Back in 1985, Broderbund Software released the game, Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?, which was quite successful. Even though it was educational, which isn't the thing most gamers are looking for, people of all ages played it, and loved it. 6 years later, Broderbund gave the game a makeover, and re-released it. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? now features VGA graphics, mouse-support, and easy to navigate pull-down menus. The game itself stayed practically the same, true to the 'If it's not broken, don't fix it' philosophy. From all points of view, the remake is superior to the original.

In Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? you take on the role of a detective, working for Interpol. The goal of the game, is to track down criminals to their hideout, and arrest them. All these criminals have stolen a national treasure, from various countries. This is where you come in. Starting out in the city where the treasure was stolen, you have to gather information and clues, in order to find out where the thief is heading, and follow him there, repeating this process until you finally reach his hideout, where the suspect may be apprehended. But only if you issued a warrant for his arrest, which can be acquired by collecting information about the suspects appearance. Without a warrant, you can't make a legit bust, and the delinquent walks free.

When you start out your career, your first case is presented to you, along with your first clue, the sex of the offender is made clear, which is important information if you ever want to fill out that warrant. From here, the real detective works starts. Clues are presented to you, by interviewing the locals. When you find out where you're supposed to go next, you board a plane, and travel to another major world-city. There are roughly 30 different cities in the game, and as you will notice, each city is presented to you with a nice picture of it, and some additional information about the city's history. Which can be an interesting read, and it even can be useful, later on in the game. Each city has three locations to visit, from libraries to marketplaces, but visiting a certain location takes time. Every action you take in the game takes it own certain amount of hours, and when night falls, you'll have to take an 8-hour rest. Even hot shot detectives have to get some sleep. Obviously, you can't visit every single location in the game, because you only have one week to find the suspect, and making travel-errors only makes it more difficult.

After about a dozen of succesfully solved cases, you'll get a chance to apprehend Carmen Sandiego herself, the criminal mastermind, which also marks an end to your career as Private Investigator, earning yourself a spot in the game's Hall of Fame. Each case you get is different, and there are tons of different clues to follow. There's nothing about this game that can annoy me, really. It's fun to play, as long as you take your time. Rushing through this game totally kills the fun of it, and soon you'll find yourself actually having fun by browsing through your encyclopedia, finding out what colours the flag of Nepal consists of. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego is a solid title, with no apparent flaws. It's fun to play, and its diversity in cases makes sure it never gets boring. Take out your encyclopedia, and try this one. You won't be disappointed.