For the last year, I’ve been writing reviews on each of the games in the Nancy Drew series. In the last few months though, I did start to wonder about how I’d actually go about ranking all the games because, while individual reviews definitely highlight what a game does well (and what it doesn’t), it doesn’t reveal much regarding how one game compares to another. (And, for those wanting to make their first purchases of games in the series, which games they should prioritise over others). Thus, I have decided that, over the next three weeks, I will be ranking all the Nancy Drew games that I have played.
Nevertheless, there are a few things I would like to state first before I begin this ranking:
1) This list is entirely my opinion.
During the year 1998, the computer games developer Interactive, started releasing Nancy Drew computer games on their website. Some of the titles are derived from Nancy Drew novels that have already been published, such as The Secret of the Old Clock and The Secret of Shadow Ranch. Nancy Drew represents all the characteristics we aspire to. She’s smart, gutsy, resourceful, and she gets the job done. Because Nancy is caring and willing to help others, there’s always a mystery to solve. Nancy is tech-savvy so she is a de-TECH-tive! Nancy, Bess and George are from River Heights Elementary. The current Nancy Drew logo. Computer games publisher Her Interactive began publishing Nancy Drew computer games in 1998. Some titles are taken from published Nancy Drew books, such as The Secret of the Old Clock and The Secret of Shadow Ranch. The games are targeted at 'ages 10 and up' and are rated 'E' ('Everyone') by the ESRB. The Nancy Drew game franchise has won over 30 consecutive Parents’ Choice Awards and has sold more games than Harry Potter, Myst and Tomb Raider. In the games, you will become Nancy Drew’s eyes and ears to solve the mystery. Nancy Drew 29 - Dossier Light, Camera, Curses (2008).zip download 323.5M Nancy Drew 30 - Dossier Resorting To Danger (2009).zip download.
2) While there may be hints as to what happens in each of the games and who the culprit is (for example, in X game, the culprit is very obvious), there will be no actual spoilers that reveal the culprit, the ending of the game or any significant twists.
3) Ransom of the Seven Ships and Trail of the Twister are both missing from this list as I’m yet to finish playing them. Therefore, there are thirty games being ranked, not thirty-two. Also, Secrets Can Kill (1998) and Secrets Can Kill Remastered (2010) have been ranked together.
4) I have included links to each of my full-length reviews for each of the games, which can be accessed by clicking on the title of the game.
5) Finally, I want to acknowledge that ranking some of these games was tremendously difficult and, thus, it may not always seem entirely clear why one game surpassed the other, despite my best efforts. This is because, when you have two games which you liked or disliked fairly equally, sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling about which one deserves to be ranked higher.
So, to begin…
#30 The Creature of Kapu Cave (2006)
There always has to be a game at the bottom of the list and Creature of Kapu Cave is the perfect candidate. Until this game, I didn’t think it was possible for me to actually detest a Nancy Drew game. However, this game is truly awful.
I wish I could ask the person who thought a game where Nancy – and the Hardy Boys (who have been reincarnated from Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon as almost distant relatives of the monster patrolling the island) – spends the majority of the game collecting shells and running errands for an eccentric professor? I’ve never been so bored stiff by a game before, a fact that depresses me considering Creature of Kapu was competing against such games as Labyrinth of Lies and The Shattered Medallion.
It didn’t help that I didn’t have much idea what was going on for most of this game. There are about fifty mysteries which range from who trashed Dr Kim’s camp to who knocked out Joe Hardy to who is responsible for the failing pineapple crop and a growing swarm of angry insects? Unfortunately, finding the answers to any of these questions requires completing tasks for a group of self-righteous suspects who allocate all their most tiresome chores to Nancy to complete. Even then though, it never really feels like Nancy or the Hardy Boys are reaching any kind of resolution to the mystery/ies. Yet, you can’t blame them for it considering you’d have to be a mind-reader to guess this game’s surprising mess of an ending.
