When I was a kid, “edutainment” was a thing in video games, especially on PC. I had several point-and-click adventures that had me solving puzzles, answering trivia, and other brain-wrenching exercises to get by instead of simply jumping on goombas or whatever. They were neat, even if they didn’t adhere to the same kinds of standards as a big budget franchise like Mario or Final Fantasy. When I had a kid of my own, I noticed those games all but vanished, relegated to mobile titles that would sort of teach about numbers, letters, and such, but be more laser-focused and inevitably ask for more money. Carmen Sandiego was one of the biggest edutainment IPs of its time, and playing a new one in 2025 feels like rediscovering a lost art.
From Kiev to Carolina
From the mid-ish 80s to the 90s, Carmen Sandiego was a big deal. There were several games, TV game shows, a surprisingly rad (so say my childhood memories, which we will not challenge for now) cartoon, toys, and board games. These games had you chasing notorious superthief Sandiego as she fled all across the world, or in some cases time, testing your knowledge of geography and history, as well as your ability to use clues to narrow down a pool of suspects. She’s been dormant for a while, but a recent Netflix revival and now this game seem to be doing some kind of work to test the waters for a comeback.
I wasn’t sure what I expected from this new Carmen Sandiego, but what I didn’t expect was a game that lines up pretty close with what came before. In terms of how the game generally flows, it’s a contemporarily streamlined version of the classic games, although this time Carmen Sandiego is more of a vigilante than a villain. She’s too cool to be a baddie these days, so it makes sense to play as her this time around. Her old coworkers in the VILE organization are still jerks though, so you gotta track them down as long as you can follow the trail of clues they leave behind. Mostly so you know which airport to head to next.
I didn’t play these games growing up, but played lots of other edutainment games. And I was surprised at first by Carmen Sandiego’s two-pillared gameplay loop. The first pillar has you chasing a mystery bad guy, collecting clues pointing to where to go next. Moving takes up precious time, so making mistakes hurts. Your clues involve hints at airports, local commerce, history, government structures, landmarks, and even things like what side of the road people drive on. The second pillar is a sort of elimination game, where you gather info on your mark (hobbies, food preferences, style, etc.) in order to have the correct warrant drawn up by the time you catch them. If there’s a misfire, you lose! But there isn’t much pressure; just try again.
Edutainment is back! Maybe!
What’s interesting about how this game works in comparison to the originals is modern context. Back in the day, Carmen Sandiego games often came with almanacs or encyclopedias, literally whole-ass books that you’d use as reference materials to connect clues to the world around you. Between looking through the books and keeping track of the villains, you’d probably end up writing stuff down to keep track. Here, the internet would trivialize the research part, and attention is a precious resource. So the game itself keeps track of things. A new clue? Punch it in and the game will whittle down the suspect list for you. Learn something new about a location? It gets added to the in-game almanac for you to reference later. There’s only so much space, so Carmen’s digital almanac is important info only. No sifting necessary.
At first, this setup seemed counterintuitive. How am I supposed to learn anything or feel challenged if this game is practically playing itself? Certainly, figuring out who to get a warrant for is all but on rails. But I did notice that, as the almanac filled up, I was having a good time sifting through what I did have, checking what I filled in against the clues I found, filling blanks with my own knowledge, and organically committing some things to memory enough that I did feel like I was actually learning even if the path was more focused. As my grasp on the world tightened, chasing villains felt more and more like a real chase as I was able to intuit my destinations more quickly. That was a cool and unexpected outcome from something that initially seemed problematic.
And while there is a noticeable lack of challenge in the main loop, there are moments designed to make sure you’re actually paying attention that I appreciated and enjoyed. These are smaller challenges baked into the exploration that are something between trivia and context clue questions that were quite clever. One that stood out was giving me the option to chase a VILE stooge through a train, or try to get on the roof and cut them off. I forgot at the moment I was in Japan riding on a bullet train, which the option to try some Hollywood roof antics was counting on. That was cute, and it taught me that I couldn’t get too cozy while sniffing for clues.
Grind and gimmicks
That doesn’t mean Carmen Sandiego doesn’t get repetitive, though. Much like the originals, the gameplay doesn’t change much. The loop is the same from case to case, even if the details change quite a bit. Sometimes there’s a small twist, like having a shorter deadline or the villain already settled in favor of a more complicated chase. But ultimately, it’s clicking on places, getting clues, and whittling the options down until you win. There's a leveling system that doesn't seem to do much but gate you out of levels, sometimes asking you to grind on side-missions (that adorably use sprites to resemble the old games but don't change much otherwise). Gameloft does try to make things fresh with some more video game-y minigame sequences, such as a silly pickpocketing minigame that has Sandiego zipping to hiding spots like a Tom & Jerry character, or a gliding minigame that gets a little too close to Superman 64 for comfort. These moments are definitely for the kids, and not complicated at all. But they are a nice change of scenery and add some spice to the presentation.
Despite the repetition though, this game is funny. Even when there are “cringe” moments, such as a gamer-coded character literally named Player being your comms and hacker guy, there are tons of jokes and bits that genuinely made me laugh. VILE being a bunch of weird morons constantly trying and failing to scam people while running away from the feds is very good. Carmen herself is fun and snappy, and it’s cool to take the wheel and see how she reacts to things and swaps into different outfits for different situations, almost like a James Bond-type character.
Carmen Sandiego is a fun romp through a genre that I had figured was lost to mobile marketplaces and predatory YouTube channels. If I was a kid, I bet I would absolutely love it. It’s not much of a challenge in terms of knowing things, but it does use historical and geographical education as a backdrop for a fun mystery-solving loop that tests your deduction skills just as much as your ability to soak up facts. I do wish there was a little more friction when it came to identifying the criminals, and the loop itself does run out of ideas pretty quickly. The minigames don’t add a whole lot aside from vibes, but the writing itself is often a hoot. At the end of the day, I really enjoyed this unexpected blast from the past, and appreciated how committed to the originals it ended up being. If you’re a parent looking for something of substance for your kid for a real video game machine that isn’t some app trying to needle your wallet in exchange for low-rent Sesame Street lessons, Carmen Sandiego might just be the ticket.
Carmen Sandiego is available on March 4, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, iOS, and Android. A PC code was provided by the publisher for review.
Carmen Sandiego 2025
- Fun to build the almanac and solve travel puzzles
- Surprisingly authentic to original games
- Good writing with a lot of humor
- Repetitive gameplay loop
- Identifying suspects is too simple and easy
- Minigames don't add much
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replyLucas White posted a new article, Carmen Sandiego review: Where in the world are we going next?
