Video Game / Freddi Fish

Freddi Fish is a series of point-and-click children's games originally made by Humongous Entertainment, which was later bought by Atari. The series spans five Adventure Games and four Gaiden Games.

Freddi Fish is a yellow fish, who investigates problems with the help of her friend Luther, a small green fish. Problems that Freddi and Luther face usually involve a villain (often a Card-Carrying Villain) scaring the local fish through some sort of trick.

The Adventure Games, in order, are:

• Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds (1994; also known as Freddi Fish: Kelp Seed Mystery, and often referred to as Freddi Fish 1)
• Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse (1996; also known as Freddi Fish: Haunted Schoolhouse Mystery)
• Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell (1998; also known as Freddi Fish and the Stolen Shell)
• Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch (1999)
• Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove (2001)

The Gaiden Games, in order, are:

• Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries (1996)
• Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness (1996)
• Freddi Fish's One-Stop Fun Shop
• Freddi Fish: ABCs Under the Sea (sometimes called Freddi Fish: ABC's Under the Sea or Freddi Fish: ABC Under the Sea)

The series also spawned multiple children's books (not all of which may have been published), including Freddi Fish and the Pirate's Treasure, Freddi Fish Notebook, Freddi Fish: A Whale of a Tale!, Freddi Fish: Boek is Zoek, Freddi Fish: Color and Activity Book, Freddi Fish: De Geheimzinnige Brief, Freddi Fish: Help! Een Draak!, Freddi Fish: Kleurenfestival, Freddi Fish: Leesplezier voor Beginnende Lezers, Freddi Fish: Meester Zeester in Nood, Freddi Fish: Superleuke Rekenoefeningen, Freddi Fish: Superleuke Schrijfoefeningen, Freddi Fish: The Big Froople Match, Freddi Fish: The Missing Letters Mystery, Freddi Fish: What's Different?, and Sing Along with Freddi Fish and her Friends (doubling as an Audio Adaptation). Additionally, the album Flabby Rode features the Cut Song "Fat Chants 2" from Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds.

A demo version of The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse can be downloaded from Infogrames, and a clickpoint demonstration of The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove can be played or downloaded from Spektakle.

Now available on Steam.

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Tropes in the Freddi Fish series:

• Achievements in Ignorance: In the third game, when Freddi and Luther find one of the golden pipes at the top of a tree on land, Luther will try to get it down using telekinesis. While he fails to move the golden pipe, he does manage to lift a plane out of the water behind him, though neither of them notice this.
• Alliterative Title: Certain games in the series have these, including Water Worries, Maze Madness, and The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove.
• Adults Are More Anthropomorphic: While there are exceptions, usually the adult fish in the games float in a more upright position and wear more pieces of clothing than Freddi and Luther. This is especially noticeable with Mrs. Croaker and the schoolchildren in The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse.
• Air-Vent Passageway: This is how Freddi and Luther access the school's boiler room in The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: Cacti appear in the western-themed Freddi Fish 4. While the game does not specify what part of the world Briny Gulch is set in, this is chuckle-worthy since said "desert" is underwater.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Freddi Fish.
  • Grandma Grouper.
  • King Crab.
  • Barnacle Bob, owner of the Pulley Emporium.
  • Eddie the Eel.
  • Nadine the Narwhal.
  • Cousin Calico.
  • Mayor Marlin.

