From left to right: Stinky, Li'l Howie and Alphabot/Digibot.
Li'l Howie's Fun House is a series of Edutainment Games for Microsoft operating systems in the vein of the offerings of Humongous Entertainment, but significantly more deranged.
They star the happy-go-lucky bear Li'l Howie (Howie Mandel) and his long-suffering pal Stinky the skunk (Maurice LaMarche) as they go on madcap adventures inside their Robot Buddy-slash-spaceship Alphabot/Digibot (LaMarche, again). Along for the ride is also Li'l Howie's older sister, Sarah Bear, who provides hints for the player.
The series consists of four games:
- Tune Land (MS-DOS, 1993)
- The Great Word Adventure (Microsoft Windows, 1995)
- The Great Math Adventure (Microsoft Windows, 1996)
- The Great Reading Adventure (Microsoft Windows, 1996)
This series provides examples of:
- Always Identical Twins: Li'l Howie's Robot Buddy introduces Digibot in The Great Math Adventure, stating that he is the twin brother of Alphabot from The Great Word Adventure. It was presumably done because the Punny Name wouldn't really make sense with the change of focus.
- Howie: You remember Alphabot from The Great Word Adventure, don't you? Well, Digibot is his twin brother. And instead of words, this guy loves numbers.
- Balloon Belly: Stinky inflates a lot after gorging on ice cream in The Ice Cream Room. He then has trouble fitting back into Digibot.
- Howie: If you are what you eat, then Stinky's a sundae!
- Bigger on the Inside: Both Li'l Howie's house and Alphabot/Digibot are this. The house contains a massive library and plenty of crazy rooms, while Alphabot/Digibot is smaller than the other characters on the outside, but a Cool Spaceship on the inside.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Utterly smashed. The games have a lot of fun with the concept. One of the very first things Li'l Howie says in some of the games is that he needs no introduction because "[he's] in the cover".
- Cartoon Cheese: Li'l Howie utilizes a robot to play whack-a-mole in a giant version of this. Stinky is the mallet.
- The Chew Toy: Stinky gets abused in humorous ways in almost every scenario. He's been turned into a weapon, used as a hammer, given baths against his will, and Disguised in Drag, among other things.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Tuneland. The game does not feature any of the supporting cast or setpieces from the later games in the series, being all about Li'l Howie messing around in Old McDonald's Farm. The art style and Li'l Howie's design are also a little different and not as cartoony.
- Four-Seasons Level: Downplayed as it's merely aesthetic, but the outside of Li'l Howie's house and the comments he makes upon booting up the games change with the seasons.
- French Jerk: Alphabot/Digibot has such an accent, paired with him being a Servile Snarker.
- Game Show Appearance: You! Catch a Match is styled as a game show. It's a match game where you must match (simple) math operations with their answers. Li'l Howie is the Game Show Host... while Stinky plays the Lovely Assistant.
- Ghost Story: The Scary Story Room is a Haunted House-style room where a living painting tells you one of these. You must find words in a crossword so he can continue the story.
- Hates Baths: Stinky, playing off his being a skunk. The goal of The Peanut Scale is to lower him into a bath, much to his displeasure.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: In order to prevent the voice actors from having to say a ridiculous number of names, the games let you pick from a handful of silly nicknames. You will be referred to as that by the characters.
- Hint System: You can click on the stopwatch with the big S at the bottom left corner to summon Sarah, who acts as this.
- Informed Species: Downplayed as Stinky is recognizable as a skunk thanks to his tail, but if you take it away, he literally just looks like a monkey.
- Pop Up Video Games: Especially in Tuneland, but all games have lots of fun stuff to click.
- Rhymes on a Dime: In The Ballroom, you must match rhyming words. The character you've chosen to take the stage will then sing a verse using the words.
- Ridiculously Difficult Route: The intro features a quartet of animals taking lots of wacky twists and turns, and getting into a lot of trouble before reaching Li'l Howie's house.
- Rube Goldberg Machine: A number show up. Most notably the peanut machine in The Great Word Adventure, but the ice cream and time machines in The Great Math Adventure also have elements of this.
- Trapped in the Past: This happens to Stinky after getting trapped in a time machine. He gets sent to different time periods in the past and you've got to input the exact day and time using a clock and calendar in the machine in order to rescue him.
- Wild Take: Li'l Howie and Stinky do a pretty good one whenever Alphabot/Digibot crashes into a new room.
- Younger Than They Look: Li'l Howie claims this of you when you input your age at the beginning (no matter the age you input). He then clarifies it's a compliment.
