My So-Called Homeschool

(Nancy Drew and the Creature of Kapu Cave was provided to me free of charge by Special Ops Media for the purpose of review.)

I devoured Nancy Drew books as a kid. I remember they were kept upstairs at our little library, with the YA books. As a 3rd or 4th-grader, I felt so sneaky, creeping up the stairs to find books from the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigator series. The librarian always kept an eye on me, even through junior high, to make sure I wasn’t roaming into the Cherry Ames section — those nurse romances were preeeeettty racy! How times have changes!

Nancy Drew and the Creature of Kapu Cave is a computer game based on the Nancy Drew character I grew up loving. She has definitely moved into the 21st Century, as a cell phone and a vehicle complete with GPS are two of her main sleuthing tools in this game! She teams up with the Hardy Boys early in the game, with the player switching back and forth between Nancy and the teen detective duo.

Nancy is heading to Hawaii to intern with famous entomologist when the mystery begins. As she arrives in Hawaii, we see the researcher’s camp being trashed — but is it man or beast tearing the place apart? Before Nancy can start on that mystery, she has some tasks to accomplish. She has to make a shell necklace to exchange for the keys to her jeep. Once she gets to the campsite, she has to figure out where the good doctor is, how to get her stuck jeep out of the campsite, and what to do next. Luckily, she’s got her handy-dandy cellphone and can get some info from Ned and the Hardy Boys. All conversations are captioned, which makes this game great for my 6- and 7-year-olds even though the game is rated for 10 and up, since it works their reading skills as they play. Each conversation has multiple replies the player can choose from and the course of the game can really change depending on the reply chosen. We found we got better results if we chose replies more in Nancy’s ‘girl next door’ character than some of the more smart-off replies.

When she calls the Hardy Boys, the game switches to their pint of view and the mystery they’re solving, which coincidentally involves getting the same information Nancy needs. Instead of shell necklaces, the HB have to go fishing to barter for their clues. We haven’t gotten far enough in the game to find out about the monster of the cave. Yes, I said we. As I mentioned, the game is rated 10 to Adult. You can play as a Junior or Senior detective. I stayed up quite late one evening playing and didn’t get as far as the girls have on their own! Of course, on Junior level, there is a running checklist which helps the player find the clues necessary to move on in the game. In Senior level, you basically wander around going “Hmmm, what does THIS do?”. It’s a blast!

The first day we got the game, the girls played most of the afternoon. The next morning, the first thing out of Jasmine’s mouth was “Can we play Nancy Drew?” They played from 9am until around 1 or so, when I kicked them out of the house — it was the last nice day until the snow hit and they were going out like it or not!

OK, so this is a bit more rambling than your average professional review. But that’s why they ask bloggers to review, so it’s more personal, right? Overall, we all really enjoyed this game. I have told all of my real-life friends and family about it, including Nana who is getting Jasmine another in the series for her birthday. I just can’t say enough about them! The Creature of Kapu Cave is 15th in a series, with the first 10 of the series based on classic Nancy Drew stories from the books.

If you’d like a little preview of the game, there’s a mini-game over at Her Interactive. You can check out some of the others in the series, too.