Review: Dino Hunt 2

You can play this game here, but I do not recommend it at all. I don’t even know why I played it honestly.

There’s not much to talk about graphics wise, there’s two generic outdoor maps. One with grass and one with snow. The game randomly alternates between the two.

Your gun has infinite range and infinite ammo. Aiming is ridiculously easy, if you see a dinosaur in the distance, just move your cursor over it until your reticle zooms in, then click the left mouse button.

There are four upgrades available, but only three of them are useful. The camouflage upgrade is a joke. I’ve upgraded it twice, and it just doesn’t work. You are best off just upgrading your speed, gun damage, and your rate of fire instead.

The game only has four dinosaurs to hunt; Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Diplodocus. The models look fine for a free game, but there’s one problem. The dinosaurs aren’t animated. They just float around the map like ghosts. When they die they just fall headfirst and clip into the ground.

The AI is a joke, I’m not even sure if I should call it AI. If a dinosaur is near you, or near a dinosaur that got shot, it will head straight for you, no matter what. This becomes a massive problem in the later levels and makes the game extremely boring in the early levels. They only make noise when they kill you, not when moving. I’ve been jump-scared by dinosaurs in this game several times.

The first few levels are fine, boring, but beatable. By level 8 or so, the game turns into an unfair mess. Despite the maps being a decent size, the game always spawns you close to your targets. The dinosaurs are also clustered together, and will gang up you, no matter what type of dinosaur they are.

When you spawn, you have about five seconds to shoot the five or so dinosaurs charging towards you. As you can’t hear them, you have no idea where they are coming from. If they are coming from multiple directions, you are pretty much dead. If you upgraded enough, you might be able to run around and dodge a few, but even that doesn’t work sometimes.

The Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurs move so fast that you won’t even know what hit you, and while the Velociraptors become 1-hit kills if you upgrade gun damage, the Tyrannosaurs still take multiple hits to kill no matter how high you upgrade.

Let me give you an example. You spawn, and there are five raptors, a Stegosaurus, and three Tyrannosaurs near you. All of them rush towards you in different directions. The Tyrannosaurs are the biggest threat, but if you try to kill one, the other dinosaurs will get you. If you try shooting the raptors, the Tyrannosaurs or the Stegosaurus will get you. You can’t shoot the Stegosaurus because of the carnivores that are about to kill you. If you try to back away, you’ll back into one of the dinosaurs.

It’s a Morton’s Fork, everything you do ends in miserable failure. Most of the levels are luck based, you just have to hope you only spawn near a few dinosaurs, or that they all come in one direction. Upgrading only helps you so much.

Also, do the dinosaurs have some sort of treaty? Why do the herbivores care if I shoot a Velociraptor? Why do the dinosaurs all ignore each other and go straight for me? It’s nonsensical.

I’ve made it to level 37, and I’m giving up there. I’m just getting mobbed within seconds of spawning. I honestly should have given up twenty levels earlier, but I’m stubborn. I’d call this game so bad it’s good, but I can’t because of how unplayable the later levels are.

This is one of the worst games I’ve ever played.

Rating 

1 out of 10

The Mystery Cartoon

Sorry about the lack of posts. I’ve been doing two things recently:

1. Playing Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, which you can expect a review for shortly.

2. Trying to track down a cartoon I watched when I was a kid. This cartoon has seemingly vanished into thin air, and I can’t find it anywhere. It’s like the show has ceased to exist. I’ve posted this in a few other places, but I figured I post this here, in hopes that someone reading this knows what which show I’m talking about:

“The show aired on TVO during the Early 2000s. I saw two episodes, and possibly the opening of a third. I don't think they were very long, and about halfway through, the host of TVO kids would interrupt the show to guess who the culprit was.

The characters were all anthropomorphic animals. The main character was probably a dog who was either a police or a private detective. He had a sidekick, who don't remember anything about, not even what animal he was. He and his sidekick might have been the only recurring characters. I'm going to give a summary of what I remember from each episode, but I could be wrong on some of the details. I'm not even sure that the third episode was of the same show.

Episode 1: I remember the opening of the episode the most as it terrified me. The episode started from the point of view of an inventor walking down a path in a park to his lab (I think), when he hears someone say something from behind him. He turns around to see a fist flying towards his face. He gets knocked out, and the plans for one of his inventions is stolen.

The detective and his sidekick arrived on the scene and talked to the inventor. They also took a look around the crime scene. They talked to the inventor about possible suspects, and he named three, all of them different animals. I don't think the detective ever talked to the suspects, nor did the suspects ever appear. One of the suspects was named "Captain Kangaroo". After this, the TVO kids host interrupts. He says that the culprit isn't Captain Kangaroo and references the old Captain Kangaroo show. After this, the show continued. It was revealed that the culprit was "Captain Kangaroo", as there was a series of tracks leading over a gate or a fence that revealed that the culprit was hopping.

Episode 2: The entire episode took place in a small apartment building. It started with a Porcupine couple arriving at their apartment after their vacation, only to discover that their apartment had been ransacked and that stuff had been stolen from the apartment. The detective and his sidekick arrived, and they talked to the porcupines. Then they talked to the porcupines' neighbors. Eventually they figured out the culprit was a skunk because all the other neighbors were hibernating when the crime happened.

Episode 3: It started with someone admiring a diamond at a museum. The museum's lights suddenly went off, and when they went back on, the diamond was gone. I believe I watched until the detective and his sidekick arrived, but I stopped watching soon after.

I have a list of shows its not: -Sherlock Hound -Dog Tracer -Dog City -Paw Patrol -The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog -T.U.F.F Puppy

I seriously have no idea what happened to the cartoon. I even emailed TVO, they couldn't help me either. To me it seems impossible that there's a TVO Kids show that only I watched.”

