Nostalgia can creep up on you, and suddenly you hear the siren call of a game collecting dust in your Steam library. You remember having fun playing it, so boot it up to see if it stands the test of time. Recently, I started yearning to play the Nancy Drew games again and was delighted to find them during a sale. I picked out a few that I remembered enjoying and a few I had never played before. I started playing detective and roped my boyfriend into this adventure because I had to share these gems with him. I really missed hearing Nancy tell me something is locked.
The Nancy Drew games put you in the practical shoes of none other than Nancy Drew as she jet sets around the world; sometimes she’s already on the job, and other times she happens to stumble onto a mystery. Each game starts the same: Nancy introduces her desk, and it always feels like coming home. There is a case file giving a brief overview of the story you’re about to dive into, as well as a scrapbook that gives summaries of previous games. Looking back, the scrapbook was brilliant marketing because I’d always see a game I wanted to get after flipping through. Nancy has been just about everywhere, from a ryokan in Japan to riding a possibly haunted train out west. I’m still impressed by how different each game felt; the environments, to me, made a lot of the games memorable. Looking back, I’m still impressed by HeR interactive—the publisher—added animations for Nancy jumping from train car to train car and day-night cycles. I think it would have been easier for them to not specify any time changes in the game, but they love giving Nancy snooping hours. These can be accomplished by setting an alarm clock for Nancy. I watched the time mechanic evolve from an alarm clock on the nightstand to Nancy’s smartphone. I feel like I’ve been playing Nancy Drew games forever. They had so much genuine heart poured into them, I couldn’t put them down.
My first Nancy Drew game was Danger by Design, which was released in 2006. The box art called to me from the shelf of the computer game section in Target. Most of the Nancy Drew games had memorable box art that makes me wish now I hadn’t opened the games and immediately tossed the cases into the trash. The only cases that stick out to me as poorly designed are The Haunting of Castle Malloy and The Shattered Medallion. The CD holder was in no way as cool. All the disks were different colors, though, so that was cool. These games had a lot of personality before you even started playing them. I think that’s why people continue to play these older games; they didn’t always look the best, but they had charm. Enough charm to keep HeR Interactive making new games from 1998 to 2024. I always felt like there was a new Nancy Drew game every other time I went to Target, and looking at the Wiki, I know why. The release schedule was intense. There were two Nancy Drew games released a year up until 2015, when things got a little rocky. It’s crazy to me that they were able to finish making games that quickly. This may have spoiled me and thrown off my expectations for game releases. Not every game had the same end quality. There were some standout titles and some that kind of felt like duds. I think The Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon is pretty popular, and Ghost of Thornton Hall is a beloved title. Trail of the Twister must be at the bottom of everyone’s favorite Nancy Drew game list. It was short, and the puzzles were all chores.
Once Nancy sets foot in her destination, she starts to get to know all the suspects. There have been memorable Nancy Drew characters, such as cowboy heartthrob Dave Gregory from The Secret of Shadow Ranch. I think the biggest fan favorite was first introduced as Treasure in the Royal Tower, Professor Beatrice Hotchkiss, who had cameoed in several different games as the expert on some niche subjects. There are, of course, also less memorable characters who don’t make much of an impact. I remembered all the characters looking better when I was younger, but playing the games now, they all look kind of equally rough. Again, the environments and sound design carried these games. They did so much that there were a handful of games I was way too scared to play because of how the sound made the hair on my arms stand on end, even in the daytime. I was way too scared to keep playing Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake after the first time the dogs came to the cabin. I didn’t get braver until Shadows at the Water’s Edge came out in 2010. That was the first game I ever preordered, and the physical copy was mailed to me. I was sweating because it came in right before I left with my family on vacation. I was determined to solve the mystery while on the road. I was very scared the whole time and screamed a lot. I became unbrave again when the Captive Curse came out in 2011. Recently, I started Legend of the Crystal Skull, another game that looked really scary, and I’ve been very brave; it’s not as horrifying as I thought it would be. Other than the Jack in the box containing a spider.
Above all, the most memorable element to any Nancy Drew game is the puzzles; they can make or break the game. A game with fun puzzles that made a player think without tearing their hair out is praised and often replayed. There are a few dreaded puzzles whispered about in the community, like the actual rocket science you have to complete in the Haunting of Castle Malloy. Danger by Design has a puzzle that has players develop photos in the dark, and if you mess up, Nancy blows up. One of the best things about introducing my boyfriend to the Nancy Drew games has been showing him second-chance scenarios. You don’t expect Nancy to be able to die in these games, but she’s just a girl, and sometimes no one warns her not to antagonize an alligator. I mostly play the Nancy Drew games in junior sleuth difficulty instead of senior sleuth, and most of the time, the puzzles vary from easy to just challenging enough. Some of the puzzles are timed and come with the extra anxiety of the culprit chasing you. I always feel accomplished when I solve a puzzle, no matter how easy it is; maybe that’s why I love the games so much. Nancy’s excitement about getting closer to solving the mystery is infectious. If you get really stuck on a certain puzzle, HeR Interactive has forums where fans can help each other out. Usually, they start with a hint before giving the full solution away. I appreciate that fans handle it that way because sometimes the hint is all I need to get my brain turning in the right direction. Looking back on how I used to play these games, I think I was impatient, wanting to move the story forward more than solve the puzzles myself. I looked up the answers to puzzles a lot. Replaying Danger by Design, which I do not have memorized after all this time, I found myself able to solve puzzles I struggled with previously. I’ve grown into a pretty skilled detective.
The Nancy Drew games kept me entertained through many long car rides, and I think they hold up, not just because of nostalgia. My boyfriend, who’s never played them, is also having a good time. He has pointed out some of Nancy’s flaws, but I think looking at the games with a new perspective makes them even more fun. The series has run into some trouble in the last few years with the two latest games, Midnight in Salem and Mystery of the Seven Keys. I haven’t played them personally, but HeR went through a lot of changes during the newer games’ development. There were big layoffs for the original team; they started learning Unity instead of their own engine, and Nancy Drew’s iconic voice actor, Lani Minella. Getting used to a new voice actress after a decade is rough, especially when the rest of the cast stays the same. I recommend these games to anyone looking to spend their time solving a quirky mystery. If you’ve played them, what’s your favorite Nancy Drew game?
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