Customer Reviews

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

A beautiful, antique carousel is mysteriously starting up in the dead of night. Is it a ghost...or is it more then it seems? In this adorable adventure starring you as teen sleuth Nancy Drew, you explore Captin's Cove, an amusement park in New Jersey suffering from a few...problems.

As you move throughout the park, you will have to solve various puzzles to advance deeper into the game. Sometimes, it will only take a phone call to dig up a clue, but other times, you will have to do things like decipher shorthand writing to advance (don't worry, you'll have plenty of help).

To warn veteran players, some things have changed in this installment. This time around, you have e-mail and a cell phone to aid you with your case. You will be able to use this cell phone anywhere but, unlike the other games, you will have to depend on it a lot more.

I thought that the 7 locations in this game were well thought out and planned. The same thing goes for the 4 main characters, who, as you interrogate them, will ALL have a motive and ALL seem like they are the culprit. The music, though somewhat scary at times, only adds to the overall flavor of the game.

Though it only took me 1 day to complete, I thought it was great! If you are a parent you will also love it. Unlike some of the other computer games out on the market, this one lets your kids have fun, while they learn.

The only complaint I have about Nancy Drew and the Hanuted Carousel is that it was too short, I guess time flies when your having fun!

"The Haunted Carousel" is the eighth Nancy Drew PC game, and this one likely won't disappoint. Rich in detail, this game was obviously well-planned and well-made. The graphics are awesome, the storyline is believable, the characters are interesting and amusing, and the game is all-around great.

In this game, you, as Nancy Drew, get full access to an amusement park where, recently, some very odd occurances have taken place. Search for clues, play games, solve puzzles and riddles, and -- in the end -- solve a mystery and outwit the villain. Like all the Nancy Drew games, "Haunted Carousel" brings gamers hours of entertainment and lots of fun.

"Haunted Carousel" is, in my opinion, much better than its predecessor, "Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake," which I found to be rather disappointing due to the fact that the games and puzzles seemed dull, and didn't tie well into the game. In "Carousel," the presence of a carnival midway allows for the presence of games without the feeling that the games are weirdly out-of-place. Also, the educational elements of this game (which are present in all ND games) are incorporated nicely and subtly.

I encountered one small problem with this game, however, and that involved the "Barnacle Blast" mini-game. It was impossible to beat/solve this game (a game that resembles "breakout") because the "paddle" used to hit the ball was too small. However, this problem can be solved on some computers by running the computer in "safe mode," thus making the paddle bigger. (Some computers may not enounter this problem at all, but I wanted to mention it in case yours has the same trouble mine did.)

All in all, a great game... appropriate for ages 10 and up... adults will like it, too! Perfect to play in groups or even alone... "The Haunted Carousel" earns 5 stars from me!

We love the Nancy Drew series and look forward to each new installment. We thoroughly enjoyed the Haunted Carousel but were very disappointed when we finished it in under four hours. It didn't seem to have nearly the depth of the others in the series.

For everyone who thinks this game stinks- you are wrong.
Nancy goes to New Jersey to try and figure out why the carousel's been haunted, and why a horse was stolen. Play games at the amusement park, ride the carousel, play a harmonica, learn shorthand. And then more. As usual, at first I was sure the suspect was someone else. I was so sure that I started being mean to that person. Wrong me. You'll have a good time and learn a lot.
Hint-
(...) (...)

My 10-year-old and I played this game after playing all of the previous Nancy Drew games. It has great graphics, an interesting plot, and challenging puzzles. The one drawback was that we finished it WAY too quickly, unlike the last two games. We're looking forward to the next installment and hope that it lasts longer than this one! That said, we would both recommend this game, with the caveat that you should play it in Senior Detective mode to make it last longer.

What a game...I originally bought this for my kids-but I just happened to get a peek while strolling by when they were playing it on the comuter- later that night I played it and I was completely hooked, it kept me up waaaay past my bedtime(regretted it the next day)-I did solve it-took me about a total of 8 hours of game play to do so. I suddenly found a love for carousel horses all over again myself-very interesting facts and tid bits in the game about them. I totally recommend you try this and also for your kids.

The past seven Nancy Drew games have almost all been home-runs with characterization, story, and gaming experience. I've especially enjoyed games 3 - 7 out of all of the ones that were released before this one. Does "The Haunted Carousel" live up to its predecessors? Some would say no, but I would say yes.

