Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds

Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds is a video game developed and published by Humongous Entertainment and the first game released for the Freddi Fish franchise. It was released on November 7, 1994. In 2008, it was released on the Wii under the title Freddi Fish in Kelp Seed Mystery as well as Windows and Macintosh, and on Android with a shortened title Freddi Fish and the Missing Kelp Seeds. The Wii version's availability was limited by legal problems concerning its development. A spin-off handheld LCD game titled Freddi Fish: Jellyfish Jamboree was also released in 1999 that was based on a minigame from Kelp Seeds. Ports for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 were released in February 2024.

Plot
Freddi Fish visits the house of Grandma Grouper, where she learns that someone stole Grandma's treasure chest of kelp seeds, which provides the food for the whole ocean. Freddi cheers Grandma Grouper up by promising to find the treasure for her. After leaving Grandma's house, Freddi and her friend, Luther, discover a bottle with a note lodged inside that gives a clue to the treasure's location and they set out to look for more clues.

Unbeknownst to the two, it was two sharks named Boss and Spongehead who stole the treasure as part of their plan to help their boss, the Squidfather, grow kelp; Spongehead had hidden four bottles in random locations to lead his way back to the treasure. Eventually, Freddi and Luther find the fourth and final bottle, revealing that the treasure is hidden in a sunken ship.

At the sunken ship, Freddi and Luther spot the treasure and attempt to grab it, but they are stopped by Boss and Spongehead, who order the two to hand it over. Freddi courageously refuses and states that everyone can grow kelp if they share it, which the sharks agree on. Freddi and Luther then take the treasure chest home and plant the kelp in Grandma Grouper's garden. Grandma then invites the two into her home so they can tell her about their adventure.

Gameplay
The game makes use of a simplified adventure system where a single click on a certain spot allows the player to pick up items, go to another location, talk to characters, and play fun animations. Clicking on an item in the right place allows Freddi to make use of it.

There are also a few minigames, such as "Jellyfish Jamboree", where Freddi must feed hungry sea creatures by throwing food at them before they get too close, with Luther keeping score. This minigame forms the basis of the LCD handheld game.

Development
Development of Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds started sometime in 1993; it was initially intended to feature pixelated graphics and be released on the MS-DOS, similar to the style of previous games developed by Humongous. Halfway through production of the game, Humongous Entertainment co-founder Ron Gilbert went to a conference and saw examples of hand-drawn animation; this prompted Humongous Entertainment to scrap the pixelated animation and start over with hand-drawn graphics.

Reception
Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds received generally positive reviews from critics. Allgame gave a 4-star rating, GameZone rated 7 out of 10, Adventure Gamers gave a 3-star rating, and Unikgamer gave a 7 out 10 score. It also received over 20 awards.

The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds won Electronic Entertainment's 1994 "Best Edutainment Title" award. The editors wrote that the game features well-made original characters, a strong storyline, appropriately challenging puzzles, and beautiful animation.

The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds was a commercial success, with sales of 250,000 units by 1999. During the year 2001 alone, Freddi Fish sold 54,447 retail units in North America, according to PC Data.