Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch

Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch is a 1999 video game and the fourth of five adventure games in the Freddi Fish series of games. It was developed and published by Humongous Entertainment.

Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch
Cover art
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)Humongous Entertainment
Designer(s)
  • Lisa Wick
  • Brad Carlton
Artist(s)John Michaud (animator)
Writer(s)Dave Grossman
Composer(s)Thomas McGurk
SeriesFreddi Fish 
EngineSCUMM
Platform(s)Macintosh
Windows
Linux
Release
  • November 5, 1999 (Win & Mac)
  • May 29, 2014 (Linux)
  • May 29, 2014 (Steam)[1]
  • August 13, 2015 (iOS)
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

As the game opens, Freddi and Luther are on their way to Calico Ranch in the Gulf of Mexico to meet Freddi's cousin, Calico Catfish, who agreed to teach them to raise hogfish. When they arrive, Cousin Calico tells them that her prized hogfish herd had been rustled (which in Calico's way means "someone came in and took them without asking", in other words stealing). Calico couldn't call the authorities as the Sheriff was possibly out of town. Freddi and Luther offer to help find the hogfish and catch the rustlers. After heading into Briny Gulch, the two detectives meet Saltwater Stella, the owner and operator of the local sodaloon. She tells them that two suspicious characters entered the sodaloon the other day. While investigating, Luther finds a note dropped by the rustlers. It mentions a meeting at the Rusty Rustler, a local shipwreck, at high tide. When they arrive at the wreck, they enter the combination code from the note to the hatch entrance and succeed to pry open the entrance. Freddi hears the hogfish grunting from inside. A rustler, the slim fish, stops them from entering and mentions that the hideout is for rustlers only. The rustlers are seriously fashion-cautious, so they won't accept Freddi and Luther until they have the proper attire. Using the magazine advertisement the rustler gave them, Freddi and Luther then set out to find materials for making rustler disguises.

Once they have the materials for the rustler disguise, they can get in the wreck and liberate the hogfish. Unfortunately, Luther pops out of the disguise and the rustlers captured Freddi and Luther and imprisons them. The duo soon realise their cell is just above the hogfish. Going down and meeting the hogfish, they squeeze out of a tiny hole in the hogfish cell. Exploring around the wreck and finding a hook, the two detectives free the hogfish with the hook attached to an anchor's chain locking onto the window of the hogfish's cell. Luther engages the anchor to be lowered and the window is torn out, freeing the hogfish. Finally, Freddi and Luther need to find out who the mysterious Mr. Big is (Mr. Big could be anyone of the townfolk who had the idea of hog-napping). Freddi explains that she and Luther passed by one of the townfolk about the plan of rustling the hogfish when they reached the hogfish cell and found the evidence. After exposing, the thief who is Mr. Big explains the whole situation about capturing the hogfish. Freddi says to the culprit that "you shouldn't take things that don't belong to you, it hurts other people." and the culprit learned a valuable lesson. In the end, the rustlers get to have their dream job - hogfish ranching (they are now helping out at Cousin Calico's Ranch). Cousin Calico thank Freddi and Luther for helping everyone and gives a ten-gallon hat for Freddi and a five-gallon hat for Luther and teaches them how to lasso in order to be Hogfish Ranchers in the Wild West. During the credits, Freddi and Luther sing "Home on the Range". Sometimes, Luther adds on singing "Clementine".

Gameplay

The game uses the same principles as its prequels, but similar to the third game, it has multiple endings on who the main culprit is based on evidence Freddi and Luther find. There are four possible suspects, and each one has a different reason for stealing the hogfish.

Reception

Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch was generally well-received, getting scores of 85% from GameBlitz,[2] 93% from Gamer's Pulse,[3] 4.5 out of 5 stars from Review Corner,[4] 4.5 out of 5 stars from Metzomagic[5] and Unikgamer gave a 6.5 out 10 score.[6] Review Corner also gave this game the Award of Excellence.[4]

During the year 2001 alone, Freddi Fish 4 sold 65,106 retail units in North America, according to PC Data.[8]

References
  1. "Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch on Steam". Steam. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  2. James Anthony (1998). "Freddi Fish 4 review on GameBlitz". Retrieved March 30, 2015. An excellent effort to add to a really top-notch series.
  3. Stephen (Scribbler) Zillwood (August 20, 2000). "Freddi Fish 4 - Gamer's Pulse". Archived from the original on October 30, 2001. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  4. "Freddi Fish 4 - Review Corner". 1999. Archived from the original on April 17, 2004. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  5. Rosemary Young (1999). "Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch Review by metzomagic.com". metzomagic.com. Retrieved May 11, 2015. Freddie fish has maintained her reputation in this adventure, she's just as lovable as ever.
  6. "Freddi Fish series on Unikgamer". Unikgamer. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  7. "Infogrames Awards - Freddi Fish 4". Archived from the original on June 24, 2003. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  8. Sluganski, Randy (March 2002). "State of Adventure Gaming - March 2002 - 2001 Sales Table". Just Adventure. Archived from the original on June 19, 2002. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
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