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The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures: Empire of the Plant People is a computer game released in June 29, 1999. In it, Owen and Leslie must investigate a secret underground civilization of intelligent plant life in order to rescue Joni and Santiago.

Plot[]

The ClueFinders are playing with a frisbee in Joni's backyard. They're greeted by Joni's elderly neighbor, Ms. Rose, who tells them that she's busy taking good care of her plants. When the ClueFinders return to their game, Joni throws the frisbee too far and it goes into Ms. Rose's yard. Joni and Santiago go to look for the frisbee, but just as they locate it, they are swallowed up by a hole in the ground, which closes after they fall in. Owen and Leslie hear Joni and Santiago yell, but when they go to look, all they see is the frisbee. They establish communication with Joni and Santiago using the video phone, and Joni explains that they appear to be in some kind of underground chamber. Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap set out to find and rescue Joni and Santiago.

After getting through a locked door in Ms. Rose's yard, Leslie, Owen, and LapTrap suddenly find themselves in an underground plant kingdom. Some plant guards notice them and try to capture them. As Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap try to escape, they are suddenly pulled aside by a small plant creature. He tells them he's on their side and introduces himself as Ficus. He explains that the underground plant kingdom has existed for centuries without humans knowing about it. Lately, something has gone wrong, and the plant soldiers have begun taking humans captive and are planning to attack the town above. Ficus says that he and his friends are against this, but they can't convince the soldiers to stop, so Ficus turns to Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap for help. When Leslie asks Ficus about the whereabouts of Joni and Santiago, Ficus explains that the leader of the plant kingdom would know, and in order to get to the throne room without getting caught, they will need to build bridges out of petrified wood planks to get across the bottomless pits.

While exploring the underground plant empire, Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap notice that something is very odd about the water. It seems to have become discolored, and they come to the conclusion that it contains industrial waste. They also find Ms. Rose's walking stick, which leads them to the conclusion that she was captured by the plants too.

After Leslie, Owen, and LapTrap finally reach the throne room, they are suddenly ambushed by plants and knocked out. When they come to, Ms. Rose has appeared before them. She then transforms into a large, monstrous plant and reveals that she was the leader of the plant kingdom all along. Ms. Rose explains that the kingdom's residents had lived peacefully for centuries until pollution from industrial waste poisoned the kingdom and made its citizens angry and aggressive due to its steadily increase. They plan to attack the town above in retaliation because they feel it is all they can do to save themselves. The ClueFinders instead try to convince her that she shouldn't attack the town and that they can stop the pollution themselves. Ms. Rose agrees to give them one last chance, but only on the condition that she can keep one of them hostage for security. Joni agrees to stay behind while Santiago goes up to the surface to report the contamination to other people, and Leslie, Owen, and LapTrap work with the plant kingdom's scientist Dr. Fern to find a way to purify the water.

After making some progress, Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap report back to Ms. Rose, and they are alarmed to see that Joni has started transforming into one of the plant people. Ms. Rose tells them that they had to keep their captives fed, but everything they could give them was polluted, and so the captives started transforming. Ms. Rose tells them that only clean water can save the captives and that they must hurry. After Leslie and Owen find a way to purify the water, the plant kingdom becomes healthy again, and Ms. Rose is very happy and grateful to the ClueFinders for their work. She returns Joni to them, who has reverted back to normal and is sleeping. Ms. Rose explains that all the captives have fallen asleep, and when they wake up, they won't remember the plant kingdom at all. Ms. Rose asks that the ClueFinders keep the plant kingdom's secret, which Owen and Leslie swear to. Ms. Rose then bids farewell to them as they depart the kingdom.

Characters[]

Voices[]

  • Keoni Asia Gist - Leslie Clark
  • Brian Gregory - Owen Lam
  • Chrissie McCarron - Joni Savage
  • Clayton Stroope - Santiago Rivera
  • Les Hedger - LapTrap, Soldier, Guard #1
  • Willow Wray - Ms. Rose
  • Derek Sorrentino - Ficus
  • Bill O'Neill - Dr. Fern
  • Robyn Ginsberg - Operator
  • Dave Rohrl - Guard #2

Activities[]

  • Mysterious Locks
    • Gameplay: Read the text or go through the map (depending on the problem) and use the arrows to select the correct answers and pull the handle to open the door.
    • Skills: Reading comprehension, world cultures, geography, biology
  • Steps of Expression
    • Gameplay: Place the correct words from above into the empty slots on the steps.
    • Skills: Activity focus: vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension
  • Perilous Faults
    • Gameplay: Crack the letters in order to spell the word as per the clue shown for the word.
    • Skills: Spelling, vocabulary
    • Item(s) earned: Bridge plank
  • Recipe for Disaster
    • Gameplay: Use the measuring cups to scoop up the chemicals from the pools and dump them in the correct buckets. Fill each bucket with the correct amount and dump each into the plant's feeding bowl.
    • Skills: Math computation, decimals, fractions
    • Item(s) earned: Bridge plank
  • Cave of Danger
    • Gameplay: Read the equations on the leaves above and choose the correct berries to hit the particular spores before they hatch.
    • Skills: Math computation, decimals, fractions, estimation
    • Item(s) earned: Bridge plank
  • Chasm of Time
    • Gameplay: Arrange the bridge planks with the events written on them in chronological order.
    • Skills: History, world cultures
    • Item(s) required: Bridge plank
  • Pollution Detectives
    • Gameplay: Read the reference material and the news articles on the different toxins and drag lines between the toxin names to the correct company names to show which company is releasing which toxin.
    • Skills: Reading for information
  • Bacterial Growth
    • Gameplay: Arrange the dials of the different molecules to the proper amounts for the bacteria to survive.
    • Skills: Logical reasoning with word problems
    • Item(s) earned: Bacteria
  • Pollution Solution
    • Gameplay: Put the required amount of bacteria in the basins in the proper order as per the amount to pollutants in the water and the pollutants the bacteria can remove.
    • Skills: Logical reasoning
    • Item(s) required: Bacteria

Trivia[]

  • This game reuses several music tracks from The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano.
  • One of the tracks in this game sounds similar to Enya's "Cursum Perficio".
  • The box art depicts Joni wearing the backpack like she does in most other games, despite that Leslie is the one who wears it in the game and due to having Owen and Leslie themselves play the primary roles whilst Joni and Santiago played secondary roles.
  • The one detail Ms. Rose did not mention at the end of the game was that the amnesia Joni and the other prisoners is temporary, which could've hinted of Joni remembering the Underground Plant Empire and the pollution that affects it.
    • Either that, or the others only broke their promise by telling Joni.
  • Following the cutscene of Jimmy being escorted away, Owen and Leslie will comment about unseen abused workers when clicked on. It's unknown if this was in response to an unused cutscene planned for the game or if the plants were planning to enslave humans as well as attack the town

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Other[]

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