Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island
2003 Her Interactive
Designed by Anne Collins-Ludwick
Relevance:
Probably most of the challenges aren't mimetic. Many are given the thin excuse
of a puzzlephiliac character as the instigator.
*) sink pipes -- Decent abstract way to represent the problem.
*) book drawer -- Ditto.
*) Holt's quiz -- He just has pop quizes printed out to give to visitors?
*) seashell box -- Yet another magic button box.
*) Hilda's nonsensical letter -- Hilda likes to give you puzzles.
*) chess problem -- Holt is a chess fan.
*) caddy assembly -- A puzzle toy sold locally. Nanacy gives an indication
when each piece is correctly placed, making it too easy for senior level.
*) toybox -- A Concentration (hidden pair matching) puzzle.
*) royal flush dials -- A series staple, but not realistic. It's amazing they
would still work and be undetected after all those years and renovations.
*) Hilda's quiz -- Yep, she's "eccentric".
*) sea serpent lock -- Yet another Rubik device.
*) serpent box -- Yet *another* Rubik device.
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Real-time:
*) feeding frenzy -- Whack-a-rat. You get a win if you fail too often.
*) porpoise game -- Simple side-scroller. You get a win, eventually.
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Reasonability:
*) wood ID -- "horizontal" lines? Only if you happen to be holding it that way.
They probably meant "parallel". Also, "sizeable" holes? Relative to what?
They are probably much smaller than pin holes.
*) evading the smugglers -- The choice of where to go seemed arbitrary. It
became a trial-and-error thing. I don't think the interface was up to this
kind of a challenge. A proper 360 view would have worked.
*) beating Andy -- Clunking him over the head doesn't work; fair enough. But
relying on the whale to bean him is ridiculous. However, it was nicely
clued, and the scope is narrow.
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Difficulty:
*) anagram -- That's a lot of letters to rearrange!
*) chess puzzle -- It seems like it would be difficult if you aren't familiar
with chess.
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Comments:
*) sea serpent lock -- I like the two sided, distantly separated aspect.
*) Katie's sandwich -- Second chance makes it easy, but it's a nice gotcha.