The latest Nancy Drew game, Sea of Darkness, is out in a mere month, and I am pretty much vibrating with anticipation. What beautiful world will Nancy take us to this time? What ridiculous characters will we meet? How often will I need to use a GameBoomers hint guide to solve the puzzles?
If you’ve never tried one of HerInteractive‘s Nancy Drew titles, I highly recommend picking one up – grab any of the recent ones like Ghost of Thornton Hall or Labyrinth of Lies from their site, and you can play them from any Mac or PC. They remind me a lot of what Telltale Games is doing now – great story, fun characters, and always tough mysteries – but with an added difficult puzzle element that has me playing on “Amateur Detective” every time. Plus, HerInteractive’s stated goal is “to be the undisputed leader in creating high quality, fun and inspiring games for girls of all ages,” so you know they’re a company worth supporting.
Tragically, after fifteen years and thirty-two (!) successful and incredibly fun games, it has come to light that HerInteractive has (rather unceremoniously) replaced Lani Minella, Nancy’s voice actor. While this is concerning on its own, Minella and HerInteractive have both indicated that it’s part of a new strategy on the company’s part to try and draw in a bigger audience by making some drastic changes to the games.
The Nancy Drew games are one of the few long-term on-going games series to feature an amazing female protagonist, and HerInteractive has always encouraged girls to get into gaming both in front of the screen and behind it. I seriously hope that after Sea of Darkness they don’t make a big mistake in taking the game in a more simplified direction in a misguided attempt to bring in more girl gamers who they think might be put off by anything more complicated than Candy Crush. There’s no Second Chance here. The current ND games are wonderful as they are – I firmly believe they just need a little more love. So here’s me, giving them some love.
Sea of Darkness will be available on May 19th and is out for pre-order now – but go back and play some of the HI back catalogue first. You’re going to be hooked in no time!
[UPDATE: Jared Nieuwenhuis, HerInteractive’s Marketing Director, sent us the following e-mail to clarify the future of HI’s Nancy Drew games:
1. This is NOT the last Nancy Drew game. We have no intention of stopping any time soon. We’re having way too much fun and we could never let our fans down that way!
2. While we the made the decision to move away from Lani as the voice of Nancy Drew, it was not done in an “unceremonious way.” For example, we wanted to conduct numerous tributes to Lani, however, she explicitly asked us not to. While disappointed, we respect her decision.
3. This was an agonizing decision for us that we didn’t make lightly. Recasting an iconic character like Nancy Drew is no small task, and we promise to bring our fans a voice we feel is equally as true to Nancy’s spirit and personality. We know that for some fans, change is hard, but trust that our goal remains to continue the legacy of developing award-winning Nancy Drew games for many years to come.
4. The decision to change the voice of Nancy Drew had nothing to do with our future plans for the series. True, we are always trying to grow our fan base and introduce our games to new audiences but we have never stated that we are making “drastic changes” to this long running series.
5. We have no plans to make these games “more simplified.” We agree that our games are wonderful just the way they are!
That definitely gives me hope for the future of this awesome franchise. What say you, Clue Crew?]
–Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.–
Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
