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I've really enjoyed the few adventure games that I've played, but for some reason, I can never finish any of the Nancy Drew titles. Not because of lack of interest, no. For some reason there seems to be a point in every one that I've played where it is possible to get stuck without any hope of progressing, which the game designers should probably be ashamed of, whether I missed something or not.

The emotional involvement that I get from these games is rather curious, since we never see Nancy... (show more)

I've really enjoyed the few adventure games that I've played, but for some reason, I can never finish any of the Nancy Drew titles. Not because of lack of interest, no. For some reason there seems to be a point in every one that I've played where it is possible to get stuck without any hope of progressing, which the game designers should probably be ashamed of, whether I missed something or not.

The emotional involvement that I get from these games is rather curious, since we never see Nancy's face, which throws me out of the experience a little bit. On the other hand, it's curiously immersive in that I truly feel like Nancy Drew after finishing a particularly challenging puzzle.

The puzzles are easily the best part of these games, and Scarlet Hand is no exception. Here, the puzzles are laid out in a series of museum displays, which give them a good reason to exist. Overall, this is a nice distraction to play through once. (3 stars) (show less)

This was one of the first N64 games that I was exposed to and consequently one of my favorites, even if it was a carbon copy of Mariokart 64.

Despite that, Diddy Kong Racing is definitely a solid racer in its own right, and it even has a hint of a story hidden behind all of the tracks and upgrades and balloons. The racing suffers from a borderline case of Mariokart syndrome, as would be expected, but it's not really obvious all of the time. The powerups are cool, and the idea of upgrading y... (show more)

This was one of the first N64 games that I was exposed to and consequently one of my favorites, even if it was a carbon copy of Mariokart 64.

Despite that, Diddy Kong Racing is definitely a solid racer in its own right, and it even has a hint of a story hidden behind all of the tracks and upgrades and balloons. The racing suffers from a borderline case of Mariokart syndrome, as would be expected, but it's not really obvious all of the time. The powerups are cool, and the idea of upgrading your weapon based on the number of same-colored balloons you can hit in a row is a nice touch.

This is not quite up there with Mariokart and Episode 1 racer though, since the controls are a more wonky than the above titles, and the story is little more than "you need to race in order to defeat a giant wizard pig." (3.5 stars) (show less)