Nancy Drew®: The Haunted Carousel

great vintage mystery game

Mmmmhh this one is a little too easy? I think this game is one of the easiest by far in terms of puzzles and the game is quite short and pretty simple.

I enjoyed it very much! Got to play different arcade games, learn how to fix things, also something about
shorthand in stenography. Ride the Carousel. Keeps you busy.

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel was a fun ride! It's up to you as Nancy Drew to help get to the bottom of a malfunctioning amusement park. Broken down roller coasters, and the titular haunted carousel that gets set off at night with seemingly no one at the controls. The charm of the older Nancy Drew is that little bit of thinking required without the help of the journal readily available. Hints are just a call away to either Bess and George or the Hardy Boys.

Pros: The park is fun to explore with several locations to go between. The puzzles are fun and I loved the bit that taught you the beginnings on how to read shorthand. There were several suspects that all seemed to have motivations and this mystery keeps you guessing until the end. I loved the musical puzzle. It seems like you are able to work through several of the puzzles and clues in any order, but that lead to two of the characters being absent for over half the game because I took a long time to figure out the particular clues that brought them back into play.

Cons: Though I did like the riddles given from the robot, I think it's voice was grating and annoying to listen to. Unfortunately, you have to solve 3 different puzzles for it. Navigation is a little awkward in areas, and the Pong inspired mini-game has horrendously staggered movement. I like that we get a preview of the matching game that appears in Curse of Blackmoor Manor, but this version is laggy and slow and hard to maneuver. Blackmoor Manor plays this mini-game much smoother.

Overall, this one is a solid ND game. Not one of my top favorites, but one I will play again at some point.

There were relatively more "game over" trap than the other previous games. I didn't need any cheating or looking for hints from the internet this time and I'm proud of it!

Haunted Carousel is such a comfort game for me. Nancy Drew fans like to bash this one for being too short and too simple, but in my opinion, that's part of what makes it so replayable. None of the puzzles want to make you tear your hair out, the music is FANTASTIC, and suspicion is distributed pretty evenly among the suspects. The environment is rather limited, and while I do wish that we were able to explore more of the park, that's pretty much the only complaint I have. Overall, I think it's a lot of fun to play, and it always puts me in a better mood. It's one of my favorites, and I don't think it gets nearly as much praise as it deserves!

LOVE this one. Hate how short it is but enjoy all the mini games Nancy gets to play. The characters are very easily likable too.

short but sweet

Case solved. Simple & fast to complete.

It's a fun game. It has a good villain, interesting characters, lots of potential death (poor Nancy), and helpful hints (unlike some of the other games where they aren't so helpful). The mini-games are well enough. Miles' voice is kind of annoying, but everything else is great.

what I didn't like:
- awkward navigation
- can only see the journal notes and task list by going back to the hotel room (important to check, as game Nancy doesn't always see the same things I as player see)
- unable to ask questions when I want to (even when there was a task to call Paula about it)
- the requirement to play the stupid arcade games -- the final straw for me
On the plus side
+ I learned about how to use a lathe
+ the story line and characters were interesting -- I'm sure by the end of the game everyone must have been guilty of something!

One of the easier ND games but I still love it. Always makes me feel nostalgic.

This is the best ND games I've played yet and I've played close to half of them at this point. It was just fun and had achievable puzzles, plus great guidance from the checklist and calling the Hardy Boys plus B&M. Highly recommend!

Great stuff. Trust no one.

A shorter mystery with some pretty fun puzzles, The Haunted Carousel is a solid entry in the Nancy Drew video game series, although i do wish it were longer and had a couple other arcade games in the midway you could play.

i relate to Joy now (not at the end tho)