Carmen Sandiego Review

I missed the whole Carmen Sandiego era when I was a kid. Maybe because the family PC wasn’t built with video games in mind, except for the odd Jazz Jackrabbit session, but more likely because my parents thought Microsoft Encarta was better than playing video games for an education. I don’t blame them for thinking that, but it meant the era of point and click inspired edutainment (I’ve been told that’s a word) past me by. I was always aware of the Carmen Sandiego brand though, the iconic red fedora and trench coat combo is a killer, and the recent animated series on Netflix was a neat adventure. With that knowledge, I went into the 2025 relaunch of the video game series with an open mind and came away impressed yet clearly understanding that it wasn’t designed with a 40-year-old in mind.

Carmen Sandiego, developed here in Australia by Gameloft Brisbane, sees the former villain turned hero leading a quest to retrieve important technology stolen by operatives of VILE from across the globe. Much like the original series, dating back to 1985’s Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, you’ll be collecting clues and solving puzzles across various real-world places in order to track down the correct evil operative before time runs out.

Every level splits into multiple locations. You’ll have to use all the clues not only to figure out who the VILE operative involved in the current crime is, narrowing it down from a possible list of suspects, but also where you’ll need to travel next. There’s a decent amount of time allotted to each level, which slowly trickles down depending on what you decide to do. If, like me, you visit every single location to uncover as many clues as possible, you should still have enough time up your sleeve to travel across every city and solve the crime.

Sadly, you cannot pet the dog

First and foremost, Carmen Sandiego is an educational tool at the highest level. You’ll be learning all about the places you visit in a way an encyclopedia could not, using that newfound knowledge to lead you from one location to the next in order to track the required villain down. Most levels follow that same critical path, with each location (from Rio to Japan and our own backyard here in Brisbane) split into three mini-games (for lack of a better description). most will see a simple animation of VILE operatives dropping clues as to their whereabouts without realising their being eavesdropped. Others will involve a higher level of interactivity, exploring a small location as Carmen and solving puzzles to proceed.

There’s enough variety in Carmen’s exploratory levels that they don’t overlap each other despite their simplicity. One level will have you sneaking behind a VILE member, trying not to be spotted until getting close enough to nab something from their pocket. Others will have to finding enough clues in an area, causing distractions to avoid detection or finding out what the VILE members are really up to. I personally would have loved more of this, it felt like too much of the game relied on those simpler dialogue boxes and static characters on screen.

Most of the puzzles are similarly straightforward, designed to easily lead a young player through without causing any confusion or frustration. Linking the right words together, unlocking a safe, untangling power cables, they all play out colourfully with clear-as-day tutorials explaining how they work so that even an old man like me could understand them. I’m sure kids will find them more engaging, perhaps trickier in good way, but for what it’s worth I appreciated the core design philosophy.

Some of the puzzles can be tricky if you’re not clued in

It’s rather obvious that Carmen Sandiego was designed with smaller, handheld devices in mind. Bold, chunky logos and bright colours might look nice on a big TV, but this is a game better suited to an iPad or Switch. That’s even more true of its controls, which work reasonably well with a DualSense but would feel more refined with a touchscreen. That’s not to say it’s a bad experience, but if you’re thinking of picking this one up for a young one in your life, go a smaller device if you can.

Outside of an opening cutscene that introduces us to Carmen’s world and her current predicament, there’s very little audio or animation across the majority of the game either. It’s all for kids, sure, but that feels like a missed opportunity to make it feel more like an interactive cartoon. There’s plenty of dialogue that could have been voiced, plenty of scenes that might have benefitted from some more fun or engaging animations. That’s especially true once you complete a level, the criminal caught rather anticlimactically without any cute Carmen ‘gotcha’ moments. If you’re going to make a game of any kind, no matter the target audience, the little things can make all the difference.

Final Thoughts

Much of Carmen Sandiego feels like the past reborn, and in a good way. Kids will find an important learning tool at their fingertips, and the more hours played helps to fill out their globe of important information across every location visited. I won’t pretend I found it as engaging, but there’s value and importance here that cannot be understated. Especially for an audience that only has cheap IP party games, Sonic or Nintendo to choose from. We need more edutainment, in a world where the internet is full of baloney, and Carmen Sandiego is a good place to start.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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