• Ambidextrous Sprite: In Water Worries, Luther and Freddi always use the fin that's further from the player to hold their slingshots (and in Freddi's case, her net).
• Amateur Sleuth: Freddi and Luther.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Downplayed; there are two brief sequences (retrieving Casey's glasses from a pothole they've fallen down in Haunted Schoolhouse and inside a shipwreck in Creature of Coral Cove) where the player plays only as Luther for a few screens because Freddi can't access the area (notably, the inventory disappears during these sequences).
• Angry Guard Dog:
  • The Junkyard Dogfish, in The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, who guards the Junkyard, and won't let Freddi and Luther in unless they give him a bone first.
  • The Junkyard Dogfish reappears Maze Madness as a regular enemy in the game's later stages.
  • Marty's dogfish from The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove Similar to the Junkyard Dogfish, Freddi and Luther can bribe him using his rubber ducky chew toy to get out of their way.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Nadine is a female narwhal with a tusk, which she says is very rare. Truth in Television, as female narwhals do occasionally grow a tusk like the males.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If you fool around long enough, a character will randomly give you a hint.
  • The Junior Arcade titles have a feature called the Junior Helper, which gives the player options to make the games easier. Features include options for unlimited tries, and unlimited power-ups.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Eddie is a green electric eel that has fangs and lives in the ocean. Real electric eels are brown and toothless, and they only live in the freshwater rivers of South America. Also, they're not true eels.
  • A lot of the sea turtles in the games look like freshwater turtles and even tortoises. One exception is Tucker Turtle.
  • Bananas are shown growing on palm trees in The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell. In real life, bananas grow on stalks.
• Art Shift: This music video features 3D versions of Freddi and Luther.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Horst Fedders' native language is Foreign-Sounding Gibberish.
• Assuming the Audience's Age: In the second game the title character treats the player as a classmate at her school.
• Audio Adaptation: The Tie-In Novel Sing Along with Freddi Fish and her Friends came with a cassette tape of the same name.
• Ax-Crazy: Freddi in the "Eddie Eats Luther" easter egg clip.
• Back for the Finale: Grandma Grouper and Casey, whose previous appearances in the main games were in The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds and The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse respectively, make their return for the last game, The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove.
• Bedsheet Ghost: In the second game, Freddi quickly learns that the ghost haunting the schoolhouse is merely someone wearing a sheet after a piece of their costume gets ripped off while they make their escape.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The first two games have Boss and Spongehead, a pair of sharks working under the Squidfather who are responsible for stealing the kelp seed treasure and the children's toys, respectively.
• Big Friendly Dog: In ABCs Under the Sea, the Junkyard Dogfish becomes the host of one of the mini-games, and doesn't threaten Freddi and Luther.
• Blatant Lies: At the end of the first game, Luther tries to make himself look like he did all of the work and was being very brave.
• Blind Without 'Em: Casey and his Opaque Nerd Glasses. When Freddi and Luther first approach him, he doesn't even face them, even when Freddi tries to signal him to where they are.
• Bloody Hilarious: In The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, Freddi's cut Indulgent Fantasy Segue has her feed Luther to Eddie the Eel.
• Brats with Slingshots: The closest thing Freddi and Luther have to a weapon, though they never directly aim them at anyone. The one in The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse is actually a very high-tech device, complete with an attached targeting computer. The ones in Water Worries are more basic slingshots.
• Broken Bridge: There are some roadworks in The Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch which block off a large portion of the game until you've been to the rustlers' hideout.
• Butt Biter: Old Soggy subdues the culprit in Stolen Conch Shell with one of these.
• Butt-Monkey: Luther. Heck, an unused Scene in the first game had Freddi feed the poor little guy to Eddie Eel and it even had blood. Yikes.
• The Cameo: Freddi talks to a fish version of Putt-Putt in the opening of the first game.
• Canon Discontinuity: Freddi and Luther create the stories in One-Stop Fun Shop's storytime coloring book, so the five stories are most likely not canon.
• Cartoon Whale: Fluke the Whale in Freddi Fish and the Case of The Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch is a sperm whale with a square head (sperm whales have rectangular heads).

