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A fun adventure title based in an amusement park, somewhat let down by a rigid control scheme and lack of in-depth interaction.

In an industry that has long been focused on the male gamer, it is nice to see that the tides of change have begun to roll in. Adventure games in particular have made a concerted effort to place females in the roles of lead characters.

Not only has Her Interactive done this, but they have also geared their games towards the younger female demographic, sprinkling their games with a little bit of edutainment, a bit of “women-can-do attitude,” and a bit of lessons in life values.

Haunted Carousel is based on a mystery that takes place in Captain’s Cove Amusement Park, where the disappearance of a very special carousel horse has caused the shutdown of the entire park.

Like any good mystery, the tale of the missing equine is only one part of a dual plot line, because the roller coaster has also mysteriously experienced some strange problems as well. Together, these occurrences have helped rumors emerge - rumors that say the amusement park is haunted.


Riding Around the Mystery

Haunted Carousel is a short game with fairly easy puzzles, but the puzzles that pop up in the game are both geared toward fun and familiarizing females with subjects that for the most part, have typically been geared toward males in the past such operating a lathe, using a soldering gun, and learning about electrical currents.

There are also games that are purely there for fun and for the sake of adventure gaming such arcade games, searching for inventory items and figuring how they apply to the situation at hand.

Nancy Drew does thrive on some timed sequences; after all, you cannot have a proper mystery without trying to get rid of a nosey detective that is sniffing around.

Is it all fun and games? Nope! There are lessons to be learned as well. Throughout the game, Paula Santos, the woman who hired you to investigate the park, keeps the player on track.

What this means is, that if you fail to perform certain actions that you would normally do in real life (or maybe not), you could find yourself the object of a sizeable butt chewing.

How do I know this? Well, my pants have gotten a bit saggy in the derriere. Let me just divulge that the Santos tongue-lashing is enough to make you want to run and hide. Fortunately, I was able to redeem my indiscretions by hitting the second chance button after having been chewed up, spit out, and tossed off the case.

I won’t bore you with the details of how many times this occurred as it too painful to recall. Other less harsh lessons include such things as choosing healthier things to eat, lessons on communication etiquette, and personal responsibility. Yes, {ahem} I already know what you are thinking…but let’s not go there!

So, what is good mystery without ambient spooky carnival music and the Hardy Boys? It certainly would not be Nancy Drew. Frank and Joe Hardy are part of the gaming experience, and although they do not appear in person, the two immortal hunks of yesteryear work with Nancy via her cell phone giving her helpful assists whenever she finds herself stuck for the next game move.

Speaking of movement, the biggest complaint comes from this very subject. The movement in the game is very limited. Nancy does not have the ability to look around the park other than the designated places that the developers have assigned.

This feature made the amusement a little lack-luster. Also limiting, is the fact that the player does not have the ability to look up, down, and around in many places other than a couple of instances.

Combining this with the limited ability to click on objects other than what was needed, it created a linear feel to the game play and made the game a bit drier than it could have been with more freedom to explore other objects and places.

The graphics are nicely done with 3D realistic looking characters and buildings. Together with the ambient music, both came together nicely to create a game with a bit more realism than some other games that I have played.

Voice acting was pretty good overall except in some instances where Nancy’s voice comes across as a bit plastic without the inflection needed to carry off some of the dialogue.

The voice acting actually reminded me of the voice acting you would find in Saturday morning cartoons—Scooby Doo comes to mind for some reason, but that isn’t a bad thing at all; for this type of story and for the demographic audience being targeted, the game hits the bulls eye almost dead on.


Last Ride of the Day

The story line in Nancy Drew flowed nicely, and the conversation trees were well structured. This is doubly impressive since Nancy Drew games are coming out faster than the chocolates on the conveyor belt in the I Love Lucy episode. For Nancy Drew fans, this translates into a Nancy Palooza fest of huge proportions.

Technically, I only experienced one minor glitch that prohibited me from turning or leaving. I ended up closing out of the game then starting it up where I left off. The glitch never seemed to happen again; so overall, the game was smooth riding.

One thing I would like to see added to the games is the ability to have characters repeat a sentence. I missed a couple of responses and instead of being able to get the repeat while I was talking to the character, I had to go back to the hotel and access my notes in the computer.

Nancy does have a helpful journal and task list on her computer, but at times it gets a bit frustrating to continually leave one place, go to the hotel and access the computer and then return. Not a huge gripe, just a minor inconvenience.

Nancy Drew comes with two settings, junior and senior sleuth levels, allowing for even younger kids to play the game. Those who enjoy mysteries will enjoy this game. Age recommendation: 10+.


Review by Michelle Whicker.