Carmen Sandiego and her gang are loose once again, and it is the players job to capture her! This time around the player not only has to find where she is, but also when she is. Traveling to various locations, they need to assemble clues by questioning witnesses and searching locations to close in and capture Carmen Sandiego. Included with the game is The New America Desk Encyclopedia to help make clues more meaningful (and act as a form of copy protection!).
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I just like trivia too much not to enjoy these games. It follows the same formula as the other titles in the series, but across different eras as the title implies.
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego on the NES? It's got a cool idea – you chase Carmen and her crooks across history while learning fun facts. But man, it's tough! The clues are vague, the time travel feels pointless at times, and you spend half your time in the library just looking stuff up. It's great for history buffs or if you're feeling nostalgic, but unless you have an old guidebook on hand, prepare for some frustration.
I used to play this at my friend's house. Our fun came from two basic activities. First, we enjoyed taking turns looking things up in the encyclopedia. Second and perhaps more importantly, we LARPed the hell out of the time machine. Every time we followed the clues to a new time, we'd do a countdown, make up technobabble, and throw ourselves out of our chairs like actors on Star Trek. No game is more than a stage for its players' imaginations.
I think I had a slightly newer remake/port of this game for Windows. Don't remember much about it!
That tv show, man. Got me to find any games I could and play them. I don't know if they're good or just felt good.
I loved all the Carmen Sandiego games, a special mix of sleuthing and learning. The formulaic approach made the game very accessible because even if you didn’t know the answer, you could game the system and potentially win. Maybe find a more recent version but this series is worth experiencing.