• Clam Trap: In The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, one of the pipes will be inside a clam in one path, and when Luther goes to retrieve it, the clam threatens to snap him up. The two must get the Shim-Sham-Jimmety-Jam-Flapper-Gapper from Horst Feathers so it will prop the clam's shells open while Luther gets the pipe, although the clam nearly snaps him up at the last second and ends up eating the device.
• Clamshells as Mouths: Bivalves in the series have their shells function as mouths, some of them even having Cartoony Eyes on their shells.
• Coat Full of Contraband: Standard behavior for Ray, who's pretty much Honest John's Dealership without the dealership.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In Water Worries, the bubbles with red outlines are the ones with bad things in or on them.
• Color-Coded Speech: Freddi's subtitles are colored yellow while Luther's subtitles are colored green.
• Company Cross References: The Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch has a wrecked ship with a pipe on it. If you click the pipe, it chews bubblegum before blowing a bubble depicting the head of another Humongous Entertainment character; Pajama Sam, Putt-Putt, or SPY Fox.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: The third game has one for each thief.
  • Gill Barker is sentenced to silently work in a library for 4,672 hours for violating penal code 214 for excessive greediness.
  • Claw is sentenced to attend ballet for bullies and has to wear a tutu and little pink dance slippers for the rest of the school year for violating penal code 119 for having a really bad attitude.
  • Nadine is sentenced to teach how to brush and floss for many long hours for violating penal code 121 for the narwhal gate coverup.
  • Rosie Pearl is sentenced to teach humor-impaired fish how to be funny for 4,231 hours for violating penal code 682 for wrongful conch-napping.
  • Pierre is sentenced to sew hand puppets for underprivileged humpback whales for 4,284 hours for violating penal code 919 for thinking only of himself.
  • Horst Feathers is sentenced to write a new foreign phrase book that isn't as silly as the one he brought on his trip for violating penal code 525 for granny larceny.
• Darker and Edgier: The first game was this compared to the Putt Putt games before it. While the first two Putt Putts involved joining a parade, and getting back to Earth from the Moon, the first Freddi Fish had Freddi and Luther prevent everyone from dying of starvation by finding their stolen food source (seriously, Freddi outright says that, without the kelp seeds, all the fish would die). Likewise, the games have a Big Bad Duumvirate in Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters that answer to what amounts to a Mafia Don.
• A Day in the Limelight: Water Worries is the only game to focus on Luther, with Freddi only being playable in two player mode.
• Demoted to Extra: Spongehead and Boss, the Big Bads of the first two games, are reduced to a background joke in the third game (which is a Vacation Episode), and don't show up again after that.
• Difficulty Levels: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell has eight possible locations for a golden pipe, and will randomly select three on any playthrough. However, unlike other examples of Story Branching in Humongous games where they could be in any combination, they are sorted according to difficulty: there are three "easy" ones,^note The one stuck in the carnival organ, the one in the cockpit of the plane, and the one stuck in the Terrific Tumble Tubes three "medium" ones^note the one stuck up a palm tree, the one in the metal cage and the one in the bird's nest and two "hard" ones,^note the one in the dark cave and the one in the open clam and the game will select one from each difficulty.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Ray the manta ray.
• Downloadable Content: Freddi Fish's One-Stop Fun Shop had additional art that could be downloaded from Humongous' website.
• Early-Bird Cameo: SPYFox appears in one of the theater movies for Freddi Fish 2, which came out about a year before SPY Fox's first game.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Freddi had a slightly different design in the first game, mainly due to her upper fin being taller and less wide. It also is notably Darker and Edgier than the sequels.
  • Purple sea urchins are used merely to weigh down a bucket in order to access an area. In later games, they're used as currency.^note It's possible that this was meant as some kind of toll booth for access to the theatre, but they're only explicitly used as currency in the other games.
  • Being one of the earliest Humongous games to feature Story Branching, the bottles in the first game work a little differently to the Plot Coupons in later ones; you need to find them one after the other, and the next bottle won't appear until you've found the current one, whereas later games would allow you to find the Plot Coupons in any order and work on multiple puzzles simultaneously. In addition, puzzles still appear even if you don't need to complete them; you only need to rescue Fiddler Crab if the second bottle is at the deep canyon, but you can still get the key, free him and get the fishing pole even if it isn't. In later games only the relevant puzzles to that playthrough would appear.
• Electric Jellyfish: Appear in Water Worries and The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Water Worries ends with Freddi and Luther laughing after Freddi suggests that they go back into the cave Luther just escaped from to have their picnic.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": As with Spongehead, Boss is never referred to by his unknown real name; instead, he's always referred to as what Spongehead called him in the first game.