Review: Danger For Hire (Files #52)

I read part of this book a couple of years ago, but never finished it due to finding it dull. I decided to give the book a second chance, and I still don’t like it very much. 

In this book, Nancy investigates a series of warehouse robberies. All the warehouses were using the same security system, installed by Hayward Security Systems. This is causing the owner of Haywood Security, Tom Hayward, to lose money, and he asks Nancy to investigate the crimes.

Nancy Drew’s characterization is a bit off in this book. She’s shown multiple times getting scared or nervous and ends up trembling at one point. At one point she briefly gets scared by a guy in a Halloween mask. This was the first Files book I read in a while, but I don’t recall Nancy acting like this in other books. She was always more confident then this. It’s not as much of a problem as it is in the current Diaries series, but it’s still noticeable.

Nancy has a new assistant in this book, Cindy Larson, a high school student who’s a fan of hers. Nancy Drew invites Cindy to help her on the case after Cindy follows her to a crime scene. Along the way, Cindy learns that detective work isn’t all excitement and that it’s also more dangerous then she thought. Cindy is the best part of the book, and it’s a shame she didn’t appear in any other books.

At the start of the book, she asks Nancy about the events of “The Suspect Next Door”, and the end of the book contains a preview of a River Heights book, so maybe she made an appearance in that series?

Part of the reason why I found the book so dull the first time I read it is that amount of filler in this book. A lot of the book is Nancy Drew reading newspaper articles and surveilling the warehouse district where the robberies happened. At the start of the book, Nancy tells Cindy that detective work can be quite boring. It seems that was a warning to the reader. 

Brenda Carlton is one of my favourite Files characters, unfortunately, she is pretty much wasted in this book. Despite claiming that she’ll solve the case before Nancy does, she vanishes for most of the second half of the book, only to end up as the villain’s hostage. She does have a decent role in the first half, but it felt like she could have been left out of the book altogether.

Despite the villains seemingly being professional thieves, they aren't very dangerous, and there's not much action in the book. There's an explanation for this, but it's not a very good one. 

Near the end, we discover that the gang of professional thieves was really just Nancy’s employer and a henchman. I really don’t like Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books where their employer turns out to be the bad guy. This sort of twist almost always leads to an anti-climax, and this book is no exception. Instead of Nancy Drew facing off against a gang, she faces off against one person at the end.

Not to mention that the ending involves Brenda Carlton somehow sneaking past a whole ton of police officers. Did she teleport in? Also, I’m not sure why she decided to congratulate Nancy on solving the case right as Nancy is confronting the villain. 

Rating

3 out of 10

Review: “The Madman of Black Bear Mountain” (Adventures #12)

Note: I found this review sitting on my computer, I had written it last year. I'm still keeping true to my reading list, and I'm currently reading "Danger For Hire". 

I’ve heard a lot of bad things about the “Hardy Boys Adventures” series, so I decided to give one of the books a try to see if the series is really that bad. I was surprised to find that “The Madman of Black Bear Mountain” was actually a good book, at least for the first half.

Frank and Joe’s characterizations appear to be pretty much the same as their characterizations in the Undercover Brothers books. Like the UBs, the books are in the first person, the chapters alternating between Frank and Joe’s perspectives. I’ll get to this in a bit.

The first half of the book revolves around the Green Environment Conservation Club (GECCO for short) taking a field trip to Black Bear Mountain to meet Dr. Kroopnik, a famous biologist. Frank and Joe of members of the club of course, but anyone expecting to see Chet Morton or any of the other chums are in for a disappointment. The rest of the club members are new characters.

It takes a few chapters for the Hardys to actually reach Black Bear Mountain, and the only plot relevant thing that happens during those chapters is a conversation that Frank overhears. The book is very cartoonish, with a lot of jokes and occasional slapstick humor. The plot wouldn’t look out of place in a Scooby Doo episode, and Frank and Joe even get chased around by someone in a costume.

I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing. I laughed at the jokes, although the slapstick was a bit too much. The characters are quite cartoonish as well, especially Jim. Jim is the teacher in charge of the club, and the slapstick and most of the jokes revolve around him. The titular “Madman” is also pretty menacing, at least until their identity is revealed.

Once Jim goes missing from his tent, the book actually becomes pretty suspenseful as Frank and Joe try to get to a nearby ranger station while avoiding an axe-wielding maniac. Had the entire book been like this, the rating for this book would be higher.

The mystery is kind of weak, but seeing Frank and Joe using their survival skills makes up for it.  Even when Jim reappears, the book keeps its suspenseful tone as Frank and Joe make a surprising discovery in a backpack that Jim was carrying.

Unfortunately, the second half of the book is nowhere as good as the first half. A surprising plot twist occurs (although Frank should have figured it out from the start), and we get a super long chase scene involving rafts, horses, and helicopters.

 It drags on for way too long, and the fact that the chapters constantly alternate between Frank and Joe means that often we get told the exact same information twice. Cliffhangers that should take a chapter to resolve take two or three chapters instead. The scene where Joe hangs off a broken bridge becomes hilarious because of how long it takes to rescue him.  He must have had super strength to hang on for as long as he did.

The pacing problem could have been solved had the ghostwriter stuck to Joe’s POV during the chase.  Joe’s chapters during the second half are a lot more entertaining due to the presence of a character who I can’t identify because their presence is a major spoiler. Said character is the best character in the book, and I hope they make another appearance in the series.

