely shaped icebergs and finding a shovel to clear away an avalanche. Unless the necessary special items are found, the animals remain lost and the zoo cannot open. Testers aged three and four became frustrated in their first few plays, and required adult assistance. Older children (and adults) loved the program. Especially enjoyable are the multilevel activities found around the zoo. In Animal Tag, kids must pay attention to detail as they match special animals that pop up at random from the Savannah. Other activities include six different information stations offering interesting animal facts like "hippos eat 100 pounds of grass for five hours each night". There's also a water-slide maze game that's just for fun. The zoo program was first released in 1995, setting a new standard for excellence in interactive design. Today, this game still makes a welcome addition to any home library, although the graphics are bitmapped on the iPad. In addition, multi-touch gestures don't work. To move to the next screen, you have to touch arrows that were obviously made to be clicked on. All in all, this is a nice blast from the past, and it works on the iPad. Created by Nimbus games for Atari, who now owns Humungous.