• Everything Isan Instrument: Laren from Freddi Fish 5 plays jugs as a musical instrument; he can also play his tummy as a drum, and besides that he can play various instruments like accordion, harmonica, acoustic guitar, banjo, bagpipes, and bugle.
• Expanded Universe: The Tie-In Novels and Audio Adaptation.
• Expo Speak: "Maybe I can move the pipe with TELEKINESIS: The raw power of my brain!"
  • Interestingly enough, although Luther couldn't get the pipe down with the TK, he did unknowingly lift a plane out of the ocean in the distance.
• Expy: Jason from The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds is basically a fish version of Putt-Putt. He's even named after Putt-Putt's voice actor at the time and is voiced by him.
• Extreme Omnivore: The hungry pink shark in Freddi Fish 4 can be fed - among other things - a bone, a sunken anchor, and a car tire.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: In The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, Freddi does this towards the player at the end of her cut Indulgent Fantasy Segue.
• The Family for the Whole Family: The shark villains and their boss, The Squidfather.
• Famed In-Story: Zigzagged in The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove. The meeting with Xamfear, the titular Creature has him recognise Freddi as "that famous kid detective", while none of the townspeople seem to know who she is beforehand.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: In The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, Freddi's cut Indulgent Fantasy Segue has her feed Luther to Eddie the Eel.
• Fictional Currency: Sea urchins. There are at least five variations, all of which are more valuable: purple sea urchins, which are the most common, red sea urchins (worth two purple ones), blue sea urchins (worth three purple ones), gold sea urchins (worth four purple ones), and orange sea urchins (worth more than four purple ones; exact value unknown). There's also a mention in the fourth game of Gill owing a loan shark twenty clams; the significance of this debt implies that a clam is worth more than any sea urchin seen in the series.
• 15 Puzzle: Freddi Fish 2 has a sliding puzzle, but it's completely optional to complete. The only time you actually need to use it is if the trident is being held by the statue below it, and even then, you still only need to clear one space.
• Food as Bribe:
  • In the first game, the solution to getting Eddie the Eel to stop blocking the way to the three caves is to give him the peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich you get from Grandma Grouper at the beginning of the game.
  • Similarly, if Eddie is guarding the life preserver in the second game, Freddi and Luther can make him cooperate with them by giving him a Worm Doodle.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: "Frankly Freddi" on the old Humongous web site.
• Free-Range Children: Freddi and Luther are free to go by themselves and solve mysteries without adult supervision.
• From Bad to Worse: Said word-to-word by Xamfier in the fifth game after learning that the deed to his home has been stolen.
• Funnel-Mouthed Cephalopod: The octopi from the Feeding Frenzy mini-game in The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds are depicted with funnel-shaped mouths.
• Funny Foreigner: Horst Fedders, mostly due to Freddi Fish 3's foreign language phrase book.
• Furry Confusion:
  • Freddi Fish 4 introduces U the Snail's pet seahorse Elmer, who acts like a regular horse, speaks in horse-like whinnies, and helps deliver mail by pulling a mailcart. The same game had an anthropomorphic seahorse that says "Howdy!" to Freddi in the opening. The previous game also had Horst Fedders, a seahorse tourist dressed in a Hawaiian shirt who was just as anthropomorphic as the rest of the cast.
  • Also from Freddi Fish 4, the pink shark acts animalistic, doesn't speak, and attempts to eat the main duo, in contrast to other previously-seen sharks such as Boss and Spongehead. Even weirder in that it's wearing a hat.
• Gender-Blender Name: Freddi. Her voice is also ambiguous enough that it's fairly common for people to confuse her for male. This actually happens in-universe in the second game, and she corrects the other fish by saying "Excuse me, sir, but I'm a girl." This was possibly intentionally put in to confirm her gender for any unsure players.
• Gentle Giant:
  • Fluke the sperm whale in Freddi Fish 4.
  • In Freddi Fish 5, the sea monster Xamfear Duncan Dogberry Valentine turns out to be one of these.
• Geographic Flexibility: ABCs Under the Sea takes locations from the first, fourth, and fifth games and puts them in completely different places. Grandma Grouper's house from the fifth game even appears twice (well, either that or she got a duplicate house)!
• Giant Squid: The Squidfather.
• Grand Finale: Case of the Creature of Coral Cove is this for the series and Humongous in general, as it was the last adventure game produced by Humongous before their buyout from Atari. They went out with a bang, too- it's probably the most solid of all the Junior Adventures.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Boss and Spongehead answer to the Squidfather, The Don to the resident underwater mafia.
• Growling Gut:
  • Luther complains about his stomach growling in Freddi Fish 4, but it is never heard.
  • Laren the musician's tummy growls mostly in Freddi Fish 5, because he is hungry and he loves to eat.
• Guilt-Based Gaming: Luther will sometimes say this if you hit the "Stop" button at the end of the first game:
  Luther: Freddi! I'm melting!
• Hammerspace: To the point where it gets lampshaded in the fourth game, after Freddi manages to store an entire piece of wood.
  Luther: How did you do that?
  Freddi: That's my special secret.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: The Junkyard Dogfish. In The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, he's hungry and growls at Freddi and Luther (biting Luther's tail fin if Freddi and Luther swim too close to him) after Luther accidentally wakes him up, but once Freddi gives him a bone he thanks her and leaves. In Maze Madness, he keeps chasing Freddi no matter how many times he takes a Peanut Butter and Jellyfish Sandwich from her. In ABCs Under the Sea, he (supposedly) sorts the junkyard's trash, and is happy to let Freddi and Luther help him sort it.
• The Hero: Freddi.
• Hidden Object Game: The Tie-In Novel Freddi Fish: What's Different?
• High-Class Glass: Mr. Starfish from The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds and the Tie-In Novel Freddi Fish: Meester Zeester in Nood wears a monocle, as well as a bowtie.
• Indulgent Fantasy Segue: In The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, Freddi has an unused one where she feeds Luther to Eddie, then turns and makes an Eyelid Pull Taunt expression.
  Luther: Whatcha thinking about, Freddi?
  Freddi: Oh, nothing, Luther.
• Invincibility Power-Up: The bubble in Maze Madness will encase Freddi when she picks it up, and will allow her to temporarily flatten enemies she comes into contact with.
• Invisible Parents: Despite being mentioned on the old Humongous website, Freddi's parents never show up in-universe.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Everything.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: A VERY minor one. When the suspect in Freddi Fish 3 says Freddi and Luther got nothing on them, Soggy the dogfish bites their tail until they confess.
• Keet: Luther.
• Kid Hero: Freddi and Luther. While their exact ages are never stated, they do go to school in the second game.
• Kitchen Sink Included: When providing Sahara Slim with a suitcase as a replacement for his travel bandana in the fourth game, he empties out a ludicrous amount of items, including a kitchen sink.
• The Lancer: Luther.
• Large Ham: Luther.
• Level Editor: Maze Madness has one.
• Lighter and Softer: The first game has noticably more dangerous stakes than the later games, with Freddi outright stating that the fish will starve to death if they don't find the kelp seed treasure. Nothing of the sort is ever mentioned in any of the sequels. The first game also has the most consistently dark environments, while the sequels are generally much brighter by comparison
• Linked List Clue Methodology: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds has Spongehead's bottles that lead to Grandma Grouper's stolen kelp seed treasure. Apparently, Spongehead put the clues in the bottle so he could remember where to find the kelp treasure. Unfortunately for him, Freddi and Luther find them first.
• Logo Joke: In comparison to the other Humongous games, the font on the "It's a Junior Adventure!" logo is light blue instead of yellow to give it an ocean-like feel (with the exception of the fourth game which goes back to the yellow scheme, and the fifth which lacks it altogether).
• Long Song, Short Scene:
  • The ending theme to the second game. It's actually three separate songs put together in the same cut scene, and they all change upon a specific point, so a good half of it is unheard of in-game.
  • The intro/ending theme for Water Worries is cut off 40 seconds in, when the whole thing is about a minute and 3 seconds before looping once.
• Mad Libs Dialogue: Especially in Water Worries.
  • The math minigame from the first game makes use of this whenever the characters utter the numbers.
• Mayincatec: The temple from Stolen Conch.
• Maze Game: Maze Madness.
• Message in a Bottle: The Linked List Clue Methodology in The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds. The museum in The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse includes a similar bottle, which in Freddi's words "looks awfully familiar."
• Minigame Game: ABCs Under the Sea.
• Money Fetish: Luther is always trying to get rich. This bites him in the tail hard in the third game, where he gets imprisoned in a temple cage for attempting to take a jewel.
• Multiple Endings:
  • In the third and fourth games, the culprit is different every time you finish the game, and each has a different motive for why they committed the crime the game centered around. In the third game, the clue for who the culprit is an item in the bag they drop just after freeing Luther; in the fourth, it's an item sitting on a crate in the hideout.
  • In the first game, Fiddler Crab and Gabby are both trapped side characters that you can rescue. However, depending on the paths you get, you can end up finishing the game without rescuing one or the other (for Gabby, it's always possible since you only need three of the seven purple sea urchins; for Fiddler Crab, the second bottle has to be at the junkyard instead of the deep canyon, otherwise you will have to use his fishing pole). Should you do this, neither one of them shows up in the ending.
• Musical Episode: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse and the Tie-In Novel/Audio Adaptation Sing Along with Freddi Fish and her Friends, which feature the same songs.
• Nerd Glasses:
  • Casey, and he's Blind Without 'Em.
  • Al B. Core from Freddi Fish 5.