There’s been complaints about how a lot of the Adventures books are too short, but in this case, it seemed like 144 pages was just too much for the ghostwriter to handle. The book is wrapped up rather anticlimactically, the villain is caught due to luck, and their accomplice doesn’t even put up a fight. Consider how long the chase scene lasts, this is rather annoying.

There’s also some inappropriate language as a character says “OMG” in one of the last chapters. As the Adventures series is clearly intended for a younger audience than the previous Hardy Boys series, I have to deduct a point for it.

Despite all my criticisms of it, I liked “The Madman of Black Bear Mountain”. It may be cartoonish and have pacing issues, but it’s an enjoyable read. If it wasn’t for the second half, the book’s rating would be higher. I’d recommend at least borrowing this one from your local library.

Rating

6 out of 10

Review: "Open Season" (Casefiles #59)

So, I’ve spent the last three weeks reading through the 3^rd Casefiles Collector’s Edition. Which is why the last two books I reviewed were “Beyond the Law” and “Spiked!”. I wasn’t too excited to read the last book in the collector’s edition, “Open Season”, because it’s by Rick Oliver.

Every single Casefile by Rick Oliver that I’ve read has been either mediocre or terrible. The only book by him that I really liked was “Murder By Magic”, and he wrote that one with someone else.

“Open Season” is one of Rick Oliver’s better books. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. The book has some major problems, problems that made reading this book take me longer then I thought. (Hence the posting delay) 

In this book, Frank and Joe go on a skiing trip and end up investigating the shooting of a conservationist. Or be more precise, Frank ends up investigating the shooting of a conservationist while Joe tags along.

Frank does most of the detective work in this book, while Joe is pretty much his Watson, someone who’s basically there for Frank to explain everything to. Frank pretty solves the entire case on his own, with Joe finding a clue maybe once or twice.

It’s not unusual for a Hardy Boys book to focus on one Hardy over the other, the problem is that while Frank Hardy solves the case pretty much single-handedly, Joe Hardy spends most of the book acting like a dumb jock. 

He rushes into situations without thinking, and can't seem to figure anything out without Frank's help. At one point, Frank admits to question a suspect, only for Joe to act like a hothead and get them kicked off the suspect’s property. 

Frank and Joe spend most of the first five chapters of the book clashing with the county Sheriff. I’m surprised they didn’t try mentioning to him that they were Fenton Hardy’s sons, as that worked last book. Their constant arguments with the sheriff got rather boring. At one point Frank calls the Sheriff out for eavesdropping on a conversation, which to me seemed extremely hypocritical. 

There are some good things about the book. There were quite a few memorable quotes from Frank and Joe. There was some good action scenes, even if a few of them felt drawn out. Frank and Joe's run in with the mountain lion hunters could have probably have been a bit shorter. The action scenes were pretty the only scenes in the book where Joe got to do anything useful. 

The mystery was rather interesting. I wasn’t able to instantly guess the culprit behind the shooting, and the clues made sense. The trap that Frank and Joe set to catch the villain was rather clever, and it was a nice change from the last two books where Frank and Joe got ambushed and had a Q and A session with the villain at gunpoint.

I originally planned to give this book a higher rating, but I decided against it because Joe Hardy's characterization in this book annoyed me so much. I have no issue with books that focus on one brother over the other, my issue is that this book turned Joe into an idiot so that Frank could solve everything. 

Rating

4 out of 10

Review: "Smithsonian Institution: Dinosaur Museum"

So, today I'm going to be reviewing something different. An old obscure educational game from the 90's that was an important part of my childhood. That game is "Smithsonian Institution: Dinosaur Museum" by Perspective Visuals, Inc.

I first got this game in the Topics Entertainment collection, "A World of Dinosaurs", which contained four other games as well. I used to play it all the time, but when my computer broke and got tossed, the game was still in the CD drive. It wasn't until almost 10 years later that I got the game again.

So, how does the game hold up today? Do I like it now as I did when I was younger?  Well, it's an enjoyable game, but it has some major flaws.

Since this game is so obscure that there's barely any information about it online, this review will  be longer then normal, and contain more images.

I should quickly point out that because the game was released in 1997, some of the information is out of date, so keep that in mind if you play it. However, besides some featherless dinosaurs, there's not too much inaccuracies.

When you start the game, you are greeted with three rooms, the Library, the Conservatory, and the Game Room. Let's start with the Library.

The Library is the main section of the game. Here there's info on 24 Dinosaurs, mainly the well known ones. The dinosaurs are split up by time periods, although most of them are from the Cretaceous period. At the library, you have a few different options. Most of them lead to photos, some in 3D.

The images used in the game are quite good, and there's several I haven't seen anywhere else. The dioramas are probably the best, as you get a reconstruction of what the dinosaurs may have  looked like when they were alive. There's photos from a ton of museums as well.

The two parts you'll be spending the most time in are the Museum and "(Insert time period here) Life". You click on a dinosaur name, and you are sent to an exhibit featuring that dinosaur. 

The leads to the first problem with the game. Let's play a game of spot the difference. These are the exhibits for Camarasaurus and Tyrannosaurus:

There's only three differences. The dinosaur model in the middle of the room, the Earth outside the window, and the name below the dinosaur model. Other then that, both exhibits are identical. While admittedly it's not a big issue, it's kind of lazy. 

Everything that is a hot spot is in color, while everything else, including the dinosaur model is in grey-scale. Clicking on a hot spot gives you information on the dinosaur in question.

Unfortunately, most of that info comes in massive walls of text. It's hard to read, and I don't understand why they couldn't have used paragraphs.

There's some interesting information there, but in my opinion, it's presented rather badly. The grey-scale makes the exhibit look rather creepy as well.

