Nancy Drew (video game): Difference between revisions

# ''Alibi in Ashes'' (2011)

# ''Tomb of the Lost Queen'' (2012)

 

Two additional games with a less immersive format, ''Lights, Camera, Curses!'' and ''Resorting To Danger'', have been released under the "Nancy Drew Dossier" heading.

 

* [[Acme Products]]: Krolmeister.

* [[Adventure Game]]: Except for the Dossier spin-offs, all these games are played in a first-person perspective, similar to ''[[Myst]]''.

* [[Alpha Bitch]]: ''Warnings at Waverly Academy'''s Izzy Romero. Leela comes pretty close, too, but she is shown to be an otherwise nice girl (if not a tad obnoxious).

* [[Ambiguous Disorder]]: Rentaro in the ''Shadow at the Water's Edge'' is socially awkward, and even lampshades this by saying that he works with machines because they tolerate awkwardness.

* [[Amplified Animal Aptitude]]: Iggy the iguana, Isis the white wolf, and ''especially'' Loulou the parrot.

** Jamila in ''Lost Queen'' claims aliens taught humans to build the Egyptian pyramids, and cites Sonny Joon as the source of this belief.

* [[Ancient Tomb]]: Locating Nefertari's hidden burial chamber within one is Nancy's chief goal in ''Lost Queen''.

** {{spoiler|Also, Helena in ''The Phantom of Venice'', Em from ''Ghost Dogs at Moon Lake'' and Anja in ''The Captive Curse''. All are as friendly as can be and Anja even offers you relationship advice. Yet, Helena turns out to be the mastermind behind the robbings in Venice; Em is behind the fake ghost dogs so that she can get her hands on buried gold bars; and Anja is pretending to be the monster that stalks Castle Finster to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend.}}

* [[Bladder of Steel]]: Make a trip to the bathroom before making one of the mandatory plot-advancing phone calls in ''The Final Scene.''

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Lamont in ''Legend of the Crystal Skull''. His sole reason for existence is so Bess can do various cruel things to him in order to get a clue for Nancy, [[The Chew Toy|much to the player's amusement]].

* [[Canon Welding]]: ''Alibi in Ashes'' does this with a few of the different book series. Brenda Carlton is exclusive to the ''Files'' spin-off series, and Deirdre Shannon is exclusive to the ''Girl Detective'' series (Simon and Schuster considers ''Girl Detective'' an official continuation of the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories; however, in reality, they fit better somewhere between [[Series Reboot]] and Spin Off.) However, they're both suspects in ''Alibi in Ashes,'' which effectively weld both the ''Files'' and ''Girl Detective'' series to the original Nancyverse. It's especially interesting because they're pretty much Expies of each other (both are the [[Alpha Bitch]] that functions as a jealous nemesis to Nancy, although Deirdre is a more straightforward example, while Brenda is more an [[Alpha Bitch]] all grown up.)

* [[Captain Obvious]]: Nigel's memoirs in ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor'', which Nancy must transcribe, contain statements like "I was very small when I was born." Well, duh...

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Where to begin...?

* [[Clear My Name]]: In ''Alibi in Ashes'', this is basically what Nancy has to do... {{spoiler|when she's accused of arson!}}

* [[Comic Book Time]]: Time passes, yet Nancy apparently stays the same age and is ''still'' referred to as a "silly American teenager" ten years after the first game supposedly began.

** Especially amusing in that the exact same voice actors and silly-teen references are used in ''Secret of the Old Clock'', which is a 1930s period piece!

* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Averted in ''The Captive Curse.'' Opening the glass furnace without protection will result in Nancy being severely burned.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: In ''Alibi in Ashes'', Brenda says that the fire at Town Hall is the biggest thing to happen since "Old Man Crowley's will was found", a reference to the very first Nancy Drew book (which was also adapted into a game), ''The Secret of the Old Clock.''