• Never Had Toys: At the end of the game, it is revealed that the ghost that seems to be haunting the schoolhouse and stealing toys from the children is just two criminal sharks in disguise stealing toys on behalf of their criminal boss, the Squidfather. He commanded them to steal toys for himself due to never having one. Though the toys are returned, Luther gives up his action figure, saying that even the Squidfather "deserves one toy".
• Never Say "Die": Strangely averted in the first game, but played straight through the rest of the series. Maze Madness and Water Worries refuse to call losing a life "dying".
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: A non-superhero example—in ABCs Under the Sea, Augie the octopus suddenly has the ability to change color. Justified in that octopi really do change color.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: King Crab in The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds sounds like an impression of Glenn Shadix.
• Notice This: Important objects will wiggle, glow, sparkle, and possibly emit noises. Often one of the characters will comment on it upon entering the scene.
• Oddball in the Series: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove has only two big story branches, as opposed to lots of little ones, and both paths share many of the same puzzles. It also lacks the "checklist" of Plot Coupons all the other games have, leaving the player to figure things out for themselves. And finally, it has a single villain working by themself, rather than a Big Bad Duumvirate working under a single boss or one culprit out of several suspects that constantly changes every time the game is finished.
• Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove, the last game of the series, ends with Freddi and Luther holding fins and swimming to the top of the ocean.
• Offscreen Teleportation: In ABCs Under the Sea, Grandma Grouper appears in two different locations, and no matter how quickly Freddi swims from one to the other, Grandma will always be there already.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: As with Boss, Spongehead is never referred to by his unknown real name; instead, he's always referred to as what Boss called him in the first game.
• Pauper Patches: Laren the musician in Freddi Fish 5 wears an orange shirt with patches covering his tummy.
• Peer-Pressured Bully: In Case Of The Stolen Conch Shell, in the ending where Claw turns out to be the conch shell thief, he admits that he only stole the conch shell because the other bullies in his "Bullies Club" pressured him to do it. Though we don't get to see these other bullies, Claw claims that they're even bigger bullies than he is.
• Penny-Pinching Crab: In Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, one character you come across is King Crab, a crab monarch who mostly just sits on his throne. He has a bunch of tiny pedestals topped with pearls leading up to his throne, and on some playthroughs, you might find that one of the pedestals has a Message in a Bottle instead (as the locations of the bottles change in every playthrough). King Crab won't let you have the bottle until you bring him another pearl to replace it.
• Perpetual Smiler: Freddi Fish and Luther are always drawn smiling when left idle in their environments, even when they're visiting Uncle Blenny in jail in the third game or when they're captured and thrown in a holding cell in the hog rustlers' hideout in the fourth game. The only exceptions to this are the cave where Gabby is trapped in the first game and the Bully's Club in the third game.^note The Deep Canyon in the first game might also have been intended as an exception, but the way the screen is drawn they're too far away to really see. At the entrance to the three caves before they deal with Eddie, which might also have been an exception, they're drawn from behind.
• Perplexing Pearl Production: Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds has a trio of oysters that challenge you to a shuffling game, in which you must pick one holding a pearl that is earned as a prize. Said pearl is used to give to King Crab in exchange for a Message in a Bottle.
• Pirate Song: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds has a more downplayed, silly example. The pirate fish Fineas sings a song about how he likes to say "Argh!"
• Platonic Life-Partners: Freddi and Luther.
• Point of No Return: Most of the adventure games send you to the final area once all of the key items have been collected, with no way to get back to the main map. Haunted Schoolhouse is the only exception, as the game ends once all of the items are collected instead.
• Poison Mushroom: Water Worries has Wiggler Worms, which cause Luther or Freddi to wiggle around for a period of time, effectively enlarging their hitbox as well as making it harder to aim at smaller bubbles.
• Police Are Useless:
  • The sheriff in the fourth game runs off the minute he gets rescued, not even paying a hint of attention to Freddi trying to point out their kidnapped hogfish problem. Additionally, at the end of the game, he's quick to arrest the two who run the hideout, but doesn't even consider the fact that they may not be the only suspects until Freddi points it out. To his credit, though, there was nothing actually stopping the rustlers from escaping after Freddi freed the hogfish until he showed up to arrest them.
  • Can be inferred in the third game as well; when the conch shell goes missing, Uncle Blenny is the only one who gets any hint of blame for the crime by virtue of him being the keeper of the conch. This is in spite of the fact that he has a folder with a picture of everyone else who was nearby, and the fact that while he could possibly be a suspect for all they know, he shouldn't be immediately accused as the only possibility. Then again, considering we never see any police in the game to begin with, it could also just be the fault of the townspeople, which would at least make a lot more sense.
