Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hokus_pokus_pink.jpg
Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink is a 1997 Edutainment Adventure Game from Wanderlust Interactive based on the 1993 iteration of The Pink Panther. It is a sequel to Passport To Peril, and it picks up not long after that game's conclusion.

Pink has left Clouseau's agency and has become a Traveling Salesman selling books. His latest stop is at a dinner party hosted by the Perpetual Smiler dentist Dr. Nathan Periowinkle and his wife, who are auctioning off their newest treasure, the Stars Byte collection, a series of jewelry made from the teeth of celebrities. But things get weird(er) when Violet, the daughter of a wealthy businessman attending the party, accidentally gets turned into a mutant wombat by the Periowinkle's estranged son and wannabe magician, Nathan Jr.

As it turns out, young Nathan has been stealing spell books and other things from an evil warlock named Strangeblood, who lives in the woods behind their mansion. Pink, who witnessed the entire thing on his way to the bathroom, is roped into finding the ingredients needed to counter the spell Violet is put under before the party is over.

Much like the first game, Pink has to travel to various countries (Israel, Russia, Kenya, Indonesia, and Greece) to solve puzzles, find the ingredients needed, and gather missing pages from one of his books that got lost via the spell. This time around, you can jump between two countries at a time with the help of Spot, a black hole owned by Strangeblood.

The game retains the jukebox from the first game, with five new songs. Instead of the PDA, you're given the BOK aka The Book of Knowledge, one of the books Pink is selling.


Hokus Pokus Pink contains the following tropes:

