Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish are showing up on Nintendo Switch in January

What a pleasant surprise

Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish are coming back — again! While a bunch of ’90s edutainment adventure games from the Humongous Entertainment catalog got a new lease on life with easily accessible Steam releases, it’s time to move into the console space. Two games, Putt-Putt Travels Through Time and Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, will release on the Nintendo Switch eShop on January 3, 2022. Remember Pep?

You can find both games on the eShop today, ahead of their launch, and as announced on Twitter, there’s a discount. Putt-Putt Travels Through Time and Freddi Fish 3 will normally cost $14.99 each on Switch — a premium compared to the PC versions on Steam — but they’re $11.99 until January 10. (Speaking of which, there’s a big Steam sale right now.)

For some, this will be a nice surprise — a throwback to simpler times. For others, well, I guess you had to be there. I played a few Humongous games in my day, enough that these names are nostalgic, but never these specific entries. Funny enough, I’ve wondered before what the conveyor belt puzzle game Pajama Sam’s Sock Works might be like on Switch.

Admittedly, Nintendo Switch probably won’t be the ideal way to play ’90s-era point-and-click adventure games, but I can see some folks around my age getting bit by the nostalgia bug, especially if they’ve now got families of their own. The circle is complete.

Even if you’ve got zero interest in Putt-Putt or Freddi Fish on Switch, you have to admit, it’s nice when games like this aren’t left to slowly fade away — assuming the ports are up to snuff, of course. It seems as if UFO Interactive is testing the waters with what should be sure bets, so we’ll see if there’s enough interest to warrant Switch releases of Spy Fox and Pajama Sam. It’d be fun to rediscover the whole collection with fresh eyes.