Creatures Playground

Creatures Playground is the second of two titles in the Creatures series intended particularly for young children (ages 4-10), the first being Creatures Adventures. In these games the norns are bigger, rooms are brighter, and it generally feels more like a game than other incarnations of Creatures.

When both the original Creatures Adventures and Creatures Playground games are installed, they can be merged to form a single game known as Creatures Village. Creatures Village is also the name of the remastered Windows and Mac OS X compilation games that include both titles.

Creatures Playground was originally published in 2000 by Vivendi/Encore.

Contents
Creatures Playground features "a never-ending fairground for children to explore" and contains various things for players to do, unlock and plenty more. In some cases, Creatures Adventures and Playground can feel like a smaller version of a "Secret Adventure Mode".

Missing Jigsaw Pieces
The fair grounds have various missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle scattered and hidden. Finding these puzzles will supposedly unlock something big, although what it could be is unknown to much of the Creatures Community members at present. The following is locations where the jigsaw pieces are located and how they can be acquired;


 * Near the entrance to the fair is a Whack-A-Mole mini game. Click on the hammer to begin to play and smash all of the heads that come out of a mud pile. For every couple of successful hits the bar graph will raise, if you beat the time you will win one of the jigsaw pieces and a 'mud ride' for approaching norns.


 * If a norn rides the airplane car of the ferris wheel with the speed at three, the airplane will fly off of the wheel and land by the entrance to the mine shaft. Flying over the park for the first time will earn you a jigsaw piece.


 * Near the wheel is a 'ghost train' ride. Click the green car to begin the mini-game. The object is to find the spooky attractions 'weaknesses' and click on them at just the right time - a red light in the top-left corner of the screen will flash to tell you when. After passing by every few attractions you will see floating eyes and a measuring gauge, click the eyes to squish them. This will raise the level in the gauge. When you've filled up the gauge to the third line you will earn a jigsaw piece. You do not have to click the other attractions for the jigsaw piece, but you must do so for other unlockables.


 * There is a water shooting game just past the toffee apple vendor. Place your mouse above the water pump to play. The object is to shoot down the fish, ship, barrels and shark fins by clicking to fire water spurts. For anything you hit you will earn points and fill your water gauge little by little. If you completely fill up your gauge before time runs out, you will earn another jigsaw piece. You can earn a second jigsaw piece if you play and win this game again.


 * To the left of the cactus juice vendor is a 'test your strength' tower, you can get your norn to pull the hammer lever to see if s/he can ring the bell at the top. An easy way to do this is to get your norn to drink the red cactus juice and your norn will immediately be placed next to the tower. If your norn pulls the hammer lever within the next few seconds the bell will ring and another jigsaw piece will be revealed.


 * Inside of the mine shaft is a place where several items and bones can be placed inside. Use the pickax to break oven medium-sized stones for items. If you find all of the items the grate will be unlocked to reveal a dinosaur Grendel if you click on the grate to open it. The dinosaur Grendel doesn't have much use if you don't have the Cavenorn, which is revealed when all of the bones are found. One bone can be found by fishing in the swamp, playing the ghost train mini-game, found inside a rock of the mine and the other is inside one of the snow mobiles in the winter wonderland mini-game. If the dinosaur Grendel is released when the Cavenorn is present it will become scared and a jigsaw piece will be revealed.


 * In the mine shaft there is a closed opening beneath the grappling claw. Clicking it will open it allowing your norn to slip through. Here you can access various machines to change a norn's appearance, pigment tint, their hair and even into a different creature. Simply open a door and close it to place the norn inside. With the creature transforming machine, select the blue liquid and press the switch to turn your norn into a mouse. The mouse will enter a secret passageway containing a jigsaw piece. Place the mouse back into the same machine to transform it back.


 * You can take your norn to a winter wonderland by pressing the lift button by Fred the Boiler, then taking your norn into metal pod to transport it to a space station. Here you can place it onto a red pod and press the fir tree button to transport him to said winter wonderland. Using the other lift here you can play a snow mobile game. The object of this mini game is to dodge out of the way of incoming obstacles to pick up speed. Click on the snow mobile to dodge. At the end the mobile will fly over a ramp. Depending on your speed depends how far you fly. There is a measuring table to dodge how far you flew, if you go over the jigsaw sign you will win a jigsaw piece.


 * In the winter wonderland there are a lot of penguins walking back and forth, and you can click on them to make them jump up. One of the penguins will drop a jigsaw piece when it is clicked on.

Your reward for finding all the pieces and completing the puzzle is, all your norns will be taken to the ferris wheel and be treated to a parade, which will pass from the right to the left of the playground under a fall of confetti. When the last float passes off the screen, one of its balloons (a car) will burst and an actual car will drop to the ground, ready for your norns to use! It functions the same way as the skateboard outside the Creatures Adventures house, it is just a way to move individual norns faster.

Building your own Roller-Coaster Ride
One of the interesting aspects of Playground is the ability to create your own track for a roller-coaster ride. Building mode is accessed in the fair grounds, there is a sign of two norns riding a coaster car that is just above the gate to the track. A snake around the pole named Pype ensures no norn enters when no track has been made, they are not of right height (in this case, they must be at the adult life stage to ride), they are too old or they are pregnant. Clicking the button on the blue stand will access the Roller Coaster Construction Set.

Using the Roller Coaster Construction Set you can place various BUILDINGS and other track 'knickknacks', such as trumpets that sound off when the coaster car runs over them, water splashes and plenty more. Only a handfull of 'knickknacks' will be available when you first start off, as more can be unlocked by playing the playground games and searching in hidden places by clicking with the mouse. During building mode you can delete the last placed track. Clicking the X button will save your work and exit the building mode.

Related links

 * Creatures Village category
 * CA and CP Merger Tool
 * Creatures Village