did you know that there's classic 2000s PC games floating around on the Internet Archive? i sure didn't, until i did, and then my life was forever changed. i had neither money nor autonomy in the glory days of cd-rom edutainment, but now my inner child gets to experience what she missed out on.
a delight! about an hour's worth of gameplay for a grown-ass adult, but it was precious the entire time. particularly Barbie's big brain moments - calling Theresa (the victim of the crime!) to tell her that she found a clue, but there are rocks on top of it! Theresa wisely suggests moving the rocks.
ten out of ten. this one was made with so much love, from the animations to the voice work and sound effects. you enter your name when you start and it shows up in a couple of scenes - written in spiderweb behind the grandfather clock, on the mirror revealed by steam... absolutely adore this, would love to play it with a small child.
a significant step up from Mystery Ride, though it still has that charming 2000s clunk about it. the horses, realistically, are spooked by awkward geometry and handle like a forklift. Barbie herself handles like an 18-wheeler, though, so the horse is preferable. the plot of Mystery Ride was a one-way circle, but this one is longer and more open-world so i feel like it would have given preteen me hours of enjoyment.