* [[Creepy Child]]: Jane Penvellyn in ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor''. There's just something so damn ''creepy'' about her... {{spoiler|which proves to be not that far off when she turns out to be the culprit}}.

* [[Crystal Skull]]

* [[Dark Mistress]]: In ''Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake'', Mickey Malone's girlfriend, Vivian.

** Also played straight on occasion, when the proper response is to step ''back'' immediately upon hearing the cue that something's about to fall on you.

* [[Death Trap]]: Nearly every game features a form of a death trap.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: You can get Nancy booted from the games for some downright silly reasons, such as... [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|picking under-ripe vegetables!]]

** Holt will have you arrested if you bring him a female crab. Yeah, catching them are illegal, but...

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The first game, ''Secrets Can Kill,'' aside from having the darker tone, also had 2-D drawing of the suspects instead of the 3-D models from the rest of the series.

* [[Easter Egg]]: Constantly, if you know where to look.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: {{spoiler|Deidre in ''Alibi in Ashes'' hates Nancy since she's going out with Ned. But she states that although she hates Nancy, she doesn't ''hate'' Nancy enough to accuse her of burning down Town Hall.}}

* [[The Faceless]]: Nancy, as the games are in first person perspective. Bess and George were faceless until Ransom of the Seven Ships.

** [[Bigger Bad]]: {{spoiler|Hildegard Killian}}

* [[555]]: To the point where it's lampshaded ("Why does everyone's phone number begin with five five five?"). Even better, in ''Secret of the Old Clock'', the 1930s phone numbers start with "KL5", which converts to [[555]].

** In ''The Captive Curse'', Anja initially tells Nancy that {{spoiler|she sent in her resume, crossed her fingers, and hoped. Turns out she'd lied on the resume, giving new significance to her "crossing her fingers" (which some kids do when they lie, to ward off being found out)}}.

* [[Fridge Logic]]: Occasionally crops up when back-and-forth dialogue is kept sparse for pacing's sake, as when two different characters from ''Danger on Deception Island'' apparently know Nancy's e-mail address without being told.

** Surprisingly, there's not ''as'' much a "culprit" as in other games.

* [[Good News, Bad News]]: The good news: there just might be a way out of a "Game Over" scenario after all. The bad news: Just kidding! The bad news will always be there to dash those hopes!

* [[Goth]]: Mel from ''Warnings at Waverly Academy'' and Henry Bolet from ''The Legend of the Crystal Skull''.

* [[Granola Girl]]: Ingrid Corey in ''The Haunted Carousel.''

* [[Grumpy Bear]]: An assortment of suspects are often like these. One particular example that stands out is Holt from ''Danger on Deception Island'' who pretty much holds a gruff attitude in general, and in one possible Game Over scenario he will turn you over to the police... for catching a female crab. So yeah...

** Dexter Egan from ''Treasure in the Royal Tower'' is another good example, although he warms up to you. A little.

* [[Guide Dang It]]: Admit it, you've had your own moment with ''at least'' one puzzle per game.

** [[Lost Forever]]: Sometimes (thankfully rarely), if you do a particular sequence out of order, you will be unable to solve the rest of the game (creating two back-up save games can come in handy at times like this). One particularly bad example comes from ''Stay Tuned for Danger'': If you don't get two necessary items ''before'' going into Rick's room on the day after viewing the videotape (namely: {{spoiler|the screwdriver and the wire-cutters to defuse the bomb}}) and you've already saved ''after'' going into his room...you're screwed.

* [[Gypsy Curse]]: Various villains have given them to Nancy, but they didn't have any magical backing. Except maybe Mystico the Magnificent's...

* [[Hell Hotel]]: The main setting for ''Shadow At the Water's Edge.''

* [[Hell Hound]]: The eponymous dogs in ''Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake.''

* [[Idiot Ball]] / [[Too Dumb to Live]] / [[What an Idiot!]]: [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|Depending on how sadistic the player is feeling]], this can be deliberately invoked in Nancy in the many methods to get her killed or fired.