• Prized Possession Giveaway: In the second game, Boss and Spongehead dress up as a ghost to steal the toys of other fish to give to Squidfather on account of him not having any. After Freddi and Luther capture them and take back all the toys, Luther gives them his action figure telling them that the Squidfather should have at least one toy.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: A box art variation. On the cover of the first game, Luther is shown in the background alongside other supporting characters, while Freddi appears on front by herself. From the second game and then on, Luther is drawn alongside Freddi in the same box art style.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: In the temple area in The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, Luther removes a jewel from its place and accidentally activates a trap that locks him in a cage as punishment for his greed. To save Luther, Freddi must solve a puzzle using one of three other jewels in the temple. Freddi only needs one of the gemstones to solve the puzzle, yet the player can take all three with no consequences. Both Freddi and Luther can take jewels they don't need, but only Luther gets punished for it! Granted, the jewels Freddi takes are replaceable unlike the one Luther takes.
• Psycho Electric Eel: The first two games feature Eddie the Eel, who refuses to let Freddi and Luther pass him, and uses electric shocks to threaten them.
• Pun: Luther pulls a few of these, which are usually followed by Don't Explain the Joke.
• The Punishment Is the Crime: As part of their community service, three rustlers are sentenced to work at Calico's hogfish ranch at the end of the fourth game. They did say they wanted to be hogfish ranchers, so Calico thought that this would be the fitting punishment for them.
• Recycled Soundtrack: One-Stop Fun Shop reuses music from previous games.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Barnacle Bob.
• Rhyming Title: Some of the books the series spawned have rhyming subtitles, such as "A Whale of a Tale" and "Boek is Zoek".
• Right-Hand Cat: The Squidfather has a pet catfish.
• Rube Goldberg Device: The second game involves Freddi planning to build an elaborate contraption in order to capture the ghost stealing all the toys. Most of the game involves Freddi and Luther needing to collect all of the missing components needed to finish the trap.
• Same Language Dub
• Schmuck Bait: Luther uses his Codfish Commando action figure to bait the ghost into the trap at the end of the second game.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: In The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse and the One-Stop Fun Shop storytime coloring book story A Ghost Story, the ghost is actually Boss and Spongehead in disguise.
• Seahorse Steed: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers at Briny Gulch had a seahorse being used to pull a mail cart.
• Sea Hurtchin: Subverted by the sea urchins in the games which are used as currency and none of the characters are ever shown getting hurt by their spines. Gill Barker even bites into one in the same manner as biting a gold coin.
• Severely Specialized Store:
  • The Pulley Emporium from Freddi Fish 2. Evidently, there must be a large demand for generic pulleys, because if Freddi doesn't need a pulley, they're all sold out.
  • There are two in Freddi Fish 4: Nelson's store, Just Buckles, which only sells belt buckles, and Gill Barker, who specializes in wheel nuts and bubble gum.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Water Worries, the background of Levels 91-100 has a piratey-looking skeleton holding on to a treasure chest. The name on the treasure chest is partially obscured, but starts with "G. Th..." and ends with "...od." Given where Humongous's co-founder Ron Gilbert came from, this is almost certainly a reference to Guybrush Threepwood.
  • The 4th game also has many references to The Godfather, and the "Squidfather" has a pet cat a la many famous villains.
  • A number of the "movies" you can watch will contain shout outs to various things such as Charlie Chaplin and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
    • One such film is Scale Rider, where the titular rider comes to town, looking for Fin Eastwood. Fin then asks Scale Rider, "You feel guppy? Well, do ya?"
• Shrinking Violet:
  • The Shy Octopi from Water Worries
  • Laren the musician from Freddi Fish 5
• Simpleton Voice: Spongehead the shark has one. In Maze Madness, he has a simpleton laugh.
• Slice of Life: ABCs Under the Sea could be considered this, especially since time does pass in-game.
• Slippery as an Eel: Eddie the Eel is depicted as a trickster who prevents Freddi and Luther from trying to go where they needed to, unless he is bribed.
• Small Name, Big Ego / The Napoleon: Despite his small stature, Luther is very full of himself. At the end of the first game, he says he found the treasure with a little help from Freddi, and fought off 50 big sharks.
• Samus Is a Girl: Despite having nearly zero tertiary sexual characteristics and having a pretty masculine name, Freddi in the second game, reveals that yes, she is indeed a girl.
• Species Surname: According to "Frankly Freddi" on the old Humongous web site, "Fish" is Freddi and her Unnamed Parents' surname.
• Spell My Name With An S: A non-character example—the title of ABCs Under the Sea is sometimes spelled as ABC's Under the Sea (which is grammatically incorrect) or ABC Under the Sea.