Clicking on the earth brings you to the "(Insert time period here) Life" part. This is where the grey-scale becomes a massive problem. It looks like an unfinished coloring book. Some of you may have noticed that is "Utahraptor" from "Dinosaur Comics" to the right of the picture. 

Ryan North, the author of "Dinosaur Comics" got the dinosaurs in the comic from clip-art software, evidently, so did this game.

Clicking on the hot spots here doesn't give you  walls of text, as the text boxes are normally only one or two paragraphs long.

The design of the "Life" sections, despite my hatred of the grey-scale, are much better then the bland museum. There's some reused backgrounds and dinosaurs, but for the most part, each dinosaur's area looks different. You can tell they put more effort into this part.

Moving on to the Conservatory, there's really not much to talk about. Most of the sections here are the same as the "Life" sections. Instead of focusing on one dinosaur, they focus on a specific dinosaur-related topic, like Dinosaur myths and extinction theories. Unfortunately, there's plenty of text walls.

The highlight of the Conservatory is the "Dinosaurs in the Movies" section. Here, you get to view a bunch of soundless clips from old dinosaur movies. The collection includes the only remaining footage from the cancelled movie "Creation".

Most of the clips are of dinosaurs fighting humans, or other dinosaurs. There's actually a clip of someone being impaled by a dinosaur, which is surprising in a kids game.

The only problem I have here is that I sometimes need to click on the reels several times to get the clips to start.

Finally, we have the Games Room, my favorite part of the game. Here you can play a trivia game, with three levels of difficulty. You can play by yourself or with another player. 

In the beginner level, you just have to answer questions. Answering these questions correctly uncovers a picture of a dinosaur. Once you've uncovered the picture, you win. I rarely play beginner because it's too easy for me.

In the intermediate level, you not only have to get the answers right, you have to guess which dinosaur is being uncovered. This is the difficulty I'd recommend, as it's the most fun. "T-rex" from "Dinosaur Comics" appears as the yes option.

The advanced level is way too hard. Unless you are very good at remembering names, dates, and numbers, you won't beat it. There's some really obscure stuff there. It's way too hard for a kids game.

Your reward for beating the trivia game is admittance to the "Hall of Fame", where you can see full-screen versions of the pictures used in the game. It's a pretty neat reward. You have a limited amount of clicks before it kicks you out of the hall. I don't know exactly how much clicks or if the amount varies with difficulty, but in the intermediate level, it's a pretty fair amount.

One more thing I'd like to bring up is the soundtrack, as it freaked me out when I first played it. Now, it's more of an annoyance. Whenever you enter a new section, a audio file lasting about six seconds plays. These mainly consist of jungle noises and bird calls. However, one of these is the sound of what I can only guess is an asteroid hitting the earth. It's loud and if you weren't expecting it, it's a jump scare.

"Dinosaur Museum" has quite a bit to offer, but compared to other dinosaur games, it's bare-bones. 
"I Can Be a Dinosaur Finder" came out the same year (1997), "Eyewitness Dinosaur Hunter" came out the previous year, and "Microsoft Dinosaurs" would come out only two years later. All of these games have a lot more content then "Dinosaur Museum".

"Dinosaur Museum" is so obscure, the aforementioned  "A World of Dinosaurs" collection is currently the only way to get it. That's not a bad thing, as the set also includes "3-D Dinosaur Adventure" and "I Can Be a Dinosaur Hunter", two very good games.

Despite the grey-scale, the short audio, and the walls of text, I enjoyed playing this. Part of this may be nostalgia, however. If you can get a hold of "A World of Dinosaurs", give this game a try, just don't expect too much.

Rating
5.5 out of 10

Note: According to this document, Perspective Visuals were planning on making more games in this series. It never happened, and this was the only game they ever released. You can see an archived version of their website here.

Review: "Spiked!" (Casefiles #58)

This book took a bit longer to finish then I had planned, so that's there was no post Thursday. I had actually taken a break midway through the second chapter, and said break took longer then I had planned.

I'm not really that into to sports, and I don't know much about Volleyball. So, when the ten page first chapter consisted of a recap of a volleyball game, and Frank and Joe talking about how awesome 2 vs 2 volleyball is, I wasn't very interested in the book.

The first chapter does end with quite a disturbing death scene, as one of the players dies in the middle of a game. It's something that probably would freaked me out as a kid. Of course, the death turns out to be murder, and the way the killer does it is quite clever.

Joe has a one-book girlfriend named Chris, who is basically there so that Joe can have a feud with a volleyball player named George Ritt Jr. George Ritt Jr. is probably one of the most entertaining parts of the book. He's so cartoonish it's hilarious.

For most of the book, he's basically Bluto from Popeye. His father is just as cartoonish, and two spent most of the time yelling at people and starting fights.  However, it does strain suspension of disbelief that George Ritt Jr. is not kicked out of  the volleyball tournament for unsportsmanlike behavior.

The culprits of "Spiked!" were quite obvious, as they spent a lot of time twirling their mustaches and doing evil things in front of Frank and Joe. There was a surprise or two near the end, but for the most part I was able to guess the who and why of the mystery pretty early on.

Despite this, the action was rather good. The villains were quite dangerous, and Frank and Joe had a lot of close calls in this book. The volleyball aspect of the book takes the backstage for the second half of the book. While there are some sabotage attempts during games, most of the action happens away from the court.

Frank and Joe also have some good banter in the this book, and I found myself laughing quite a lot. This plus the cartoonish behavior of some of the suspects makes the book rather fun, although things do get more serious near the end. 

There's one cringe-worthy scene where one of the suspects falsely believes that Frank and Joe are detectives for INS, and attacks Frank with a knife to try to scare him. INS would later become ICE, which you've probably heard about. This scene dates the book by quite a bit, and had this book come out today, would have likely been seen as problematic.

