Lacking that 'DS' approach, it's still a good game to play whilst on the move.
Graphics: 7
Sounds: 7
Value: 4
Tilt: 6
For almost eighty years, Nancy Drew has entertained the young and young at heart with her adventures. From the earliest adaptation in the style of novels and its many variations (e.g. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy Drew Files and so forth) it comes to no surprise that her stories will come to print in the form of the latest technologies offered for the current times (e.g. television series, crossovers with the Hardy Boys, feature films, PC games and so forth) therefore Nancy Drew will take up her latest adventures using the touch screen of the innovative Nintendo DS.
The story ‘Deadly Secret of Olde World Park' is an original story that was never been published before where Nancy was called by her friend Bess to investigate a missing dress which Bess needs to wear for the grand opening of the Olde World Park in her local town at River Heights. Naturally all is not what it seems as Nancy will start to uncover the dark secrets behind the World Park and the missing owner and billionaire Thaddeus Belmont.
The game play for Deadly Secret of Olde World Park is pretty much stock standard for any adventure game; you talk to suspects, gather clues and solve puzzles. Yet being on the Nintendo DS, some of the puzzles can be solved using the stylus. These puzzles are called ‘mini games’ which is a good term as these games bare some resemblance to the game itself; for example the game ‘Pathway’ states there is only one way to get the suspect’s cooperation by finding the correct path to reach the ‘star’ icon. Other ones includes ‘defuse’ the situation (entails blocking electrical currents), gaining ‘rapport’ (finding the common ground by unscrambling the tiles) and so forth. So it’s quite a clever gimmick to this adventure game however there are some ‘mini games’ I have no idea what I was doing (as it involves colours) yet they are very easy to complete and if you happen to fail there are no consequences at all (other than playing the game again).
The graphics is what you’ll expect from the DS. They are not exactly ground breaking however it’s a nice implementation using 3D characters upon 2D backdrops. The 3D characters however need some serious AA (as they are pretty jagged at times) yet the 2D backdrops are well drawn out. Nice effects and good choice of colours makes this game visually pleasing and the artists seems to have the skills that even the angriest person has a hint of smile in them.
The quality of sounds however is where it’s lacking. The game does produce great musical scores as they are very uplifting and plays the correct tones for the situation at hand however I was hoping for more of the background sounds and especially voice acting as the entire game is produced by the forms of scripts; similar to what you will expect when reading a comic – that is that ‘freeze frame’ effect with ‘speech marks’. There is nothing wrong with that however considering the game is using the uniqueness approach of the DS (that is no heavy reliance of the D-Pad or mouse/keyboard combo) I was hoping more of that DS touch (similar to Hotel Dusk 215 where the game is played sideways).
The game itself is quite short for an adventure game (or any other game in that matter). Depending on your sleuth skills naturally determines the length of play however Olde World Park is a very easy game to beat. Even the mini games are quite easy to accomplished therefore you can take approximately three to five hours to complete. I actually played through this game twice as even though you can literally click away the ‘decisions’ as the game is almost in a linear fashion, I like to try and solve the game before Nancy does considering there are many suspects to ponder as the web of intrigue unfolds itself therefore for me it took around the five hours mark. I even went on scribbling on a piece of paper the names of each suspects and their roles (I take mystery games seriously you know). For your information, after all that I got it wrong – well not entirely as I reckon I hit the 70% mark so Nancy out-smarted me again.
Being the first Nancy Drew’s DS game, overall it’s a good attempt. All the characters associated with Nancy (George, Bess and even her father) are all there so that nostalgic affect will certainly arise. However being on the DS I was expecting more of that ‘innovative’ approach or as I call it the ‘DS’ approach as it feels more of just a simplistic adventure game with an additional tool – that is the stylus. Moving forward I hope future Nancy Drew games on the DS has somewhat an exclusive design but that said it's still a good game to play whilst on the move.