"There's a lot of work to do before Kayla wakes up. I want to make her a big, beautiful birthday cake. Oh, will she ever be surprised!"
— Fatty Bear
Fatty Bear is a rather short-lived series of children's games made by Humongous Entertainment. Unlike most other franchises of the company, Fatty Bear lasted one Adventure Game and two Minigame Games (though technically only one since the other was just an Updated Re-release). His games consisted of Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise, Fatty Bear's Fun Pack, and Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack. He was also playable in Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon's minigame "Bear Stormin'" (which received a standalone demo release later). After those games, he was reduced to being a simple cameo character for other Humongous games. According to one of the original workers, this is because the person who owned the rights to him had no interest in making any further games.
Fatty Bear is a Living Toy teddy bear who only comes to life when the family is sleeping. He's an extremely polite Nice Guy who is owned by Kayla, a little girl who has a Nuclear Family and lives in a suburban home. The only main game in the series, Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise, is an Adventure Game centered around Fatty trying to prepare a birthday party for Kayla. It goes well until he releases a puppy, who begins to cause trouble for everyone.
As Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise is the only main game, all examples are referring to it unless stated otherwise.
Tropes in the Fatty Bear games:
- Ageless Birthday Episode: The entire game is about creating Kayla's surprise birthday party, but her age is never so much as mentioned.
- A.I. Breaker: In Lines and Boxes in Fatty Bear's Fun Pack (and by extension Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack), there's a pretty major weakness in Fatty Bear's AI that allows for easy wins even on Hardest. At the point in the game where you are forced to give each other squares, you can fill all the way up to the last two squares and give those to him. Every time, without fail, he will fill in those last two squares and then be forced to give you another cluster. Repeat this until you have effectively sealed a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Aside Glance: Fatty Bear, who winks at the player after Kayla says "Oh thank you, everybody!"
- Cartoonland Time: The cake is baked within a matter of seconds.
- Crossover: Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack is the only Humongous game to go further than simple cameos. Granted, the two never interact with one another.
- Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: The mouse clock.Mouse Clock: Hurry, hurry, all of you! There's so very much to do!
- Developer's Foresight: It is impossible to do Sequence Breaking by not letting the puppy out of the box, even if it seems possible. If you do ignore it, Fatty Bear will eventually wonder for himself, causing the puppy to break free. And if you do finish the cake before letting her out, the plot will not advance until she runs off with the letters for the "Happy Birthday" sign.
- Foreshadowing: Clicking on the answering machine will play a message from Kayla's dad that he's picking up Kayla's present at the pet store.
- Ghost Extras: Kayla's mom, whose only appearance is her completely covered-up sleeping figure seen on the bed. She's mentioned once, by Kayla.
- Good Parents: Kayla's dad wishes her a good night and morning, and is excited to give her the birthday surprise he got for her. Kayla's mom helped him buy the surprise.
- Heli-Critter: Matilda Rabbit uses her ears to fly/get around.
- It Came from the Fridge: The refrigerator contains a covered dish that has a green slime monster inside, and a bowl with bubbling brown gunk in it.Fatty Bear: Yuck! Leftovers again!
- Living Toys: Fatty Bear and his friends are all stuffed animals or dolls.
- Mad Libs Dialogue: Inserted dialogue happens most often when observing variable items. The floppy disk version had to rely on it even more, and was especially bad when blowing up the balloons.Gretchen: That's...one...balloon, Fatty Bear...four...more to go.
- The Man in the Moon: If you click on the moon, it will turn around and talk to Fatty Bear.
- Masquerade: Fatty Bear and friends are Living Toys who only come to life when everyone is asleep.
- Milking the Giant Cow: Matilda Rabbit flails her arms around every single second she's talking.
- Mini-Game: Simple bowling game in the front yard.
- Minigame Game: Fatty Bear's Fun Pack and its Updated Re-release Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack.
- Mister Muffykins: The puppy. She spends the game causing trouble for everybody, running off with three letters for the "happy birthday" sign, popping balloons, digging in the garden, and stealing Fatty Bear's chocolate chips.Matilda: I dare say that puppy is a scamp!
- Nice Guy: Fatty Bear, who's polite and thankful with every word, and hopes his owner will like her birthday.
- Nuclear Family: Fatty Bear's owner is a little girl named Kayla who has a mom, a dad, and now a puppy. They live in a suburban home.
- Parental Bonus: The opening of the demo version
is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. This is referenced in the full-length game: when you click on the moon, it turns to the side and talks with the same Alfred Hitchcock voice as in the demo. It says, "Good evening, Fatty Bear." - Perpetual Smiler: Fatty Bear; due to sprite limitations, he'll smile even at negative events.Fatty Bear: *smiling* Look what the puppy's done to the garden!
- Point-and-Click Map: The Adventure Game utilizes this.
- Present Absence: Kayla is asleep between the beginning and ending cutscenes of the entire game, so the characters need to finish her Surprise Party preparations before she wakes up.
- Production Foreshadowing: Looking through the treehouse telescope will sometimes show Putt-Putt on the moon. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon was released a few months after Fatty Bear's game.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Fun Pack reuses music from Birthday Surprise, while its Updated Re-release Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack reuses music from Putt-Putt Joins the Parade.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The mouse clock in Kayla's room always speaks in rhyme when you click on him, often worrying about getting the party ready on time.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: If you pull the chocolate chips from the cupboard while the puppy is out, she'll snatch them and Fatty Bear will chase her while performing this gag through the home's hallway of doors.
- Shout-Out:
- The bowl in the refrigerator has the same colors and zig-zag pattern as Charlie Brown's shirt.
- You can put a duck bill on the dress-up cabbage, and its voice/afflection is suspiciously similar to Daffy Duck.
- Slippery Soap: The soap bounces around from hand to hand before Fatty Bear uses it on the puppy.
- Staggered Zoom: At the very beginning of the game, the zoom into Kayla's room uses several shots instead of a regular zoom. Due to full-frame animations being impossible back then.
- The Stoic: Fatty Bear rarely shows much emotion, both due to sprite limitations and due to his voice not showing as much emotion, even if something bad happens.Fatty Bear: *standing in his usual pose* Hey, you can't take my chocolate chips.
- Suburbia: The family lives in this. Though the neighborhood is never shown, both the interior and exterior of their house has the generic suburban structure.
- The End: Shown on-screen before the credits roll.
- Virtual Paper Doll: The cabbage dressup mini-game, and Fatty Bear can put on costumes with the attic's dresser (although he removes them before moving on).
- Wink "Ding!": Fatty Bear's wink makes this sound effect.
- Your Size May Vary: At the beginning of the game, standing in Kayla's room Fatty Bear is around a foot tall, stuffed animals size. As he goes around the house, he's as tall as the kitchen counter, garage door, and washing machine, but back to a foot tall in the parents' closet or whenever he returns to Kayla's room.