"Spiked!" is an average but fun book, with the mystery element being a bit lacking. If you prefer books where it's a challenge to guess the culprit before Frank and Joe do, this isn't the book for you. If you are just looking for a fun Hardy Boys book, give this one a read.

Rating
6 out of 10

Review: "Beyond the Law" (Casefiles #55)

The first time I read “Beyond the Law”, I thought it was ok, but too slow paced. Recently, I decided to read through “Casefiles Collector’s Edition #3”. That meant rereading this book. During my second readthrough, I discovered that the book was a whole lot then I remembered and is now one of my favorite in the Casefiles series.

Beyond the Law is considered by some fans to be book three in the “Bayport Corruption Storyline”. This unofficial trilogy consists of “See No Evil”, “Line of Fire”, and “Beyond the Law”.  All three books have Frank and Joe facing off against corrupt Bayport City Officials.

“Beyond the Law” does reference the events of “See No Evil” quite a bit at the start of the book. At one-point Frank mentions “The See No Evil” case, and the villain mentions it as well. However, you don’t have to read “See No Evil” to understand what happens in “Beyond the Law”.

As I said at the start of my review, I originally thought the book was too slow paced. And admittedly, it’s a lot slower then the earlier books in the Casefiles series. However, the writer still managed to make the book an entertaining read. It’s also 100 times better then the last two Casefiles I’ve read, “Poisoned Paradise” and “No Way Out”.

The start of the story is quite relevant with all the talk of fake news going around today. News reporter Rod Vernon reports that Chief Collig was fired from an earlier police job for collecting bribes. Despite him not citing a source, the people of Bayport (besides the Hardys and their friends) immediately believe the report.

Mark DeCampo, the new commissioner, uses this as an excuse to  get rid of Collig, and suspends him. Frank and Joe start an investigation, but Mark and Vernon end up being injured in a bomb blast, and soon Chief Collig is wanted for attempted murder.  

The book heavily focuses on Chief Collig, (who in the Adventures books has been replaced with the rather boring Chief Olaf.) a character who rarely gets the spotlight. Normally in the Casefiles, he’s just there to be an obstacle to Frank and Joe’s investigation.  Here, we get to learn a lot about his backstory as he, Frank, and Joe head Millerton in an attempt to clear Collig’s name. We also learn a bit about how police work has changed over the years, and how the police used to get away with a lot more then they do now. 

The book has most of the Hardy’s friends make appearances during the first half of the book, which is good to see. The scenes in Mr. Pizza where the customers discuss Collig’s suspension were my favorite parts of the book. Unfortunately, we don't get to see their reactions to Collig being accused of attempted murder, and after the second scene at Mr. Pizza's, the book doesn't go back there. 

Fenton Hardy also makes an appearance, but conveniently has to leave on a case a few chapters in. Well this is disappointing, he turns out to be a important part of the story, as Frank and Joe are trying to get to get some papers signed by the Chief so his license can be renewed.  The acting chief, Parker Lawrence, attempts to blackmail Frank and Joe by threatening not to sign the papers if they continue investigating the case. This creates a lot of suspense, as not only is Collig's career at stake, but so is Fenton's.

The action picks up quite a bit in the second half of the book, and the villain is probably one of my favorite Casefile villains. While I won't spoil anything, the final showdown is really exciting. My only issue is that the villain had a question and answer session with Frank and Joe that took a little longer then necessary, but that's a minor issue.  

To my knowledge, the events of this book are never referenced again, and  Chief Collig continued to be an obstacle. The book even lampshades this at the end, which I found rather hilarious. I really like Chief Collig as a character.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Casefiles after this book take place outside Bayport, so Collig didn’t appear that much. In fact, after this book, it would be 8 books until Frank and Joe solved another mystery in Bayport. 

I highly recommend this book.

Rating

8 out of 10

My Reading List

Sorry about the short post, but I figured I’d post my current reading list, as I’ll be reviewing these books on my blog once I’m finished with them. I’ll be going through this list in order, although the list might change at some point. I’m also currently playing the Nancy Drew game, “The Captive Curse”, and that will be reviewed on my blog as well.

My Current Reading List:

-Beyond the Law (Casefiles #55)

-Spiked (Casefiles #58)

-Open Season (Casefiles #59)

-Danger for Hire (Files #52)

-Make No Mistake (Files #56)

-Poison Pen (Files #60)

-The Children of the Lost (UB #34)

-Lost Brother (UB #35)

-Forever Lost (UB #36)

-Danger Overseas (Super Mystery 07 #2)

-Gold Medal Murder (Super Mystery 07 #4)

-Bonfire Masquerade (Super Mystery 07 #5)

-The Betrayal (Fear Street Sega #1)

-The Secret (Fear Street Sega #2)

-The Burning (Fear Street Sega #3)

-The Shadow Killers (Hardy Boys Digests #92)

-The Serpent's Tooth Mystery (Hardy Boys Digests #93)

-Danger on the Air (Hardy Boys Digests #94)

There will two posts this weekend to make up for the shortness of this one.

Review: "No Way Out" (Hardy Boys Casefiles #75)

Casefile #75, “No Way Out” could have easily have been a Hardy Boys Digest. It doesn’t have much action, and much like most of the Digests published around the time this book was, the plot involves sabotage.

This time around, the target of the sabotage is Rob Niles, a champion orienteer. Much of the book focuses on his rivalry with his teammate Takashi Okira, and both characters acted like jerks to each other for most of the book. This got so annoying, I stopped caring about both characters, and started skimming through the parts where they got into arguments.

