Nintendo Okie

I was the kid in elementary school that always got his work done early. I knew that if I did I would get some time on the old Apple II and I always took advantage of it. There were two games that I loved the play. One was the Oregon Trail, but the other was Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Not only did I play it at school, but my parents bought me a copy for the house as well. I loved that game and I think it was that game that really sparked my interest in Geography and History.

I promised myself that if I ever had kids they would play that game as well. It’s been hard to find a good copy that reminded me of those experiences that I had as a kid so I’m always trying new games in the series as they come out. The latest is a series of WiiWare games, the first of which is Carmen Sandiego: Adventures in Math – The Lady Liberty Larceny.

What You Need to Know

The Lady Liberty Larceny is a point and click adventure game where you, as a member of the Acme Detective Agency, are tasked with solving a crime. In this case one of the members of Carmen Sandiego’s gang of V.I.L.E. agents has stolen the statue of liberty. You need to investigate the crime scenes and interrogate potential witnesses to obtain clues and get a warrant for an arrest. You’ll travel to three different parts of the world, New York, Berlin and Shanghai as you chase the crook and put the Statue of Liberty back in its rightful place.

The Game Hasn’t Changed

In the 20+ years since the game first launched it hasn’t really changed. You travel to a location and interrogate the people standing around the different places. If you’re in the right place they’ll give you helpful clues. If you’re in the wrong place they won’t tell you much of anything. In each area there are two or three people that you can talk to.  Sometimes they’ll freely give you information, other times you’ll have to work for it a little bit.

In this case you’ll have to solve some math related puzzles. It feels very Layton-esque in that respect, but the puzzles aren’t really complicated. You’ll have to figure out multiplication factors to rewire broken cameras or rearrange broken pieces of a rocket to a specific shape. The puzzles are designed for kids in the 4th and 5th grade so keep that in mind if you decide to pick up the game. They’re probably not going to pose any real challenge to anyone who has a high school education.

Each of the three areas has one clue (you need three altogether). Once you’ve traveled to all three places you can use the clues to decide which member of Carmen’s gang committed the crime. If you get the guess correct you’ll get an ending cut scene showing you the villain being arrested.

If you loved Carmen Sandiego as a youth you might get some crazy, nostalgic feelings playing this game. It does feel very much like those old geography based games, but this time with math instead of a map.

It’s Very, Very Short

Those old PC based games came with what seemed liked dozens of cases to solve. This new WiiWare series appears to be one case per installment. I solved the one case in about 30-45 minutes and that was it. Nothing else really to do. For $6 it might be a tad on the expensive side.

Multi-player

If you do have more than one kid then they and you might get some fun out of the multi-player portion of the game. In this mode you compete against each other to see who can solve puzzles the fastest. Each person will get the same type of puzzle with a different answer so it’s fair to each player; no one has an advantage. It might be a good way to reinforce some of the math skills that are being learned in school.

Conclusion

It’s nice to see Carmen Sandiego on a home console, but it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There’s a sense of nostalgia for people my age who grew up playing these games in elementary school. We now have kids who are getting to be that same age and it’s nice to share those experiences. However, there’s not really a lot of game here and if you’re good at math it’s really easy to finish. The puzzles aren’t hard and the clues are very easy to obtain. The hardest part will just be making sure you use the clues properly to pick the right crook. If you really like Carmen Sandiego and you’re looking for something new it might be a good series to get into, but you’re going to end up with a lot of money spent for a very small number of cases to solve.  The episodic nature of these games means you will be able to get another case soon, but it’s going to cost you another $6.  A little variety on subsequent replays would have made this much easier to recommend.

Final Score: 

Review copy of the game provided by Houghton-Mifflin
Played through the entire case twice (once by myself and once with my son), touched the multi-player a little bit.
Total Play Time: 2 hours