• Stock Femur Bone: Found in the first game, and used to placate the Junkyard Dogfish. And it's somehow in the old whale bones.
• Stylistic Suck: Many of the theater movies are this.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Freddi Fish 5 replaces Gill Barker with his previously unmentioned twin sister Gillian.
  • It's implied this is Gill Disguised in Drag, hiding from a mob debt collector shown in 4th game.
• Take That!: When Freddi and Luther go into a movie theater in Freddi Fish 2, one of the movies shown is a parody of Hamlet, in which the title character gets a pie in the face from a fish skull.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Eddie the Eel is easily bribed with food.
• Temple of Doom: The final area of The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell is an ancient, sunken temple, containing statues, gemstones, and at least one trap (a cage triggered by removing a jewel from its place.)
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Freddi completely averts this, as she has a fairly gender-neutral yellow and orange color scheme and lacks any gender identifiers such as bows or eyelashes. Played straight, but subtly, in the first game's box art◊, where, unlike Luther behind her, she had rather tiny eyelashes.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: Several characters in the second game will sing if you click on them or one of the objects around them (e.g. clicking on the xylophone will cause Casey to start singing).
• They Have the Scent!:
  • In Maze Madness, the Junkyard Dogfish is the hardest enemy to avoid.
  • In The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, Old Soggy needs to smell all three Golden Pipes in order to track the scent of the Great Conch Shell.
• Thief Bag: At the end of Freddi Fish 3, the thief drops one during their escape from the temple. The contents of the bag allow Freddi and Luther to figure out their identity.
• Threatening Shark:
  • Downplayed with Spongehead and Boss. While they are the main antagonists of the first two games, they never actually attack anyone, and Freddi has a fairly easy time convincing them to atone for their crimes in both of their appearances.
  • Gill Barker is also the only recurring suspect, potentially committing the crime in both the third and fourth game.
  • The hungry pink shark from the fourth game. That game, however, averts this with Hammerhead and Sawfish.
  • The fifth game averts this with Gillian, Gill's twin sister.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Luther and Freddi, although they’re just friends.
• Totem Pole Bedsheet Ghost: The "ghost" in the second game is just Boss and Spongehead stacked on top of each other, covered with a sheet. Freddi figures out that the ghost isn't real when part of the sheet tears off.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Worm Doodles for Luther, particularly chocolate-covered variety. The plot of Maze Madness gets kicked off when he breaks into Grandma Grouper's kelp treasure while searching for Worm Doodles, while one puzzle in Haunted Schoolhouse has Luther lament that he has to give up a Worm Doodle to Eddie.
• Translation Train Wreck: In-universe example—Freddi Fish 3's foreign language phrase book turns everything into Word-Salad Humor, with only plot-significant phrases surviving enough to be understandable.
• Trivially Obvious: When Freddi informs Mr. Triplefin that she's a girl, he says that, by pure coincidence, Mrs. Triplefin is also a girl.
• The Unintelligible: The Squidfather communicates entirely through loud mumbling. The sharks understand him perfectly fine, though.
• Unnamed Parent: According to "Frankly Freddi" on the old Humongous web site, Freddi's parents' names are Mr. and Mrs. Fish.
• Useless Item:
  • In The Missing Kelp Seeds, the items all appear and be collected, regardless of whether or not they are required for any of the puzzles on that particular playthrough.
  • In The Haunted Schoolhouse, if the pulley is not one of the five items you need to find, then the purple sea urchins serve no purpose at all (as they are only used for buying a pulley).
• Video Game Caring Potential: In The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, rescuing Fiddler Crab, rescuing Gabby or giving Herman the non-glowing shell may not be necessary depending on which path you're following, but the option of helping them or not is still open to you. Rescuing Gabby is actually never required since the reward for doing so is one purple sea urchin, which can be collected through other means, though there are extra bits added to the ending that are only shown if you rescue Gabby and Fiddler Crab.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: The main antagonists in the first couple of games are two sharks named Spongehead and Boss. Their names tell you a lot about the dynamic between them, but interestingly, they both answer a larger and even more sinister-looking villain called Squidfather, who ticks the Bad Boss checkbox on top of being Large and in Charge!

• Visual Pun:
  • Hammerhead and Sawfish from The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch. The former has a head shaped like a claw hammer, while the latter has a snout shaped like a saw.
  • Rollo from Freddi Fish 5 is a fish dressed like a clown, making him a literal clownfish.
• Vocal Dissonance: In The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove, the gigantic sea monster Xamfier Duncan Dogberry Valentine is revealed to speak with a rather squeaky voice.
• Vocal Evolution: Casey has a deeper voice in his second appearance in the fifth game.
• Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: ABCs Under the Sea is sometimes called ABC's Under the Sea.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Freddi doesn't even need a reason to visit the palace, she just swims near it and the guards say, "The King will see you now." Those same guards are "armed" with forks and colanders, implying that the kingdom isn't much of one.

• You Meddling Kids: This line comes out of Marty in the fifth game upon picking up the food sample after entering Coral Cove Park:
  Marty: Those meddlesome kids are going to ruin my grand plan.

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