Acquisitions

• The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
• ART SQOOL
• Battle Chef Brigade
• Flipping Death
• Randal's Monday

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• Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake
  

  12.3 hours playtime

  0 of 0 achievements

• Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel
  

  10.2 hours playtime

  0 of 0 achievements

• Aviary Attorney
  

  11.7 hours playtime

  0 of 0 achievements

Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake

At Least Somewhat Historic Detectives! Mystery! Murder! Educational Favorites Ghosts Halloween and Horror Literary Ties USA

2nd or 3rd time playing this one. It's one of my favorites for the storyline. As Nancy Drew, you stay in a cabin on a lake in Pennsylvania that was once owned by a Prohibition-era gangster. Local legend has it that his four dogs still haunt the property. A state park operates in the vicinity, and you can go to its visitor center. While there is a real Moon Lake State Forest, it doesn't seem to be related to the game as the game places itself in a fictional county.

"Are you saying Sally's house is haunted by ghost dogs?"

Playing it again in my current playthrough of all the games in order, I liked it a little less. I think that's because it was so memorable, the pleasant surprises weren't so surprising (I still didn't remember who the culprit was--as usual, everyone is damn suspicious. I have to admit, though, that the puzzles weren't as satisfying. The best was probably the one where who have to put files in order by year, except those years are written in Roman numerals. Most other major puzzles revolved around finding nature-related items in a forest maze. Finding the birds to photograph would have been fine, but it became overused the moment we had to trudge around there looking under specific rocks to find several bugs. On the other hand, the well/water pump puzzle was too simple and I feel like an interesting educational opportunity may have been missed there.

Probably one of the most American sentences I've seen.

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel

Detectives! Mystery! Murder! Educational Literary Ties New England USA

My experience replaying this game was significantly more surprising to me. This was the game that caused my Nancy Drew burnout ~10 years ago. It seemed boring to me, probably because there wasn't as much of a history focus outside of the history of carousels. This time around, I thought it was a pretty strong entry to the series. I learned (or possibly relearned--it's a long time since I've been on a carousel) about grabbing the brass ring. It paid off, because earlier today I was reading an article that used that phrase metaphorically.

Info about regional carousel styles.

I remember having some trouble with the puzzles then, which I breezed through this time. As you need full access to the park to carry out an investigation, you receive a handbook that covers various topics relevant to puzzles throughout the game, including use of a lathe, Ohm's law, soldering, and more. I think the handbook seemed overwhelming the first time, but it's really not. There was a small programming-related puzzle, too. I learned a bit of programming since the first time, so I wasn't confused by that puzzle except that it didn't actually make much sense (you had to write a game update into the code, which was done by making the update name the parameter of the gameover function). It was a nice thought, but that could have been a better puzzle that taught more than it did.

A puzzle highlight were the stenography lessons you take on your in-game computer, which turned out to be fun and interactive. I remember writing out words and the marks for sounds in a notebook the first time I played. It was late when I played it this time, and I would have had to get up and look for a notebook, so I just studied the lessons hard and memorized, lol.

Aviary Attorney

At Least Somewhat Historic Cool-looking Detectives! Mystery! Murder! Favorites France Good Reads Kitty Cats LMAO Noticeably Good Music Quirky Victorian

Funny bird version of Phoenix Wright with Sherlock Holmes vibe that also deals with some serious themes. While there are small changes that can occur based on decisions you make (one of those is actually pretty significant), there are 3 main ending routes.

After breaking and entering: "Some kids did it. Little weasel types. We saw them."

There was a lot of Frenchiness to this game, which I loved. The setting is Paris. It uses art from a 19th-century French artist called J. J. Grandville and music from 19th-century French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Most people are probably familiar with his Danse macabre (youtube). Those choices worked and help make the game stand out.

There is no option to skip through text you've seen, but there is a system that lets you load from each day, which worked well enough to see the three routes.