To make matters worse, something about Takashi brings out the worst in Joe, and for a few chapters, he starts acting like a jerk too. Early in the book, Rob breaks into Takashi’s hotel room to play a prank, and Frank and Joe follow him inside. When Takashi catches them, Joe gets angry at him for not listening to them, despite the fact he really has no reason to. After Takashi kicks them out, Joe says “I can’t believe we let that guy talk to us that way.”  

Later, Joe breaks into Takashi’s hotel room again, gets into a fistfight with him, and acts like it’s Takashi’s fault. I understand that Joe is more hotheaded in the Casefiles then he is in the other series, but the ghostwriter took it too far.  To be fair though, Joe does apologize for his behaviour at the end of the book.

We are eventually introduced to a rival team, as a chapter ends with Rob noticing Takashi eating lunch with that team. This of course leads to another argument. It turns out that the rival team’s coach, Malika Morris, is pretty much a female version of Takashi, and I ended up doing even more skimming through pages. I actually considered not finishing the book, that’s how annoying the constant arguments got.

It really didn’t help that the plot is pretty dull.  There’s not much variety in the sabotage, and most of it is stuff I’ve seen countless times in other Hardy Boys books.

Frank and Joe don't do very much investigating, and most of the time they either watch Rob argue with Takashi or Malika, or rescue Rob from sabotage attempts. They barely try to question suspects, and when they do try to, the suspect just walks off in anger.

The cliff-hangers are rather dull as well. Four cliff-hangers involve Rob, Frank, or Joe falling down something. One of the chapters near the end of the book ends with Rob accusing Malika of giving people Australian compasses. I think the ghostwriter was having trouble with the “every chapter must end in a cliff-hanger” rule. *

Spoilers are below:

I instantly guessed that Jeremy Foote was the person trying to kill Rob because he was one of the only minor characters to act nice to Rob. Takashi and Malika were obvious red herrings, and the book tried way too hard to make them look suspicious.

I was surprised when it turned out that Takashi admitted to sending Rob threatening notes and leaving a Rattlesnake in Rob’s bed. I was even more surprised when he got away with this, with everyone treating it as a mean prank. Also, nobody points out to Takasahi that the snake would have killed Rob had Joe not noticed it.

On a positive note, it was nice that Liz Webling made an appearance. She and Callie join the Hardys on their trip, and actually help with the investigation a tiny bit. I'm always happy to see recurring characters, and Liz was one of the best parts of the book. 

The final three chapters were rather exciting, and the showdown with the villain was good, if a bit short. The villain's motivation made sense, unlike in the last Casefile I read. (Poisoned Paradise **)  I also learned some stuff about orienteering, a sport that I knew nothing about. So the book has some educational value, I guess.

There are much worse Hardy Boys books out there, and I debated on giving this one a slightly higher rating. But in the end, the book had too many problems. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless you have an interest in orienteering. Even then, there has to be something better you could read.

Rating

3 out of 10

*  "I was told the emphasis was on high action and suspense and there had to be a cliff-hanger ending to every chapter." -  Barbara Steiner, a Casefiles ghostwriter. 

** You can see my review of Poisoned Paradise here. 

Review: Miss Clue: Formula for Danger

Before I start this review, I’ll admit that I’m not that good at adventure games. I’ve only ever beaten one Nancy Drew game out of the ten or so that I’ve played, and I needed the help of a walkthrough to do it. I needed the help of a walkthrough for this game as well. I’m hoping to get better at these types of games, and I’ve made it my goal to not use a walkthrough for the next game I play.

“Formula for Danger” is a fun clone of the Nancy Drew games. The game has you play as Jane Darcy, who is staying at her aunt’s lodge. One day, she hears a scream coming from the other side of a lake and decides to investigate it. It turns out that Jane’s friend Anne needs her help finding a formula hidden by her late father. Someone else is after the formula, and it’s up to Jane to find out who.

If you’ve played an Nancy Drew game, you’ll notice that “Formula for Danger” is extremely similar to the earlier games in the series. This isn’t a bad thing. With the next Nancy Drew game not scheduled to come out until 2019, it’s nice to have something to play while waiting. 

The puzzles are similar to the ones in the Nancy Drew games. I can’t really comment that much on the game’s difficulty due to me being genuinely bad at the game. * I will say that this probably is not the best game for beginners, as well there is a hint system at the start of the game, you lose access to it halfway through, when the puzzles start getting harder.

One problem I had with the puzzles was the amount of backtracking you had to do to solve them. To get from the lodge to Anne’s mansion, you have to walk for a bit, take a boat, then walk a bit more. In the early chapters, I had to do this multiple times. This got old fast. Fortunately, this stops being a problem in the later chapters.  

It doesn’t help that the game expects you to check everywhere to solve the puzzles. Even with the hint system early on, the location of some things wasn’t clear.  The fact that some things could only be clicked on in a specific spot didn’t help at all.

For example, I had to check Arglefumph’s playthrough to find the boathouse keys because they happened to be on the couch I checked several times without finding the hotspot. The area with the sofa was hard to navigate as well, and I had to go in circles a few times to get to the right spot.  I had the same problem with Jane’s room in the lodge.

Like in the Nancy Drew games, you can die or fail, and if you do, you can continue from where you left off. I only failed once near the end, and there appears to be only four points in the game where you can lose.

The first one didn’t happen until almost halfway through the game, when the lab I was in started filling up with gas. This caught me off guard, but I managed to stop the gas in time. This was a really suspenseful moment, and it kept me on my toes for the rest of the game.