This is one of the few games of the series which I really recommend giving a skip unless you’re a dedicated fan. Creature of Kapu Cave is honestly the only game in the series which I can actually say I regretted spending money on.
#29 Secrets Can Kill (1998)/Secrets Can Kill Remastered (2010)
The game which started the series, Secrets Can Kill focuses on the murder of High School student, Jake Rogers. While it initially seems like an unfortunate accident, it soon transpires that Jake was involved in a complex web of blackmail, drugs and extortion.
I think the most apt description for this game is clunky. For one, Secrets Can Kill (1998) has the worst graphics and controls in the series and, unfortunately, it does impact quite significantly on this game’s functionality. There’s the disc switching (one disc to visit the school, another to visit everywhere else) and the constant mouse-clicking in order to navigate through each of the locations. The characters are mere 2-D cartoons and not particularly expressive which, in this game, is particularly problematic considering none of the suspects have any personality; surprisingly, the victim – Jake – is the most interesting one of the lot despite never making an appearance on-screen.
The ‘sleuthing’, if it can be called that, also feels clumsy. Barring the option to decode the dozens of strange messages around the school, there’s not really much mystery-solving: Nancy seems more a witness to the events going on around her than a participant, and the ending – which comes almost out of nowhere after Nancy prods a few suspects – seems the greatest proof of that.
The remastered version does offer some improvements, fixing the principal problems of the original game: the clunky interface is gone (as is the switch between two discs), some additional puzzles and opportunities to sleuth are added and there’s a reasonable attempt to make the suspects more rounded, most notably by the addition of creepy Uncle Steve. The ending is also changed so it fits more naturally in the storyline, although it’s still incredibly far-fetched. Nevertheless, while these alterations are welcomed and make the game more playable, none of them are really substantial enough to make this game interesting or, frankly, good.
Nevertheless, I can’t condemn this game and its remake to the bottom of the list considering it was Her Interactive’sfirst game and, thus, I think a little leniency should be applied; it’s apparent that Her Interactive were still figuring what they wanted this series to be when they released this game.
I love Ancient Greece, especially its mythology, so I was very excited when this game was first proposed. The mystery – who has been replacing priceless artefacts with forgeries at a museum – is not the series’ most original in consideration of Secret of the Scarlet Hand but numerous games in the series have been able to improve on their predecessors’ storylines, such as Warnings at Waverly Academy and Ghost of Thornton Hall. Unfortunately, Labyrinth of Lies is not one of those games.
The main problem with this game – and, regrettably, is a common fault in many of the later Nancy Drew games – is that there’s too much focus on trying to make the mystery seem interesting rather than actually making the game interesting. All the suspects speak in riddles, the plot is confuddled with increasingly implausible character backstories, and there are so many out-of-place locations (for example, a lava Underworld) which are explained away as backdrops for a play the museum is holding. This game is such a mess that it’s barely playable. The only reason I’m ranking this game twenty-eighth rather than last is for its graphics which demonstrate Her Interactive’s growing mastery with their animation.
If you’re interested in a mystery based in a museum, I highly recommend you skip this game and just play Secret of the Scarlet Hand.
This game definitely receives a lot of bad rap and most of it is fairly justified. A Nancy Drew game where strange things are happening on a reality television show sounds interesting and almost Stay-Tuned-For-Danger–like. However, the premise falls flat straight from the beginning when it becomes clear that the game is a mere vehicle for Sonny Joon and his eccentricity. While the opening begins with allusions to sabotage – with someone even being badly injured –, the initial set-up is neglected soon after in favour of another mystery resolving around Sonny Joon and his presence on the show. This is to the extent that we don’t even really find out who was causing all the accidents to begin with.
Other games in the series have chosen to focus more on their secondary storylines rather than their principle ones but the issue in this game is that Sonny Joon isn’t really an intriguing enough character for us to care about – certainly not enough for the three-odd hours this game expects to command your attention. And I think Her Interactive realised this considering the principle attributes of Sonny Joon’s personality is to be as mystifying and confusing as possible, in vain the audience will be able to do the hard yards and imagine him to be a more interesting character than he is.
