Hokus Pokus Pink

The Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink
Developer(s)	Wanderlust Interactive
Publisher(s)	Simon & Schuster (North America)
Artist(s)	Brian Gaidry
Writer(s)	Emily Kapnek
Composer(s)	Jared Faber
Series	The Pink Panther
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	NA: October 18, 1997 [1]
Genre(s)	Adventure, educational
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink is a musical adventure computer game for the PC released on October 18, 1997 by Wanderlust Interactive. It is based on the 1990s television series The Pink Panther, in which the traditionally non-speaking title character speaks audibly, and is a sequel to The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril. Like its predecessor, it teaches players about six countries as the Pink Panther explores them to solve a mystery. The places Pink visits are: Siberia in Russia, the Dead Sea in Israel, Indonesia, Borneo, Kenya, and Ancient Greece.^[2]

Armed with a book of knowledge that contains information on the indigenous people, languages, clothing, entertainment, art, history, nature, and foods of each pertinent area, players guide Pink on a quest spanning six countries across the globe to undo the accidental magic of an aspiring boy wizard. Players will need to find objects that can be used or traded to acquire items to solve puzzles and advance the story. Helping Pink travel between locations is Spot, a sentient, speaking black hole that he steals from the warlock Strangeblood's magical forest laboratory.

The game features ten original songs and over 300 fact-filled pages containing information and photos of the countries in which players find themselves. It is also characterized by comic graphics similar to those from the animated shorts.

After the successful events in The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril, the Pink Panther has given up his life as a secret agent for Inspector Clouseau and now works as a door-to-door-salesman. However, his more slow-paced life is soon interrupted as Nathan Periowinkle Jr., son of a wealthy lunatic dentist and antique teeth collector, steals utensils from the warlock Strangeblood, who lives in the nearby forest. Nathan accidentally transforms Violet, the young daughter of two guests at the Periowinkles' dinner party in their mansion, into a giant, anthropomorphic wombat (with some bat-like physical features). As Pink arrives to sell the Periowinkles a copy of his Book of Knowledge, he learns of this incident and sets out to find Strangeblood's book of cryptically-worded spell reversals so he can undo the transformation before Nathan's parents discover his activities. Along the way, he seearches for missing pages from his Book of Knowledge, which Nathan magically scattered in self-defense.

Violet wishes to become an "immortal, magical ninja princess mermaid". Upon stealing the magic book and escaping from Strangeblood through Spot, the sorcerer's pet black hole, Pink gathers the ingredients to complete the potion, including an improvised black belt, while receiving unexpected help from Strangeblood to drain the Dead Sea so an ostrich can reunite with his flock. Violet drinks the potion and changes into her ideal form but falls asleep in midair after eating a poisoned apple. Pink then searches for the right ingredients to awaken Violet and is revisited on his journey by Strangeblood, who magically reattaches a shark's fins. When the new potion fails, Pink again improvises a third ingredient, this time a Greek salad, and Violet becomes possessed by Echidna of Greek mythology, interrupting the party and demanding audience with Zeus. In Ancient Greece, Pink rescues Athena from being trapped in Zeus's head, tricks two gorgons into turning themselves to stone, and convinces Poseidon to travel with him to the Periowinkles' mansion. Strangeblood arrives at the party and exorcises Echidna, freeing Violet and restoring her original form. Poseidon departs with Echidna, depicted as his granddaughter.

The party ends with plastic surgeon Dr. Hemakeyounew and his Frankenstein's Monster-esque wife taking the entire "Stars Byte" celebrity teeth collection being auctioned off so he can run for mayor of his hometown. Dr. Periowinkle and his wife reprimand Nathan for causing so much chaos and threaten to send him to dental school, but Strangeblood consoles Nathan and explains that he intentionally caused the events of the story to test the boy's magical skills, intervening only as necessary. Pink makes a positive case for Nathan despite his failures. The warlock recruits Nathan as his apprentice, brainwashes Dr. and Mrs. Periowinkle into agreement, and takes him to his forest laboratory. Pink remarks that, no matter where he goes or what job he pursues, a fantastic adventure will always await him.^[3]