Being a Millennial is unique because we're one of the first generations that utilized video games as an educational tool. However, instead of playing high-res games on a tablet, we would spend hours expanding our minds with colorful sprite-based games with characters like Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, and everyone's favorite cartoon car, Putt-Putt.
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon was a go-to title for my brother and me when we were little kids. I remember playing it for hours on end! But does the title still hold up almost thirty years later? Well, it's shorter than I remember, and some things hit differently. Yet, several moments from this cosmic car romp still slap as they did in the old days!
8 The Humongous Entertainment Logo: Giving Humongous Slaps 🌌
Who can forget the Humongous Entertainment logo? That giant purple exclamation mark lives in 90s babies' minds rent-free.
However, the Junior Adventures sound effect that happens afterward is even more iconic. You know the one! It sounds like a high-pitched alien yapping through a drug bender. It's chaos, brilliance, and one hundred percent slap-tastic.
7 The Fireworks Facto♛ry: Giving Them Boom Boom Pow 🌃Slaps
I forgot that one of the best parts of Putt-Putt Goes To The Moon was not on the moon. Remember the fireworks factory? You could build custom fireworks with stars, hearts, and squiggly worms. Set𝕴ting them off is a sensory delight.
Also, can we talk about Firebird's voice!? It is so wild! Here I am, driving into this factory, thinking I'm about to talk to Lightning McQueen. Then the red hot rod opens his mouth and sounds like . It's so god-awful it slaps even fiercer than it did in the 90s!
6 The Cosmic 📖Dust Diner: Giving Intergalactic 50s Nostalgia Slaps
The Cosmic Dust Diner has everything you could ever want in a local restaurant: free snacks, intriguing locals, great waitstaff, an arcade machine, and as much soda pop as you can drink. Did we mention that said soda pop makes Putt-Putt change color?
I spent a considerable chunk of time in the diner playing the Fatty Bear arcade game, in which you take control of an airplane and collect balloons to gain fuel. The game is easy at first but takes a sharp difficulty spike at the fourteenth level. Nevertheless, it's a slappingly good time.
5 Robby Radar: Giving Queer Icon Rea꧃lness Slaps
Who would have thought a game about an anthropomorphic car traveling in space includes a queer icon? I was not expecting it until I searched for Robby Radar, the proprietor of the rocket fuel stop.
Robby Radar leaves a note at the pit stop claiming to be in apartment C on the first floor. But when I approached the unit in question, a bespectacled green-haired twink answered the door and redirected me to another unit. Then, I traveled to the next unit, where a bull muscle daddy greeted me and directed me to yet another unit. That's when I realized, "Oh my god, this alien is cruising!"
In my opinion, sex positivity slapsꦦ. So you go, Robby Radar! Be the best ho you can be🥂!
4 Buzz And Glow Do It 🥀Yourself Beauty Shop: Giving DIY Slaps
The Buzz And Glow Do It Yourself Beauty Shop is a campy, gaudy salon complete with an Ellen Greene-Esque receptionist. Its main attraction is a machine that m🦹ixes and matches robot/alien parts to create a one-of-a-kind moon creature.
I thoroughly enjoyed creating custom moon peeps. The whacky combinations of characters I could create were impressive. However, the best part was that every customer I gave a makeover thanked me for my help. I've worked in retail and food service for more than a decade. Do you know how rare a simple "thank you" can sometimes be?
You kn꧅ow ജwhat, beauty shop patrons, you are very welcome. Your gratitude and good manners get oodles of slaps from me!
3 🐭 Alien Tag: More Like Slap A ꦓMole!
You would think finding the moonrocks required to purchase the rocket ship from the Rocket Ice Cream Stand would be an arduous process. But, in reality, the task is a piece of cake! All you have to do is win a couple of games of alien tag against a friendly blue Moondude.
Alien tag is a point-and-click whack-a-mole game where aliens pop in and out of moon craters. But it never feels cheap like your run-of-the-mill whack-a-mole. Heck, the wins practically get handed to you. Still, I didn't take Putt-Putt to the moon to rage quit. I took Putt-Putt to the moon for nostalgia, aliens, and children's games, and alien tag serves all those things. It slaps just like it used to.
2 𒆙 Moon City Observat🌳ory: A Slap-netarium
The most educational part of Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon is the Moon City Observatory. This landmark, narrated by a soothing guide, teaches players about each planet in the solar system. Plus, looking through the observatory's telescope gives views of all sorts of constellations.
But the best part of the Moon City Observatory is that Pluto is still a planet! Yup! Humongous Entertainment and Nightdive Studios could have updated the game to reflect modern science. But instead, they gave us what we wanted, an escape to a simpler time when we didn't have to deal with semantics like a "dwarf planet". G♉iving Pluto the respect it deserves is highly slap-worthy in my boꦫok!
1 The 𝄹Man In ဣThe Moon: Giving Eccentric Weirdo/Me In My Thirties Slaps
One of the characters you'll meet in your outer-space adventure is the historic Man in the Moon, an older gentleman in a red robe who gives you a rocket top in exchange for a picture of himself. Believe it or not, he's the most relatable character in the game.
Think about it for a second. The Man in the Moon wears comfy clothes, lives in a throne room with random crap, and can never get a good selfie of himself. Likewise, I write in my messy, overcrowded bedroom, wrapped in a blanket, and I barely ever get good photos of myself. We may have identified with the peppy purple car as a kid, but I empathizꦐe with the Man in the Moon these days. He gets all my quarter♏-life crisis slaps!