door

 aaaaaand we're back! i forget how to write these.

castle malloy sees nancy in ireland to serve as maid of honor to kyler mallory, a brit who stayed with the drews as an exchange student some years before. nancy doesn't really understand why she's been asked to do this, as she and kyler are not close and seemingly have not kept in touch. but far be it from nancy to say no to something, so now she's outside a falling-down castle after wrecking her rental car outside the gates, throwing rocks at kyler's window because the old man who answered the door told her that the wedding was cancelled and to go away. fortunately for nancy's sunk costs, the wedding isn't cancelled it's just that the groom's disappeared. which is great for nancy who, like a herding dog, needs constant enrichment or she'll chew a door.



the facts are these: kyler inherited castle malloy (and simultaneously learned she was irish and that her grandfather had changed the family name to mallory) and was assured that it was habitable. which very well might be true but what is definitely also true is that half of it was exploded in WWII. like...literally.



it never rains in ireland so this is fine. nancy is going about, doing maid of honorly tasks for kyler (like printing the programs on a little letterpress, which is fun, and arranging the reception seating based on a set of logic problems, which is not), and also keeping an eye out for matt, the disappeared fiance. this eventually involves solving the mystery of what really happened in the 1940s, and what's that strange noise everyone keeps hearing? is there a ghost? (major spoilers follow)

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 i took a little break from nancy drews, in part because i knew the next one on the list very, very well.



the phantom of venice is one of the series' strongest games. in it, nancy goes to venice, italy in the midst of a theatrical crime spree at the behest of prudence rutherford (previous "seen" in several games, beginning with secret of the scarlet hand), who previously owned a villa there and still has some sway with the house's current owner as well as, presumably, the italian police. nancy is there to keep an eye on one of the suspected members of the crime ring, whose office is clearly visible from the villa's upper floors. once there, she begins to suspect that the head of the ring is one of the other residents of the house, and proceeds to unravel the entire case.
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i don't like this game, but for some reason i continually forget that i don't like it, so i've replayed it a few times. every time i do, i think to myself: that's the last time i'm ever going to replay that. and then i forget, and do it again. maybe putting it in writing is the ticket. so, DOOR: DO NOT REPLAY THE WHITE WOLF OF ICICLE CREEK.



there's nothing BAD in it per se, it just feels like a rehash of a couple other games i enjoy more, and includes several puzzles that frustrate the hell out of me every time. but i'll get to that. the white wolf of icicle creek sees nancy traveling to alberta, canada to investigate a series of incidents which seem like sabotage at a remote bed and breakfast. nancy gets the gig courtesy of bess & george's aunt and uncle the rawleys, whose ranch nancy saved 6 games ago. and they're not the only call-back--nancy also has to work with tino balducci (from the train), who is consulting by phone after he flirted his way into the gig (and is actually getting paid, which nancy of course is not).

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i think this is the first of these i've replayed that has really aged poorly for reasons unrelated to tech limitations at the time. the trouble was they made a video game about fashion in the early 2000s, objectively the least fashionable period in history. get ready.



the premise of danger by design is that nancy has been asked by a person called amy grunhild--probably a friend of nancy's dad but i honestly can't remember--who is one of the fashion designer minette's financial backers to look into why minette has been falling so behind. nancy is placed as an intern in minette's paris studio, which nobody looks askance at because minette is so notoriously a terrible person to work for that her assistants are quitting all the time. so this is the atmosphere that nancy arrives in.
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in 2005, the character of nancy drew turned 75, having made her debut in 1930's The Secret of the Old Clock. to celebrate, her interactive's nancy drew went back in time to 1930 to solve her first ever mystery (which was actually based on 4 nancy drew books--Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, and The Mystery at the Lilac Inn.



this game does a lot of things differently from previous and subsequent games. first off--nancy can drive! yes, nancy's blue roadster finally makes an appearance, and she tools all around town in it. nancy is also carrying cash money for the first time, which she can earn by delivering telegrams, and subsequently spend on gas and assorted other sundries. of course it's 1930, so most things cost a nickel. also, nancy's DAD is here. sort of. you can call him.



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deception island may be my fave nancy, but this next stretch are all close seconds. i've replayed them all a LOT and they're all good.



the secret of shadow ranch is another vacation mystery, and it all starts before nancy even arrives. she has been invited to stay with bess and george's aunt and uncle (periodic reminded that bess and george are cousins), the rawlings, who live on a small ranch in arizona. they bought it 3 months earlier, after selling their successful dress shop. nancy was supposed to arrive at the same time as bess and george, albeit on different flights, but their plane was diverted due to a mechanical issue so nancy arrives alone AND to the news that Uncle Ed and Aunt Bet are in the hospital because Ed was bitten by a rattlesnake that found its way into their bedroom the night before. at the same time, a glowing phantom horse showed up! lots happening to occupy nancy, who is all alone on the ranch belonging to these people she's never met with only their hired hands for company. totally normal vacation stuff.
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out of the woods of pennsylvania and up the coast to the jersey shore, it's time for



nancy is called onto the case by the amusement park's owner, who is (you guessed it!) a friend of her dad's. in paula santos' defense, she does seem like a good person and a fair boss. no comment on her decision to bring in her friend's teenage daughter to solve the case of who is messing with her park. the messing is as follows: someone stole a horse off the the (antique!) carousel, then it started powering up and spinning on its own (that's the full extent of the haunting), and finally the roller coaster came to a halt in the middle of a ride, leading one guy to claim damages in the range of a million dollars, at which point paula closed the park and called in the teenager.
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i took a break to do nothing but play powerwash simulator for a while but we're back on the nancy train now.



this is the one game in which nancy does something which i have also done: gotten an internship at a museum in washington dc. i'm sure i replayed this game at some point after one or all of my various museum internships there, but i cannot remember my reaction. my reaction this time was mostly that the game's choices about where various things were located on the metro were VERY funny. the museum? red line, practically in maryland. nancy's hotel? other end of the red line, also practically in maryland. the art dealer was extremely far south on the green line while the mexican consulate was over by the pentagon (which is in virginia, for the record. i have not checked but i assume the consulate is not). i did remember being charmed by the overlay of images from gallery place and metro center whenever nancy traveled, and that rang true. but that's about the only thing in this game that feels like dc, to me.
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ok. nancy drew number one. i did not finish this play through, for two reasons. first: it is a bad game. second: i thought i was playing the remastered version, which i know i have and just assumed was first in my nancy drew binder (a real thing i have) but must be further in. this is relevant because when i got frustrated and looked up hints, i was looking at the wrong game. by the time i gave up in a huff, i was not in a place to investigate just which game i was playing, so i did not realize my mistake until....right now. perhaps i'll attempt to come back to the remastered game. not today, though.

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at the rate i'm playing these i may get through all of them before the new sound card arrives to let me play games 1-2. ah, well.


treasure in the royal tower (2001) falls into the other category of nancy drew story/game: Nancy is Just Trying to Take a Vacation. like jessica fletcher, however, it is never to be. which is all to the good, i think, because like a herding dog nancy drew needs to be employed at all times. i think if she actually tried to relax while snowed in at this hotel she would have lost it. fortunately for all of us, she observes (after writing her usual letter--this time to george--on personalized stationery catching us all up on the state of things) that her radiator is clanking and goes down to reception to see about getting it fixed. the hotel manager, dexter, is so swamped with things that he immediately starts assigning nancy tasks to do in return for him fixing her radiator maybe, someday. nancy, Dog with a Job, leaps at the opportunity. (i somehow missed the opportunity to give the letter to dexter to be sent during this conversation and subsequently carried it through the rest of the game. sorry george.)

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