  • Abusive Parents: The Periowinkles don't seem too fond of Nathan's desires to be a magician and have plans to have him sent to dental school. Strangeblood has other plans.
  • African Chant: One of the ingredients needed for the second antidote is a chant from a redhead. He gets this chant from a Masai tribesman.
  • The Alcoholic: While not explicitly stated as such, Flip, one of the party guests, is heavily implied to be one. As if his slurred speech isn't enough to tip you off, you end up trading him some imported champagne for his piece of liver.
  • Ambiguously Jewish
    • The Rat King, who constantly complains about his fellow rats slacking off.
    • Also the meteorite that hit Siberia in 1908, apologizing profusely for the event and claiming everything that happened was beyond its control.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Implied by Pink.
    Pink: It's all back in place. Y'know, when I took that job as a traveling salesman, I had no idea just how far I'd be traveling. I guess it doesn't matter much where I go, there's always going to be a fantastic adventure.
  • Androcles' Lion: After Pink helps a shark in Indonesia get his tail and fins back, the shark repays the favor by giving Pink rides to two nearby islands.
  • Animate Inanimate Object: The meteorite Pink gets from Grandma Tunga can talk.
  • Arboreal Abode: Strangeblood’s hut is inside a large, hollow tree.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Shine-O-Bar, one of Dr. Periowinkle's inventions, is a virtually indestructible pair of dentures, which he claims are non-sticking, non-flammable, and smells mildly like peanuts.
  • Bag of Holding: Like in the previous game, Pink can store his entire inventory in a pocket in his skin. At one point he even stuffs an entire mammoth in there (with some help from a clown).
  • Barefoot Sage/Magical Barefooter: Strangeblood always appears barefoot.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Pink frees Athena from Zeus' forehead by cutting it open with a trident, yet no signs of blood are visible. It's also invoked in one of Pink's trials given to him by Zeus: defeat the Gorgons without shedding any blood.
  • Bowdlerise: One of the trivia questions in Greece involves the Ovid version of the Medusa myth, but the part where Poseidon raped or at least slept with Medusa is replaced with him merely having kissed her instead.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall
    • Nathan tells Pink "Every cold night at the stroke of just eight, [Strangeblood] walks in the woods for one hour straight." This is repeated (supposedly in his mind) as he's walking up to Strangeblood's house. Pink remarks "If I can hear that, how come he can't?" before Strangeblood shouts out "Who's there? Was that you wind?"
    • Pink paraphrases Emily Post by saying "If you're a fictitious pink cat about to open someone's medicine cabinet in a CD-ROM game, don't do it." Thankfully, this isn't the case for him.
    • After the meteorite apologizes for the all the things that happened after hitting the earth, Pink asks if he wants to make up for it by being an inventory item.
    • After the plot kicks off, trying to have Pink use the restroom like he was going to before freeing the mammoth just results in him being embarrassed that you're in there with him and he decides to hold it.
    • In Kenya, a tour guide gives Pink a bottle of champagne after he helps fix a hot air balloon to which the panther says he can't drink because he's a cartoon character.
  • Bringing Back Proof: In the third act, Zeus orders Pink to defeat the last two remaining Gorgons, but without shedding any blood, and bring proof of his victory. Pink defeats the Gorgons by tricking them into looking at their reflections, so their own gaze petrifies them. He then uses an instant camera to take a photo of himself with the petrified Gorgons as evidence, which he can show the Greek Gods as proof.
  • Brooklyn Rage: Spot the black hole sports a Brooklyn accent, minus the rage.
  • Call-Back
    • After helping fix a hot air balloon in Kenya, the tour guide gives Pink a bottle of champagne, to which Pink says he can't drink because he's a cartoon character. This is in reference to a similar situation from the first game in London, when a bartender tries to take Pink's order and he replies the same thing.
    • One of the VHS tapes Chuki has in her hut is Sister Act 16, the in-flight movie from the first game.
  • Came Back Wrong: The first antidote turns Violet into the "immortal magical ninja princess mermaid" like she wanted, but she eats Nathan's poisoned apple, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. When performing the magic words for the second antidote, the Greek salad Pink put in causes Violet to be possessed by the mythical beast Echidna.
  • The Cameo: In the song "When Horses Fly", two of Poseidon's "sons and daughters" are Pug and Louie.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Grandma Tunga. Not only does she allow a bear inside her village's food hut, she also believes earthquakes are caused by rats that live underground.
    • The Cuckoo Lander Was Right: Turns out there really is a pack of rats that cause earthquakes (at least in Siberia) that Pink has to motivate to free a woolly mammoth trapped in a block of ice.
  • Color Failure: Pink does this after Strangeblood returns home earlier than usual, claiming "it was unusually warm out this evening", in reference to Nathan's poem.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Mrs. Periowinkle seemingly is one. Nathan doesn't sound too thrilled when Pink returns with the Greek salad, calling it "mom's cooking" in a negative tone. She also bakes a ton of desserts three months in advance. Needless to say, they're hard as rocks, not that she cares, because if someone were to chip a tooth on it, she could just refer them to her dentist husband. The guests aren't really that tempted by the dinner either, as Flip isn't too thrilled to partake in her cooked liver, and Saltina discretely stuffs her pigeon into her purse, claiming she's "watching her girlish figure."
  • Creator Cameo
    • Composer Jared Faber makes a few cameos in the game, most notably the Moray eel you need to get a tooth from.