Nancy's father is a friend of Paula Santos, the owner of Captain's Cove Amusement Park in New Jersey. When a horse is stolen off of the park's carousel, she discovers that it starts up in the dead of night all by itself, as though haunted. The crafter of the carousel said that if any of his horses were separated, bad luck would follow. This seems to have a bit of truth to it, as shortly after the theft, a rollercoaster stops in mid-ride for no reason, and a rider is preparing to sue the park on the statement that his neck was injured. The park is now shut down until somebody gets to the bottom of these strange events. It's now up to our heroine - Nancy Drew - to figure out just what's going on at Captain's Cove Amusement Park...

This game features a plot that isn't quite as intricate and complicated as the last one, but it's still solid. I rather liked the idea that "if the horses are separated, bad luck will follow". It is a rather creepy premise, and the story is a bit deeper than it's commonly given credit for in the sense of following the life of Rolfe Kessler (the man who carved the carousel horses). Also - don't let the premise or the title fool you - the game in and of itself isn't really scary at all. It's actually a rather calm and upbeat title as a whole. As for my own personal feelings about this, I don't really feel one way or another. I typically enjoy the darker games, but this is actually one of the best of the more "upbeat" games.

The graphics in this game are wonderful. I loved how everything was designed, from the basic design of Nancy's hotel room to the beautiful design of the carousel. The haunted house is very creepy, despite the lack of extensive exploration done within it, and is really the only spot in the entire game where anything "scary" happens.

The gaming quality is different when compared to most of the recent games. Some may dislike this, but I thought it was a good thing, as playing the same game over and over again *would* get rather repetitive. Unfortunately, there is a lack of exploration in the game (the only areas that can be seen are a few offices, the carousel, the rollercoaster, the haunted house, an arcade, and Nancy's hotel room - only about 1 or 2 rooms in each). I would've liked to explore the park a little more, but these little bits are very interactive and also fun to explore. I liked that all of the offices remained empty at some time, giving Nancy ample time to snoop through all of the suspects' belongings and learn more about the other characters.

The characters all fit into the game rather nicely, and all gain some pretty decent development (except for maybe one, but that's arguable). This game returns to the four-suspect formula, and also gives Nancy a cell phone to talk to her phone friends (we can make calls from just about anywhere now - YAY!). This game features several one-time phone friends, such as Paula Santos, a police detective, and several others. I rather enjoyed the new phone friends, and would love to see some of them make another appearance.

The suspects in this game were all suspicious in their own ways, and all of them seemed to have their moments as the "prime suspect". Harlan Bishop is the park's security guard, and the first suspect met. He's obsessed with doing his job and doing it well. Joy Trent is the second suspect met, and she's the park's bookkeeper with very low self-esteem. Ingrid Corey is the extremely superstitious chief engineer of the park, and works on designing and managing all of the rollercoasters. Elliot Chen is the park's chief art director, with lots of talent and a love of procrastination. I liked all of the suspects in their own way, though a certain one did get on my nerves at times (won't say which one, as it'd tip my hand about who I'm referring to in the last paragraph).

While all of the suspects seemed to have their moments as the most suspicious character, only one of them really held onto the strongest aura of suspicion throughout the whole game. This character in turn was the culprit in the end, which leaves little room for surprise, but it was definitely a move that made sense. Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 all left room for which suspect had the strongest motive and all would be likely candidates for the culprit. Games 3, 4, and 6 definitely made the perfect choices when it came to the culprit, as none of the other characters seemed to have motives as strong as these particular characters. "The Haunted Carousel" is definitely one of the games that will go down with the latter group.

The puzzles in this game all fit. None of them felt out of place, and none of them were super difficult. There was one timed "guessing" puzzle which might be a little hard at first, but there were only six possible combinations for the puzzle so it's easy to figure out quickly if the combinations already used are noted down.

The music in the game is great, as it always has been. The musical score ranged from feel-good background park music, to catchy carousel tunes, to some slightly spooky (yet fun) tracks that could be heard in the haunted house. The tracks all felt in place, and definitely held onto the "amusement park fun" feel without completely abandoning the mystery aura that all Nancy Drew soundtracks need to contain.

While some may disagree, I found "The Haunted Carousel" to be a rather enjoyable game. My sole complaint is that it's a tad short, and I would've slightly preferred another character as the culprit. However, the short length does do the game some justice, as it causes it to fit nicely between "Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake" and "Danger on Deception Island", which both get rather long and complex. Despite a few setbacks, this "The Haunted Carousel" is well-worth jumping on and riding! :)

I'm a member of a game site online, and had been very interested in trying out one of the Nancy Drew games. My 6 yr old daughter was sitting with me when I checked out the reviews, and she said we should download this one.