Nancy Drew Order Of Games
Even with the game’s fun minigames – there’s kayaking, submarining and sheep rearing – it’s not enough to make this game a worthwhile or enjoyable experience. It’s an improvement on the other games ranked below it but I won’t go as far as to give it a recommendation.
I was, admittedly, a little biased against this game from the onset since I feel like one of the main indicators of a bad Nancy Drew game is when the creators try and create a ‘unique’ story, in this case, a mystery revolving around Nancy’s dead mother, Kate Drew.
In a similar vein to The Shattered Medallion, this game tries so hard to be imaginative and inventive but just gets lost in its own creation. This game’s plot is beyond ambitious: Nancy finding out what happened to her dead mother, who happened to be a spy trying to solve a bioterrorism plot, whilst stopping a modern-day bioterrorism ploy by one of two organisations trying to recruit Nancy. As expected, the storyline gets muddled as the writers try desperately to link all the threads of these multiple stories together. The suspects definitely don’t help, going on constantly about ‘the need for secrecy’, as if that’s the game’s justification for its countless plot holes and unresolved ends.
To the game’s credit, the puzzles aren’t bad (there’s a very fun mini-game decorating cookies for money) and the locations around Glasgow are stunning. And the game does deserve some recognition for at least attempting to try something new in the series, even though I’m probably part of the camp who was perfectly happy without a Kate Drew backstory.
Although it’s number twenty-six, The Silent Spy indicates the beginning of the ‘playable’ Nancy Drew games and, thus, the ones I think are worthy of a playthrough.
I’ve never been the one to be won over a concept just because it has an animal in it and it’s a shame because this game doesn’t really have much else going for it. The mystery stars a white wolf who mysteriously appears whenever an accident is about to happen – someone slipping on the stairs, someone having food poisoning, a bunkhouse being blown up to smithereens…Nancy is required to go undercover as a maid to snoop, working alongside the infamous Tino Balducci who continues with his usual unorthodox means to catch a culprit.
This game is such a struggle to play, but I feel like Her Interactive had that coming when they decided to put time constraints all over this mystery; every time it seems like Nancy is progressing in uncovering the culprit, she’s stalled by either her maid duties (which requires her to serve meals three times a day and put the guests’ dirty laundry down a chute) or her frostbite which, if not adequately remedied with a heat pack from the handyman’s obnoxious daughter, means she freezes to death. The real challenge of this game is not finding out who’s setting off explosions but managing to make it through a consecutive ten minutes without being called back to the lodge.
I think this game would still be bearable if the puzzles weren’t so difficult and the suspects didn’t seem like utter parodies of themselves – the ‘too-cool’ university student, the paranoid skier from Fredonia, the devoted animal right protester etc. Even the secondary storyline revolving around the fictional Trapper Dan just doesn’t have the depth to be that interesting.
All Of Nancy Drew Games
In saying that though, the landscapes are amazing, and I do like that Her Interactive actually listened to fan’s demands for more locations, suspects and sleuthing, even though I suspect no fan had expected it to materialize in this form.
What could be better than spending a few fruitful hours wandering around Paris, trying to ascertain why an infamous fashion designer, Minette, has started wearing a white mask? It seems like, a lot.
I think the first problem with this game is that, despite the interesting set-up, the game almost entirely abandons the mystery around Minette for another enigma revolving a French spy, Noisette, and the treasure she hid within the Parisian walls. I didn’t actually find this secondary mystery all that bad – Noisette is definitely more interesting a character than Trapper Dan and Sonny Joon and is able to hold her own – but it’s relevance to the initial mystery is poor, and it’s difficult to watch Her Interactive’s frantic last-ditch attempt to bring the two mysteries together.
On top of that, the puzzles are ridiculously tricky, from developing photo prints in someone’s pitch-black bathroom (although, thankfully, the game did allow a means to bypass this puzzle) to navigating a submerged catacomb with limited oxygen. Most of the characters are utter grumps and become irritating fairly quickly; there’s only so many times you can listen to Minette having a temper tantrum, or a snobby French magazine columnist remind you that you have to pay for your own food.