    • Designer Emily Kapnek appears in a handful of small roles, including Violet's mother, Midge Poorpenny, a Masai tribeswoman and a few animals in Kenya.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Strangeblood, see Good All Along below. Also Spot, who is literally a black hole.
  • Demonic Possession: The second attempt at getting Violet back to normal results in her getting possessed by the Greek half-woman, half-snake monster Echidna. Yes, this includes levitating around the mansion, spinning her head, and belching instead of throwing up.
  • Developer's Foresight
    • You can give the salt lick to Yasit early when he appears at the frozen lake.
    • The Rat King takes any extra VHS tapes you may have taken from Chuki's hut.
  • Disco Dan: One of the guests at the party, Shakey Goldenpipes, gives off this vibe with a retro-futuristic leisure suit and a Jive Turkey attitude.
  • Extra Digits: Everyone has Four-Fingered Hands, but when Grandma Tunga calls for Chuki, her right hand has five fingers.
  • Eye of Newt: Both potions that Nathan brews need these kind of ingredients:
    • The first potion, to turn Violet into an immortal magical ninja princess mermaid, requires “The only thing living in the saltiest sea”, and “a princely laugh, specifically the hugest one that has a chilly past”. However, the magic book does not specify what is needed for the ninja part. Spot suggests improvising, so Pink adds a black belt to the cauldron.
    • The second potion to counter the effects of the poisonous apple requires “The carrier of the human soul” and “A redhead’s woeful plea”. When the potion fails to work, Pink again improvises, this time by adding some Greek salad.
  • Fat and Skinny: The Gorgons Pink must trick into turning themselves into stone in ancient Greece.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: In order to make the second potion work, Pink improvises by adding a Greek salad made by Mrs. Periowinkle. After the potion backfires by placing Echidna in Violet's body, Pink has to travel to Mount Olympus, which is in Greece.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: The first two acts of the game have Pink travel to two different countries to collect 3 ingredients for a magic potion. The third act however has him travel back in time to ancient Greece to get Poseidon to exorcise Echidna from Violet.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The BOK aka The Book of Knowledge.
  • Funny Background Event: When Pink arrives at the Gorgons' lair, Pegasus can be seen in the background wearing a blindfold.
  • Furry Reminder: Pink can come across a non-anthropomorphic panther while in Kenya. It and a cheetah are big fans of Pink as well.
  • God Guise: When Pink frees Athena from Zeus' forehead, he is christened the God of Headaches.
  • Good All Along: Strangeblood. Not only does he secretly help Pink by reattaching shark fins and draining the Dead Sea so an ostrich can reunite with his flock, but he also removes Echidna from Violet's body and takes Nathan in as an apprentice.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The Book of Knowledge, the pages of which Pink tries to find back during his travels. It's this game's equivalent of the prequel's Pink Digital Assistant (PDA).
  • Hidden Depths: Despite looking and acting the part of a spoiled heiress, it's Saltina that deduces that Echidna is referring to Zeus when they demand "the most powerful man in the universe", dumping a bunch of Greek knowledge on everyone at the party.
  • Human Popsicle: Pink finds a woolly mammoth stuck in the ice in Siberia.
  • I Can Explain: Pink says this to everyone at the dinner party once Violet has been possessed by Echidna. Turns out he was a tad early, as the Periowinkles have no idea what he's talking about.
  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Violet's father assumes this will be the case with Pink, as he instantly considers buying the panther for her. This ultimately (and obviously) doesn't happen, however Violet does end up going home with the woolly mammoth that was needed for the first potion.
  • Just Here for the Free Snacks: When all the guests leave without bidding on the Stars Byte collection, and giving various reasons for why they no longer want it, Flip admits that he was never interested in the collection from the start. He just came for the free food.
  • Mad Scientist: Two of the guests at the party are a plastic surgeon that gives off this vibe, and his "wife", who is actually created by him from body parts left behind by his patients a la Frankenstein's Monster. He ends up taking (not buying) the Stars Byte collection for her so she can run for mayor.
  • Magic Cauldron: Nathan has one in his room which he uses to make the two potions.
  • Me's a Crowd: In order to help Chuki with the reception of her TV, Pink has to make an ice sculpture of himself to act as an antenna holder on top of the village's food shed.
  • Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe; the Indonesian fisherman makes no secret of the fact that they took the tail and fins of a still living shark so they can sell them for profit.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: Wouldn't be an adventure game without one. After a few "rat rumblers" in Siberia, a woolly mammoth emerges from the bottom of a lake encased in ice. How do you get him out of there? With an ice pick or a chisel? No, instead you have to get an ostrich egg and stick it in its exposed trunk, the lack of air causing it to break free.
  • Motifs: Teeth. Not only is the Periowinkle mansion shaped like a giant pair of dentures, pictures of people's teeth line the halls, decorative teeth line the doorways, and dental lamps hang from the walls. The only room in the house that is seemingly normal (at least, compared to the rest of the house) is Nathan's. Pink puts it best:
    Pink: I'm noticing a distinctive pattern here, is it a moteeth? I think it's a moteeth.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Rather than being turned back into a girl, Violet wishes to become an immortal magical ninja princess mermaid, so the first potion Pink has to gather the ingredients for is to do just that. It succeeds, but she doesn't get to enjoy it for too long.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Dr. and Mrs. Periowinkle sport unnerving smiles, thanks to a combination of smile supporters and one of Dr. Periowinkle's inventions, Shine-O-Bar. Nathan however is more of a Perpetual Frowner.