As this was my first time playing any such game, I played the Junior Detective version. It was fun! It was not as difficult as I thought it would be, although some parts did have me stumped- I had to do a search online for hints/tips to help me out. LOL I like that if you mess up (as in, get fired or killed), you can get a second chance and don't have to start over from the beginning. I love the graphics, and the plot wasn't too involved or scary (for me or for my 6 yr old). I played through once by myself, and then my daughter and I played through together. She really enjoyed it, and it certainly has me wanting to buy more games!

I love a good mystery. The Nancy Drew Games supplies all of that. It is challenging and at times,mind boggoling. The many clues and games in this particular series, keeps one on its toes and always guessing. I highly recommend this game, to all Nancy Drew buffs out there. There is never a dull moment. Please keep the Nancy Drew games coming. Already looking forward to the next one. Hope it will be released before the Holidays. These games are the best past times for those dreary winter months. Thanks and keep on making them.

Maybe it's because this was one of my earlier nancy drew games, but i disagree when people say this game is too short. there's a lot of action and everything that you have to do takes a decent amount of time. every thing about this game was fun- except one arcade game. eventually we got it but it was hard! i'm going to rate the features on a scale of 1-10, 1 the worst and 10 the best.

GRAPHICS: 8.99 they're not the BEST but pretty good. actually i'd say they're very good. probably the newest ones have the absolute best graphics, but these are also extremely good.

PLOT/STORYLINE: 8 hmmm. basiclly, the amusmant park nancy is investigating is supposedly "haunted"and the carousel is going around...by itself....in the middle of th night! and the rollercoaster suddenly stops, causing an accidnet! the owner wants nancy to find out why the park is "malfunctioning". also, kind of a "mini-mystery": help one of the employees, joy, to help "get her memories back
' with...................wait for it................miles the magnificant memory machine!he's kind of a robot. machine. type thing. y. all the characters have motives...actually, this was one of th eones where i had no idea who was the bad person.....maybe you wil know????!!!!???!!!

CHARACTERS:10 ooh!!!! i LOVE the characters!!!!!! they are SOOOO COOL!!! here they are!
Ingrid: head engineer. supersticious. also...strange. (you'll see.) and... suspicous. also i love her voice! its hard to describe but its smooth and..see for your self! she recently apparently came into a lot of money. at least, she's buying expensive jewelrey. and looking aat expensive cars. hmm....
Elliot: art person. painter. you get the idea. behind on his work. could he be telling the truth when he says that hes just a procrasinator? or maybe he's just preoccupied....by something sinister????!!!!???
Joy: ah yes.she thinks the owner is cursing the park to attract cutomers. her name is ironic, as harlan describes her as "joy-less". but she really is. maybe because both her parents are dead?her dad was the owners partner. joy doesn't have any memories of her mom. hmm......maybe nancy can help....
Harlan: security guard.suspicous of ingrid. reminds me of a (skinny) teddy bear by his voice. seems nice...but he's...hiding somethinmg. at least, it seems that way. suspicous of ingrid. does he have a shady past?.....

GAMEPLAY: 7.5 took me about about 2 weeks, maybe 3weeks. more experianced palyers can probably solve in a week or less. harder than the secret of the old clock but easier than ghost dogs (to me)

SCARYNESS: 5 not really scary, exept the haunted house is kind of scary but not like goose-bump scary or anything. mostly the suspence is what makes it scary. the end is a teensy bit scary, but not more than most nancy drew games

PHONE: you have a cell phone! you can call bess and george, the owner of the park, a detective, various people who's phone numberse you find, and i think you can call the hardy boys but i'm not sure.

EXTRA: you have your own hotel room! which you can go in. you also have a laptop in your hotel room with various features! you can order food from room service! and...at the park there are games you can play, prizes to win...and you can riede a certain ride! and more!!!!!

OVERALL: not an overly difficult game, i'd say medium easy on a sclae of 1-10 10being the hardest i'd say 5-6 for more experianced players, 7-7.5 for new players

I RECCOMEND THIS GAME TO EVERYONE! EVEN IF YOU THINK IT IS EASY YOU WILL WANT TO PLAY IT AGAIN AND AGAIN! FUN FOR EVERYONE! WORTH YOUR MONEY!
PS i'm sorry this is so long!!! :-)