There were also some creepy moments in the game. The scene where Jane gets woken up in the middle of the night by strange noises genuinely scared me.  There was also a moment involving a secret passage that made me jump. 

The game’s mystery was rather fun. Although the culprit’s identity was painfully obvious, there were still a few twists and turns along the way. You don’t spend as much time talking to suspects as you do in most Nancy Drew game, and one suspect you only talk to twice. The game is more focused on the puzzles then the story, but the puzzles are fun enough that it doesn’t matter. I will say that the voice acting could have used some work, but it was good enough. 

Unfortunately, I had some technical issues while playing the game. Flash crashed twice, forcing me to refresh the page. To the game’s credit, I didn’t lose any progress from this, as the game frequently autosaves. Occasionally, I saw stuff appear then randomly vanish. For example, for a split second, I saw the Macaw I had already dropped off at the lodge magically appear on my boat then disappear.  It’s not game breaking, but it’s still odd.

There were some more serious problems. Some areas that looked like hotspots (the magnifying glass would turn red) weren’t, causing me to waste time trying to click them. There were some missing sound files, as I would often see subtitles for an unsaid line. These problems weren’t that common, but they were still annoying.

There was also one time in Chapter 13 where the correct code refused to work on a code machine, forcing me to check a walkthrough again. I consider that almost game breaking. If someone insisted on not using a walkthrough, they would be stuck on that spot forever.

All in all, “Formula for Danger” is a good game. You can play it for free on the VFK website if you make an account, and I’d recommend it. It’s got its problems, but hey, it’s free. There’s a few other games in the series to check out as well, and all but one of them are free to play.

Rating

6.5 out of 10

* At one point in the game, I got stuck because I forgot how to spell the word “Mongoose”. Another time, I counted the wrong number of chess pieces, and initially thought it was glitch when my answer turned out to be wrong.

Review: At All Costs (SuperMystery #33)

I’ve had this book on my reading list for a while, but never got around to reading it until recently. This is for two reasons. The first reason is that don’t like Hardy Boys books that have an environmental theme. This is because those books tend to be incredibly dull, and the villains’ identities tend to be obvious. (It’s almost always an evil businessman)

The second reason is that “At All Costs” is pretty much a sequel to my least favorite Hardy Boys Casefile, “Survival of the Fittest”. If you’ve never read “Survival of the Fittest”, it basically consists of Frank and Joe body-guarding a kid, then wandering through the desert while the reader is bored to death. Kip Cole appears in both books, and the events of “Survival of the Fittest” are mentioned several times in “At All Costs”.

Fortunately, “At All Costs” is much better then “Survival of the Fittest”. For starters, the pacing is a lot better. There’s a good balance between action and mystery, and there’s some good cliff-hangers. The last half of the book is really fast paced, and unlike in “Survival of the Fittest”, the villains actually know how to use guns.

Unlike some of the more recent Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, clues don’t appear out of nowhere (save for an incident at the start of the book), and Frank, Joe, and Nancy have to put some effort into their investigation.

The book does a good of giving Frank, Joe, and Nancy equal time to shine, unlike a few SuperMysteries where Nancy takes center stage.

I’m don’t really remember how much Kip appeared in “Survival of the Fittest”, but in “At All Costs”, he’s a major character. We get to meet some of his family, including his sister, Shana, and he joins Frank and Joe for most of their investigation. I can’t help but wonder if there was plans for him to make a third appearance somewhere, as he’s one of the few Casefiles characters to appear in a SuperMystery. *

“At All Costs” does have a few problems.

Nancy knew who one of the villains was by the third chapter, as he just happened to walk into Taylor’s apartment while Nancy and Allison were inside. In the book’s defense, this is handled quite well, with Nancy spending a lot of the book trying to prove that he’s the villain.

However, said villain only appears in person once in the entire book. Nancy doesn’t even talk to him, and all we really know about him is that he is corrupt and that he’s a liar. We know a lot of this because of monologues given by Allison and Kip about his actions, breaking the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule.

There are some twists near the end, but one of them near the end seems to come out of nowhere, and involves a character who never appeared until then, and Frank and Joe only briefly investigated. While his motives make sense, it still felt like a Diabolus Ex Machina.**

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned Earth At All Costs, the group the book is named after. That’s because there isn’t much to talk about. They appear a bit in the first half of the book, then vanish. They are mentioned as suspects a few times after that, but they don’t appear again.

I think the main problem is that the book has too many villains. There’s several of them and one of them working independently from the others. There’s also a few unnamed henchmen as well.

Then you have Kip and his family, Allison, and the other people that Frank, Joe, and Nancy meet along the way. It felt like the writer had a really hard time dealing with all the minor characters and villains, so you have characters that should be important vanish for most of the book.

Also, I take issue with Joe and Shana dating in this book, as the ghostwriter never mentions the fact that Joe already has a girlfriend. Either the writer didn’t know about Vanessa or didn’t care. To me at least, Vanessa not being mentioned counts as either an error or lazy writing, and I'm deducting 0.2 points off the book's score for it.

“At All Costs” is an enjoyable SuperMystery, despite having too many characters. I would recommend giving it a read.

Rating

6.8 out of 10

*Fenton Hardy and the Grey Man made appearances in some of the other SuperMysteries.

** Major Spoilers below:

  

It was interesting that Frank and Joe actually failed to stop the bomber from blowing up the ski jump, although no one died.  Speaking of deaths, three people died in this book. That’s the most people I’ve seen die in a SuperMystery.

Nancy Drew Diaries #17 “Famous Mistakes”

Nancy Drew Diaries #17 “Famous Mistakes” is still not listed on Simon and Schuster’s website. Amazon barely has any info on the book, and there are still two releases for the book going around the internet.  I suspect that the book has been cancelled.