  • Pointless Band-Aid: Nathan sports a few on his face, but they go unexplained.
  • Possession Levitation: Violet floats when possessed by Echidna.
  • Punny Name: Most, if not all of the dinner guests have these. Midge Poorpenny, Shakey Goldenpipes, Dr. Hemakeyounew, Saltina Crackerbarrel, Flip Looseliver, just to name a few.
  • Rags to Riches: Miss Midge Poorpenny, one of the guests at the party. The only reason she's attending the party is because she recently became a zillionaire after winning the lottery. She plans to buy the entire Stars Byte collection because it'll make her feel important enough to fit in with the rest of the guests. By the end of the game, she realizes that if the Periowinkles don't want celebrity teeth, then neither does she.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Strangeblood’s eyes are glowing red when he catches Pink snooping around his house.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: Strangeblood when he narrates the opening of the game.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: The giant, intelligent, anthropomorphic rats that live in Siberia. You can thank nuclear testing fallout for that.
  • Sad Clown: Pink meets a sad clown in Siberia. He was originally part of a Russian circus, but was thrown out for not smiling enough, so he came to Siberia so he could freeze to death. After giving him some smile supporters, he helps Pink stuff an entire mammoth in his pocket.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Mainly Averted; most of the Greek mythology in the game is spot-on. There is one big exception though: Echidna was not the granddaughter of Poseidon, Echidna was technically Poseidon's aunt. That said, it could be a reference to one interpretation where Echidna was a daughter of the primordial god of the ocean Phorcys, Poseidon's predecessor.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the Echidna debacle, all of the guests call it a night and decide to not bid on the Stars Byte collection, minus Dr. Hemakeyounew, who ends up taking the teeth to complete his "wife".
  • Sdrawkcab Name: Pink names the ice sculpture he makes of himself "Knip".
  • Secret Test: At the end of the game, Strangeblood admits that he caused the events in order to test Nathan's abilities as a wizard.
  • Seesaw Catapult: One puzzle has Pink use one of these to get out of the rat cave. The problem is finding something or someone heavy enough to get the job done. Pink accomplishes this by attaching a sandwich to the other side of the seesaw, causing a very large and hungry rat to jump on it.
  • Shock and Awe: Zeus, naturally. Also when the Echidna-possessed Violet reveals herself to the guests in the dining room, she shoots lighting from her hands.
  • Shout-Out
  • Shown Their Work: At first, the mere fact Athena is trapped in Zeus's forehead and you have to help free her is very strange, but believe it or not that's how she was born.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: Pink has no trouble staying underwater for a long time, which contradicts Pink's opinion of it in the previous game.
  • Taken for Granite: The Gorgons are capable of this by just looking someone in the eye. Their swamp is filled with the petrified bodies of their victims. To defeat them, Pink has to trick both into looking at their own reflections so this will happen to them.
  • Toilet Humor: You can make Pink go to the bathroom as he originally intended to before the plot kicked in, but is rather embarrassed that you're in there with him and decides to hold it.
    • Once you rescue the mammoth needed for the first antidote, it camps out in the toilet for the rest of the game, thanks to a million-year-old bladder and the fact Nathan needed to hide him somewhere.
    • When collecting the water pot from Chuki's hut, the water makes a wet spot appear over Pink's crotch, followed by him sighing blissfully and saying "There was a time when I'd get in trouble for doing that."
  • The Tooth Hurts: In Indonesia, Pink has to acquire the tooth of a Moray eel, which he accomplishes by feeding the eel a very stale cookie made by Mrs. Periowinkle.
  • Unexplained Accent: Admittedly most of the Greek gods having American accents doesn't make sense, but Ares being Swedish is even more bizarre.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Despite the worried looks on their faces neither the Periowinkles or the party guests (save for Violet's mother) are that phased that a possessed little girl is levitating above the dinner table.
    • You can also use Spot in front of everyone in the dining room and no one bats an eye.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: When Pink asks Mrs. Periowinkle about the Stars Byte collection, she says, "I suppose you'll need a tip!" before she quickly pulls a literal tip's worth of change out of one of the cups of her strapless dress and hands it to him.
  • Visual Pun: The icon representing the Dead Sea is a lake with a tombstone sticking out of it.
  • Voices Are Mental: When Strangeblood talks through Nathan to tell Pink what he needs for the second potion, Nathan briefly gains Strangeblood's voice. Pink lampshades this by pointing out how deep Nathan suddenly sounds.
  • Warm Milk Helps You Sleep: While in Siberia, the solution for getting into the village food shed without being bothered by the bear is heating up the milk pouch Pink finds earlier in the game, and then give it to the bear. He will drink the milk and promptly fall asleep. You can also try to give the bear the milk while it's still cold, but this only results in him throwing the pouch back at Pink.
    • And if you try to give the warm milk to Chuki instead, she will lampshade the trope, pointing out how warm milk makes her sleepy. Which she doesn't want since it would make her miss her favorite show.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Pink spontaneously dresses up as a diner waitress (complete with curly red wig) when dealing with the Gorgons.
  • Wizard Classic: Strangeblood.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

"Rats" song

Some rats sing a jazzy song about how they're pests who cause all sorts of trouble for humans. However, they also assert that "you're gonna need us anyway."

How well does it match the trope?

4.5 (4 votes)

Example of:

Main / YouDirtyRat

Media sources:

Report