Nancy Drew is a big hit among girls with her series of novels, and has attracted several girls to gamin with her PC adventures. Not surprisingly, the teen sleuth makes her Nintendo DS debut with a brand new case and a very different presentation.
Nancy Drew and the Deadly Secret of Olde World Park isn’t based in any of the novels nor the PC titles. It has its own original story and unique style of gameplay.
A new amusement park celebrating ancient civilizations is about to be inaugurated in River Heights. But on the eve of the opening, the owner, billionaire Thaddeus Belmont is presumed missing. No one has seen him or heard from him in a few days, and it’s up to Nancy to investigate the circumstances of his disappearance.
The game is played by a mix of the D-pad, buttons and the stylus. You control Nancy with the D-pad. Moving her around the different locations. You talk to people or interact with objects with the X button. The stylus is used to look at items in your inventory, pick conversation options and play the mini-games. The action takes place on the top screen, and the bottom screen is your inventory and mini-game setting.
For the most part, Nancy walks around, talks to people and tries to gather clues. The dialog options are represented by icons and not actual text on the bottom screen. Interrogating people can lead to mini-games if they are hostile and don’t feel like talking to you (you will notice a red smiley face on the topic of conversation). Tapping the conversation icon brings up a mini-game that you must clear in order to advance the dialog and get the information you need. If you don’t succeed, you can try again.
There are six conversational mini-games, all played with simple tap and drag stylus movements or control pad directions. You must complete them within the time limit. Color match throws a series of balls with symbols and colors at you, but you must only pick up those that match the one indicated on the left and fill up the tray. Pathway gives you a grid, a starting point and a goal. You must navigate the grid to reach the goal without stepping on the wrong squares. It’s a bit of a memory game, since if you step on the wrong one, the grid resets and you start again with all squares covered. Happy tiles reminds me of something I played a lot in Neopets. There is a board with several squares, with different symbols. As you step on a square, the symbol changes. The purpose is to have all squares with the same symbol. Drop is a Pachinko game where you need to move the baskets below with the D-pad to catch the falling symbol in the matching basket. Rapport is a sliding puzzle where you have to move the pieces around to form an image.
You will find other mini-games in the form of lock opening tasks. One is a combination lock with up to five symbols, the other is a key with red and green spheres running around it, and you must tap the spheres in the right color spot.
There are also a few stealth action sequences where you must sneak around in the shadows and avoid detection.
The gameplay is fairly linear, so you don’t really need to worry about getting lost of finding yourself clueless as far as what to do next. Nancy’s journal gives you all the information you need, just tap the pulsing icons to find out what to do next. The chapters advance automatically, taking you to the next area you need to visit. This is done in a graphic novel format, presented in colorful still images with text balloons that scroll on the top screen.
The artwork is really nice throughout the game, and the music, although limited, fits the mystery theme. Voice acting would have given it a little extra touch, but we’re not so lucky.
It’s surprising to see how well the DS can support this type of game and how the end result turned out. Deadly Secret of Olde World Park is a pleasant experience that works for casual play, with a good story, great presentation and entertaining mini-games. It’s a much more accessible adventure than those for the PC, with less complicated puzzles and a much more straightforward progression, which will probably appeal to a wider fan base.
For all Nancy Drew fans, this could be the excuse to purchase a DS, should they not have one yet. For everyone else who enjoys adventure games, you should try it out. I won’t be surprised if this becomes the next platform of choice for a whole series of Nancy Drew cases.
Special thanks to Laura Paul and Majesco for providing a copy of this title.