"That couldn't have been real! There's no such thing as ghosts!"
—Freddi Fish
Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse, also released as Freddi Fish Haunted Schoolhouse Mystery and Freddi Fish: Haunted Schoolhouse, is a PC Adventure Game by Humongous Entertainment released in 1996. It's the second main game in the Freddi Fish series.
Freddi Fish and her pal Luther are expecting a typical day of show-and-tell at school, but they arrive to find a ghost has recently been haunting the grounds and stealing all the toys. Skeptical of the paranormal activity, Freddi follows the ghost into the basement and discovers that it is definitely not as supernatural as it appears when a piece of cloth is ripped off its outfit. Emboldened by this discovery, the duo devise a plan to capture the "ghost" using a Rube Goldberg Machine and reclaim the stolen toys. They just need to find a few more pieces first...
Like several Humongous games before it, Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse randomizes the locations of its Plot Coupons. The various components of the trap can be found in multiple different locations, and even the exact pieces required will change on different playthroughs.
Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Freddi and Luther access the school's boiler room by swimming through the large ducts.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: There's a brief sequence where you control Luther by himself to retrieve Casey's glasses from a pothole they've fallen down in, since Freddi isn't small enough to fit down there.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Freddi quickly learns that the ghost haunting the schoolhouse is merely someone wearing a sheet after a piece of their costume gets ripped off while they make their escape.
- Black Comedy: When Freddi and Luther try to pull the pipe off of Tucker's head, his head disappears, and they initially think that they've pulled it clean off. Luther's response is to make a pun about how now he's not going to get ahead in life. Luckily, Tucker's head had just momentarily retreated into his shell.
- Blind Without 'Em: Casey lost his Opaque Nerd Glasses and he's completely unable to see without them. When Freddi and Luther first approach him, the nerd doesn't even face them, even when Freddi tries to signal him to where they are.
- Early-Bird Cameo: SPY Fox appears in one of the movies at the theater. The first SPY Fox game would come out about a year later.
- 15 Puzzle: The Greek-looking ruins have a sliding puzzle on the underside of the ceiling, but it's completely optional. The only time you actually need to use it is if the trident is being held by the statue below it, and even then, you still only need to clear the space above it.
- Food as Bribe: If Eddie is guarding the life preserver, Freddi and Luther can make him cooperate by handing over a Worm Doodle.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Tucker the Turtle gets his head stuck in a pipe after trying to chase a tiny worm through it. It's stuck tight enough that Freddi and Luther can't pull it off without using oil to grease it up first.
- Nerd Glasses: Casey wears glasses to further highlight his nerdiness.
- Never Had Toys: At the end of the game, it is revealed that the ghost that seems to be haunting the schoolhouse and stealing toys from the children is just two criminal sharks in disguise stealing toys on behalf of their criminal boss, the Squidfather. He commanded them to steal toys for himself due to never having one. Though the toys are returned, Luther gives up his action figure, saying that even the Squidfather "deserves one toy".
- Plot Coupon: In order to catch the ghost, Freddi and Luther have to collect a series of items that they need to complete the trap that Freddi plans. There are eight different items that can be needed, though the game will only select five of them at random on any given playthrough. The required items can include the cork, the diver's helmet, the life preserver, the Mock-Stock-Mibble-Bock-Wopper-Bopper, the pulley, the rope, the trident, and the wheel.
- Prized Possession Giveaway: In the second game, Boss and Spongehead dress up as a ghost to steal the toys of other fish to give to Squidfather on account of him not having any. After Freddi and Luther capture them and take back all the toys, Luther gives them his action figure telling them that the Squidfather should have at least one toy.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Barnacle Bob inexplicably rhymes in all his dialogue.
- Rube Goldberg Device: Freddi plans to build an elaborate contraption in order to capture the ghost stealing all the toys. Most of the game involves Freddi and Luther needing to collect all of the missing components needed to finish the trap.
- Schmuck Bait: Luther uses his Codfish Commando action figure to bait the ghost into the trap.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The ghost is actually Boss and Spongehead in disguise to scare off the students so they can steal all the toys.
- Severely Specialized Store: The Pulley Emporium sells only pulleys. Evidently, there must be a large demand for generic pulleys, because they're all sold out if the game decides Freddi doesn't need one for the trap.
- Take That!: When Freddi and Luther go into a movie theater, one of the movies shown is a parody of Hamlet, in which the title character gets a pie in the face from a fish skull.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: Several characters will sing if you click on them or one of the objects around them (e.g. clicking on the xylophone will cause Casey to start singing).
- Totem Pole Trench: The "ghost" is just Boss and Spongehead stacked on top of each other, covered with a sheet.
- Useless Item: If the pulley is not one of the five items you need to find, then the purple sea urchins serve no purpose at all (as they are only used for buying a pulley).