** Played ''painfully'' straight at the end of ''Ransom of the Seven Ships'' without the player having to do anything (or in this case, not being able to do anything). So Nancy, {{spoiler|that bum whom you've been helping}} turns out to be {{spoiler|a former culprit out for revenge, not to mention a culprit who proved to be [[Ax Crazy|unstable and dangerous]] in the past}} and is about to trap you. So what do you do? {{spoiler|Stand there and ''do nothing'' apart from whimpering "Oh no" when he launches a trap ''that you have been aware of since you first arrived on the beach.''}} What makes it ''really'' outrageous is how the past games at least gave you a ''chance'' to out-run the culprit.

** Sometimes, the suspects themselves can be prone to this. For instance, towards the end of ''Warnings at Waverley Academy'', one of the characters has her term paper erased by the Black Cat. The player has the option of asking if she kept a hard copy, and her answer is...[[Face Palm|"No! It would've been like printing out a book!"]] Anyone who has gone to college and written a term paper can tell you why this reasoning is just plain stupid.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Bess pulls off a lot of these, much to George's dismay.

* {{spoiler|[[Infant Immortality]]}}: At the end of ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor'', {{spoiler|Jane, the pre-teen culprit, accidentally gets stuck in a potentially life-threatening trap which Nancy must free her from...except no matter how long you take, she never dies, despite being stuck in an enclosed space that would guarantee suffocation within minutes}}.

** Then again, this could be justified in that the more [[Egregious]] bad acting can easily be fixed in editing so that the one take where Mattie is either outstanding, or at the very least not quite so awful, is shown on television.

* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: The games have had three of these as suspects, so far: Lisa Ostrum, Helena Berg, and Brenda Carlton. Nancy herself is like this and has noted that reporters are a lot like detectives. Interestingly, {{spoiler|all the reporters have been the culprit of their respective cases.}}

* [[Jet Pack]]: Nancy gets one of these in ''The Haunting of Castle Malloy''.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|The culprit in ''Ransom of the Seven Ships''}}.

** Tino Balducci of ''Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon'' claims that anything he did during that case is now all "water under the bridge" when Chantal insists that Nancy call him for help in ''White Wolf of Icicle Creek''.

** Also, villains who've attempted to ''kill'' Nancy herself, in the course of the game, are often described as going to jail for robbery, extortion, fraud, etc. You'd think attempted murder charges would rate a mention...

** Professor Hotchkiss, a fan favorite recurring character, calls ''Nancy'' her own favorite recurring character in ''Tomb of the Lost Queen''.

* [[Large Ham]]: Many of the voice actors have too much fun with their roles (especially the ones voicing the villains when revealed at the end, or the ones voicing the particularly over-the-top suspects), but the culprit at the very end of ''Stay Tuned For Danger'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX1Dzmkm-yo&feature=channel deserves an honourable mention]. Once in a while, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx8M9QPQqmw&feature=channel Nancy Drew herself gets in on the action].

* [[Lawful Stupid]]: Jeff Akers, a park ranger in ''Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake'', occasionally falls into this trope. His actions include fining Sally for littering because [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|she left a half-eaten ham sandwich on a picnic table]] and issuing Nancy a citation for destructive behavior after she was locked in a burning shed. However, it's quite possible that he behaves this way to compensate for the fact that {{spoiler|his grandfather was a gangster.}}

* [[Lethal Chef]]: In ''Danger on Deception Island'', if you use any expired or blatantly inedible ingredients (such as baking soda and fresh jellyfish) to make a sandwich and give it to either Nancy or her hostess, one or the other gets food poisoning and the game ends. Likewise, in ''Secret of Shadow Ranch'', overbaking a cake can result in Nancy getting fired. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|It's funny]].