I really struggled to rank this game in the last third of this list though since, while I did have somewhat positive thoughts finishing this game, recalling now those numerous tiresome and frustrating moments has been like grating my fingernails on a chalkboard. Maybe I’ll have different feelings when I play this game again but, for now, Danger by Design ranks twenty-fourth on my list.
It annoys me to no end when a game has a promising premise but then fails to deliver and The Haunting of Castle Malloy is, unfortunately, very guilty of that.
The first odd-hour of this game is very intriguing, with Nancy arriving at an old Irish manor after being forced off the road by a strange woman(?), only to discover that her friend’s – Kyle – fiancée has disappeared days before their wedding. The manor with its decaying walls and gloomy grounds provides a suitable atmosphere as the mystery starts to reveal itself as a potential kidnapping.
After the first hour though, this game reveals itself to be a mere puzzle-fest. There are puzzles after puzzles, many frustratingly difficult or time-consuming. The few suspects that are around to interrogate are as dull as dishwater, with almost laughable motives. The locations, while initially alluring due to their number, soon seem endless and just another place for a puzzle to be solved.
The ending is the only time where the game picks up the pace, but it comes too late and all at once. I know Nancy Drew has dealt with some surprising culprits but this one certainly takes the cake. It makes me sad that a game which started out so well could falter so easily. Thankfully, Her Interactive has a good twenty-odd games ahead of this one.
My friend owned a copy of this game, alerting to me for the first time that Nancy Drew games actually existed. I only acquired this game a few months ago though after years of playing the series and – honestly – after having waited for so long, there was a lot of built-up anticipation for it. In spite of the suspense though, The Haunted Carousel is really not one of Her Interactive’s best games and it’s a shame because, like The Haunting of Castle Malloy, this game had the potential to be quite good.
Her Interactive really missed an opportunity on this mystery. The concept – that strange things having been happening at an amusement park, including the theft of a priceless carousel horse – is quite intriguing and had a good set-up to be an engaging – and frightening – mystery. Right from the beginning though, there’s no urgency for Nancy to find the missing horse or find out what’s going on. Instead, she’s off playing arcade games and talking to a small robot. It dulls the mood almost immediately. I remember reading a review online somewhere about how this game should have been based at night and, while I’m not sure if that’s true, you can’t help but acknowledge that one or two small changes to this game (such as basing it at night) could have completely revitalised this game.
Nevertheless, unlike some of the other games ranked below this one, you can definitely see Her Interactive put a little thought into this game, even if not all of their decisions paid off. It’s definitely worth a play but its mediocrity means it could never score highly on a list dedicated to finding the best Nancy Drew game.
Who doesn’t love a mystery involving a pack of phantom hounds haunting the site of their former owner, a bootlegger who used his secret underground bar to distribute alcohol? Unfortunately, the premise is more exciting than its execution.
Nancy Drew Games In Order
The problem with this game is that almost all of it is spent doing tasks for a group of uninteresting suspects whose sanity is always in-doubt. (The more I think about it, the fact one of them turns out to be a psychopath is unsurprising). None of the tasks are that easy to complete either, often requiring additional tools or information mid-way through which can only be acquired through completing another, unrelated task, or going back through the house’s extensive gardens. You’re always hoping that the phantom dogs will appear but they never do.
Unlike some other games on this list though, Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake does have some redeeming qualities. The opening, albeit short, is terse and suspenseful, exactly what you want from a Nancy Drew game. Likewise, the story of Micky Malone, the bootlegger, is actually intriguing and complements the story regarding the phantom hounds particularly well. The discovery of Malone’s secret bar is also a notable highlight of the game and one could only wish all of Her Interactive’s locations were so superbly drawn. Like The Haunted Carousel, Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake is a mediocre game but it has its few outstanding moments.
Until next Monday…