I really wanted to like
this game. The eternally plucky Nancy is a perfect subject for a game,
and the Nintendo DS is becoming a viable alternative to the PC as
a platform for graphic adventures.

But
let’s just say that this awful mess of a game is no threat to
the superb PC Nancy Drew series from HerInteractive.

The story starts out promisingly
enough. Nancy receives a mysterious invitation to join “The
Clue Bender Society,” a sort of benign version of the Illuminati.
She shows up on a remote island (naturally) for the tests to see if
she is worthy of joining this elite think tank. It turns out that
the group’s headquarters is in a quirky mansion just full of
puzzles that Nancy has to unravel.

So far, so good, right?
I love puzzle houses. The two Safecracker games are among
my favorite adventure games.

But, alas, the game foils
the potential for fun at nearly every turn. The various tasks Nancy
is given get bogged down by some truly sludgy game mechanics.

First up is the needlessly
awful interface. The “exploring” in the game, which takes
place on the upper screen, consists of clicking on predetermined waypoints
that move you from screen to screen, with big exclamation points indicating
items of interest. The arrow keys provide the movement. While this
may sound convenient, it really makes movement in the game a rote
and tedious experience. In other words, the game tries to give you
the impression that you have freedom of movement, when you’re
really on very tight rails.

The
bottom screen contains various game elements that you interact with
using the stylus and touch screen: inventory, maps, conversation topics,
and puzzles.

Then there are the puzzles.
The puzzles in the game are of only two varieties: those that are
Insultingly Easy and those that are Irredeemably Opaque. Neither are
fun. Oh, wait, I forgot a third type: the Numbingly Tedious. This
type is exemplified by a series of “puzzle doors” that
have combination locks. To open them you have to travel to four different
consoles in four different hallways. So while you are grimacing at
the childish music and struggling with the cumbersome game movement,
you also get to enjoy dizziness from all the circling around to these
damned consoles. Yay fun!

To break up the scintillating
puzzle-solving fun, the game has snowmobile sequences which consist
of . . . driving a snowmobile in a straight line. Real white-knuckle
stuff.

Special mention must be
made of the remarkably annoying game music, which loops about every
sixteen bars and quickly forces you to simply turn the volume all
the way off.

And let’s not forget
the conversations with characters which play out exactly the same
no matter how many times you visit them. As an added bonus, there’s
no way to quickly skip through these conversations when you accidentally
trip one of them into starting again. Suck-tastic!!

The
final straw for me came when I was working on opening a puzzle box,
an activity I usually relish in an adventure game. This puzzle had
no clues, gave no feedback and eventually simply disappeared as I
was working on it. I mean literally disappeared. No open box, no progression
to the next bit in the story, just . . . no more box. Huh?

I have a question for the
game execs at Gorilla Games: Have you ever heard of play testing?
It’s difficult to imagine gamers of any age giving the designers
positive feedback on any of the aspects of this game. What’s
more likely is that the project was given a miniscule budget and schedule
and they did the best they could with what they had and pushed the
game out the door.

I recommend you do NOT
push it into your Nintendo DS. Nancy Drew deserves better than this.
If you liked this game, you might also enjoy lithium.

System Requirements:

• Nintendo DS and an incredibly
  forgiving attitude

This
review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and
may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent
of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link
back to Just Adventure.