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: The first game, ''Secrets Can Kill'', although not spooky, was actually ''much'' [[Darker and Edgier]] than later installments, as the crime under investigation is a cold-blooded murder and Nancy herself {{spoiler|must point a handgun at the culprit to prevail; the player must even click while doing this, which ''feels'' like you're shooting him, even if it's just to confirm where you're aiming so he'll surrender}}. One instance where going [[Lighter and Softer]] for the sequels was an improvement.

** The Remastered version of it, while still keeping certain plot elements from the original, looks like it ''might'' be Lighter and Softer than the original... {{spoiler|and then this is ''massively'' subverted at the end when the culprit ''holds Nancy up at gunpoint.''}}

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: Nancy mentions that Ned gave her a locket just before she goes to Italy. [[Trailers Always Spoil|There's a picture of the phantom thief holding a locket on the cover of the game.]] Was there ever any doubt that the locket would become this? {{spoiler|Interestingly, the cover's locket looks nothing like Nancy's. She ''does'' manage to retrieve it, at least.}}

* [[Miles Gloriosus]]: Police detective Tino Balducci in ''Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon.''

* [[Multiple Endings]]: ''Very'' occasionally, a game will feature a little bit of dialogue that subtly changes Nancy's monologue after you’ve beaten the game. That is, the end of the game itself stays the same, but what happens in the epilogue will be a little different. For example, about halfway through ''Danger by Design'', you can choose whether or not {{spoiler|to get Minette’s assistant Heather fired}}. Though the game goes on either way, {{spoiler|if you choose to spare Heather, she lets Nancy model in her Spring show. If you fire her, she stays angry at you and you aren't invited}}.

** The ''Nancy Drew Dossier'' downloadable games, a spinoff subseries with a less immersive format, also allow for multiple endings, based on whom you choose to name as a prime suspect halfway through the investigation.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: Items from previous games pop up all the time:

** Professor Hotchkiss's purple ski boots from ''Treasure in the Royal Tower'' are in a garden shed in ''The Ghosts Dogs of Moon Lake''

** It's possible to unearth a broken carousel horse head in a dumpster in ''The Phantom of Venice.'' The horse is Glory from ''The Haunted Carousel''

** Jane in ''The Curse of Blackmoor Manor'' forces you to play a number of games based on previous [[Her Interactive]] releases.

*** Jane herself has a crush on Brady Armstrong, an actor who appears in ''The Final Scene''.

** All of the guests in the seating plan puzzle in ''The Haunting of Castle Malloy'' are characters from previous games.

** In addition to this, suspects will return in later games for phone cameos - you can phone ''Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon's'' Tino Balducci in ''White Wolf of Icicle Creek'' and the aforementioned Professor Hotchkiss (a fan favourite) in ''The Legend of the Crystal Skull'' and ''Tomb of the Lost Queen''. Charleena Purcell does this in reverse; you can phone her in ''Secret of Shadow Ranch,'' and in ''Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon,'' she returns as a suspect. {{spoiler|Dwayne Powers from ''Stay Tuned for Danger'' is the most striking example, as he returns to be the culprit in ''Ransom of the Seven Ships,'' almost twenty games after his debut.}}

** On occasion, this is lampshaded; Nancy asks Bill Kessler in ''White Wolf of Icicle Creek'' if he's related to Rolfe Kessler, the carousel horse maker, from ''The Haunted Carousel.'' The man cheerily replies that he has no idea.

** If you give Mystico the Magnificent a "wrong" answer, he will say "Ack! What do you think I am?" and then he lists the descriptions of characters of previous games who could give you what you asked for.

** One of the telegram recipients from ''Old Clock'' gives you a "hot tip" in exchange for his message: a clue for succeeding at a challenge from ''Blackmoor Manor''.

* [[Never Live It Down]]: In-universe example: Alexei in ''Alibi in Ashes'' is this way whenever somebody breaks one of his antiques. Also, Alexei himself suffered from this. {{spoiler|He was a detective as a teenager, just like Nancy, and was accused of theft by a man he'd busted.}}

* [[Non-Human Sidekick]]: Suki, a robot cat owned by Miwako Shimizu, in ''Shadow At the Water's Edge.'' Her boyfriend is trying to craft a robotic dog counterpart.

