The last time I played a Nancy Drew game was last March. It’s been a minute! Last Saturday, I had no plans, which is pretty rare for me. It was the perfect time to get cuddled up under a heated blanket and play a Nancy Drew game. I had two to choose from, so I picked Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy since it seemed like a spookier game. I liked this game a lot! While the mystery itself was a little campy and slightly ridiculous, I found I had fun playing it, which is what matters.

Spoilers for Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy below

Nancy is the maid of honor for one of her good friends. She flies to Ireland and drives to the castle where her friend is getting married. On her way, she sees what looks like a ghost floating on the road. This scares Nancy, and she crashes her car. When she walks to the castle, her friend tells her that her fiancé has gone missing! Nancy decides to investigate, especially because she wants to get to the bottom of what she saw earlier.

This Nancy Drew game had a notebook where you checked off completed tasks. This is so useful. Sometimes these games can be complex, especially when there are puzzles and things to complete, so being able to sort what’s left is needed. In this game, I liked being able to explore the castle grounds. In some Nancy Drew games, Nancy is isolated in one spot. I prefer the Nancy Drew games where I can explore an area. I think it’s more fun and challenging, since there’s more to do.

In this game, I didn’t find a mini-game that I disliked. My favorites were making the drinks in the Irish pub, playing the drums in the Irish pub, and the ring sorting game. I also liked the horse puzzle, which involved sliding the pieces into their corresponding places. I laugh at the playing the drums mini-game because it reminded me of Guitar Hero, or a better analogy would be Rock Band. There would be notes that would glide across the screen, and you would have to hit them at the appropriate time.

I know I just said that there wasn’t a mini-game I disliked, but we have to talk about the Chemicals game. In the latter half of the game, Nancy discovers an underground bunker, and to escape, she needs to set off a rocket. To do so, she needs the rocket key, which is hidden in a chemical fume hood. To get the key, chemicals need to be moved into their appropriate places. What makes this mini-game frustrating is how sensitive it is. If you so much as flick the chemical with the pliers, it causes an explosion that kills Nancy. I wish I could look up the actual stats because I think I killed Nancy at least twenty times. If I’m honest, it’s probably closer to thirty. Once I understood how to play, I was able to move through it quickly. It’s not that I disliked this; I think if there were more instructions on how to play the game, I could have figured it out faster. I’d be curious if this game were to be remastered; that’s one of the first things I’d recommend adding.

The last thing I’ll add is the campy story. It’s revealed that the person haunting the mansion is not a fictional person or a projection. It’s an actual woman who has secretly lived on the property. If that’s the case, how is she flying around? She uses a jetpack. You read that right, this older woman is wearing a jet pack and flying around the property. I can’t help but laugh. There wasn’t really a mystery to solve; the groom ended up finding a secret underground bunker through a passage in the castle and got trapped down there, but no one was really up to anything nefarious. The mystery was unsatisfying, but you know what, it was kind of entertaining, so I’ll give this game that.

Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy was entertaining and one of the more enjoyable Nancy Drew games I have played. The next Nancy Drew game I plan to play is Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy. After that, I’ll have to buy a few more Nancy Drew games to keep me busy. I think I’m over halfway through playing through them all, but I have a few more to go.