Freddi Fish
The 1994 point-and-click computer game series, also available as a web emulator game, Freddi Fish centers on the happy goldfish Freddi, who is also a detective. A fish detective. It makes sense when you’re in the first grade.
To solve mysteries, players have to explore animated scenes, which, looking back, very obviously stole their art and style from Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid movie, but I was unfazed by bootlegs back then.
What was more interesting to focus on, as Associated Press noted in 1999, was the fact that Freddi was one of few female video game protagonists. Her character design is also nondescript and androgynous, early proof that women in video games didn’t need to look or act like angels for the game to be successful, an idea the later 2000’s subsequently trampled on. In honor of Freddi’s inoffensiveness, you can buy a collection of Freddi Fish games from 1994 to 2001 on Steam for $34.99.