** Also Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine is this for Joy.

* [[Nouveau Riche]]: Margherita Faubourg in ''The Phantom of Venice.''

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: As Nancy's journeys begin taking her to new and exciting places in the later games, they also subject the player to new and horrific fake accents. Among the most [[Egregious]] examples of this are Kyler's spotty "British" accent in ''The Haunting of Castle Malloy'' and Yumi's inconsistent [[Japanese Ranguage]] in ''Shadow at the Water's Edge.''

* [[Perky Goth]]: While not outright ''perky'', Mel from ''Warnings at Waverly Academy'' is revealed to not quite be the stereotypical goth she appears to be at first (for one thing she loves milk and cookies but has to hide that cause of her 'goth appearance')

* [[The Prankster]]: Lukas Mittelmeier in ''The Captive Curse.''

* [[Promoted Fanboy]]: arglefumph, who does awesome video walkthroughs for the games, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViTLKEHGdRI has his picture] in ''Secrets Can Kill: Remastered.''

* [[Ryokan]]: A haunted one in ''Shadow at the Water's Edge''

* [[Sauna of Death]]: One puzzle in game 16, ''White Wolf of Icicle Creek'' features Nancy being locked in a sauna and trying to get out.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: One usually agreed upon thing is that the games are absolutely gorgeous, with mansions, castles, theaters, and Orient Express-style trains abound. Add to that the locations she visits: New Orleans, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, Hawaii, England, Egypt.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Later games contain shout-outs to earlier games.

** Many of the telegram recipients from ''Secret of the Old Clock'' are shout-outs to pop culture, referencing everything from Shirley Temple to Jason Voorhees.

** The Ichi-Do book Nancy buys in ''Danger by Design'' used to be a library book... and apparently, the last two people to check it out were named [[Bruce Lee|"B. Lee"]] and [[Chuck Norris|"C. Norris"]]...

** One of the phone numbers in Jean Mi's pda is [[Lost|4 8 15 16 23 42]].

* [[Story Arc]]: This has begun to appear in the most recent games. After solving ''Trail of the Twister'', you are rewarded with a trip to Japan. While solving a mystery in Japan, a ghost expert mentions a frightening castle in Germany. . .

** ...where, after a phone spat with Ned, Nancy makes up with him by agreeing they'll work together for a mystery-solving contest when she gets back to River Heights. Cue ''Alibi in Ashes''.

* [[Technology Marches On]]: Back in the first few games, there were no cell phones to be seen, and there were plenty of VHS tapes and floppy disks that were used. Usually they were able to avert it, since the stories tend to take place in locations that were old enough (like old rustic mansions or antique trains) or far enough away to be considered "off the grid" and less sensitive to changes in technology, but the first two really show their age.

* [[The Thing That Goes Doink]]: An important clue in ''Shadow at the Water's Edge'' is hidden in this.

* [[Unperson]]: The nameless medieval fugitive {{spoiler|who inspired the "monster" legend}} from ''The Captive Curse''.

* [[The Unseen]]: Sonny Joon, a doodle-drawing gag character whom Nancy seems to be following around from one game to the next.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: Some of the various ways to kill off Nancy or otherwise get her fired ''are'' pretty funny, and it gets even more hilarious with the "Good News, Bad News" to accompany it.

** [[Cruelty Is the Only Option]]: ''Legend of the Crystal Skull'' pretty much requires you (while playing as Bess) to be cruel to Lamont in order for the game to progress.

* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: Hope you're up to date on your WWII codebreaking trivia!

* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: In the case of Eda Brooks from the Dossier spin-off ''Lights, Camera, Danger!'', it really ''is'' snakes. This creates a bit of a problem between her and the movie's director, as she is required to hold a live snake for the movie's climax.