However, thanks to the Library of Congress, we now know what the plot of “Famous Mistakes” is. And to be quite honest, I won’t mind if the book gets cancelled.

“Nancy and her sleuthing friends race to find out who is responsible for sabotaging a controversial comedian's upcoming performance at River Heights's new arts complex, where an exhibition of Dutch Masters is being installed.”

It’s yet another Diaries book where Nancy Drew investigates sabotage. Most of the Diaries books have been about sabotage. Even “A Nancy Drew Christmas” seems to be about sabotage. It seems like Simon and Schuster have run out of ideas for Nancy Drew books, which is odd, because the Hardy Boys Adventures series doesn’t seem to have this problem.

I really don’t see the Diaries series lasting for much longer, especially since “Famous Mistakes” is looking like a “Phantom Book” *, a book that is announced, but never published. Normally, if a Nancy Drew or a Hardy Boys series has one of these, it means the series has been cancelled. 

I could be wrong about this, and I will be keeping an eye on Simon and Schuster’s website to see if anything changes. 

*Two examples of Phantom Books are the Fear Street Segas books "The Raven Woman" and "Carousel of Doom". The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers book "The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper" is another example.

A Nancy Drew Christmas in September

According to Simon and Schuster's website, the 18th book in the Nancy Drew Diaries series will be called "A Nancy Drew Christmas: Super Special". The book has a release date of 18 Sep 2018. There's no cover for it yet, but we do have a back cover summery:

Nancy finds herself a Christmas mystery in this super special eighteenth book of the Nancy Drew Diaries series, a fresh approach to the classic mystery series.

Nancy Drew’s dad surprises her with a trip to a beautiful New England ski resort for Christmas break. Nancy is so excited. What could be better than a whole week of skiing and five-star dining?

But no vacation can go smoothly when Nancy is involved. On her very first run down the slopes, Nancy hits a bad patch of ice and takes a serious tumble. A doctor sends her back to the hotel in a cast and mandates twelve days of bed rest. That means no long car trips back to River Heights and twelve days of sitting around. Luckily, there’s still the five-star dining and beautiful views.

Just hours into her convalescence, Nancy witnesses something very suspicious through another hotel room window. And when she presses the concierge she learns there have been mysterious break-ins throughout the hotel. It’s clear someone has been going into guest’s rooms but, as far as anyone can tell, nothing has been taken. Nancy can’t resist—she has to investigate. Only trouble is, she’s still bed bound.

Taking some cues from Home Alone’s Kevin McCallister, Nancy devises some clever schemes to get her investigating done from her bed. But for all her plans, Nancy still can’t find the source of the break-ins. Or the purpose. What’s worse the mood of the hotel has turned decidedly un-merry. People are leaving in droves and the jolly hotel owner is worried about the hotel’s success.

With all the odds stacked against her, can Nancy solve this crime in time to save Christmas? Or is this one Yuletide she’ll wish to forget?

Despite not really being interested in the Diaries series, I'll will admit the book sounds interesting. What's also interesting is the fact that Simon and Schuster is releasing a Christmas themed book in September.

Also, that release date is very pretty close to the release date(s) for Diaries #17 "Famous Mistakes", which is supposed to come out on either  August 28, 2018, or September 5, 2018, depending on what site you check. "Famous Mistakes" is also not listed on the S&S website, nor do we have a back cover summery for "Famous Mistakes".

Is "A Nancy Drew Christmas" replacing "Famous Mistakes"?

A Nancy Drew Files Mystery Solved?

Recently, I've been looking through LinkedIn to see if I find any info on Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew ghostwriters. I actually found quite a bit:
-Ami Boghani wrote The Nancy Drew Diaries #10
-Ellen Keller wrote The Hardy Boys Casefiles #91
-Deborah Gaine wrote The Nancy Drew Files #40 and #44

However, one LinkedIn page not only revealed the name of a ghostwriter, but might have solved a mystery as well. But first, some background info.

The final book in the Nancy Drew Files series, "Crime at the Chat Cafe" was published on December 1st, 1997. However, that may have not been the last book written for the series. The Book Depository had a listing and an ISBN number for Nancy Drew Files #128, before the listing was removed.* They also had listings for other unpublished Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, like Casefiles #129, 131-134 and Super Mystery #38.

What the Book Depository didn't have were ISBN numbers for Nancy Drew Files #125-127. Now, you'll notice that I didn't list Casefiles #130 as one of the unpublished books. That's because it actually got published as Digest #150, "The Crisscross Crime". If you were to search the Book  Depository for "Casefiles #130", back when the site still listed unpublished books, you'd find nothing.

So where were the ISBN numbers for Nancy Drew Files #125-127? I have long suspected that those three Nancy Drew Files books got published as Nancy Drew Digests. However, I've never been able to figure out exactly Digests started out as Files books.

Now back to LinkedIn. While searching, I found this profile. (You need a LinkedIn account to access it)

In the experience section, she lists some of the books she's written. Now this is where it gets interesting. One of the entries on her list is, "The E-Mail Mystery, Nancy Drew Files (Megabooks; Simon & Schuster)". 

This is strange, because "The E-Mail Mystery" is actually Digest #144. However, Denise Hidalgo referred to it as a Nancy Drew Files book. Considering that she wrote the book, I don't think this was an error. 

Now I haven't read "The E-Mail Mystery", but the summery on the back cover makes it sound a lot like a Nancy Drew Files book. I'm pretty sure that the "The E-Mail Mystery" is one of the three missing Files books (#125-127). 

*For those wondering, the ISBN number for Nancy Drew Files #128 is 9780671007553.