When I first received my Sega Genesis in 1993, I also received two games: Sonic the Hedgehog II and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego. Since I often watched the PBS show and was such a geography freak – I still own a board game where you need to collect cards relating to country data – I immediately started playing the latter game. You will enjoy it... providing you liked the show and enjoy geography.

Graphics: 2/10

This low score is not because the graphics are terrible; it's because graphics play no part in this game whatsoever.

The game is reduced to the world map (which has a realistic illustration of the various climates), your warrant page and the cities you visit (limited to three main places each). The only “animated” graphics you see are your foot steps and the mystery thief you see running around telling you you landed in the right city/the weapons telling you s/he is in the city and the police chase towards him/her. When you catch Carmen Sandiego at the very end, you get an additional marching band celebrating your exploit.

Music: 2/10

Once again, this game was not created because it had an awesome soundtrack.

As a matter of fact, I can't even remember if there was any music, which proves my point. The only sound effects I remember are the footsteps to each places you explore/chasing the thief once you can catch him/her, the plane you fly (which does sound like a plane) and the clock ticking for each hour you spend (it speeds up at night). Of course, the sight of the thief and his/her presence in the city yields a short dramatic track.

Addictiveness: 10/10

This is what kept me playing this game on and on until I got through the game.

First of all, this game is available in five languages. Being a native French speaker, I of course got through the game in that language first. But then, as a challenge, I tried English and then Spanish (or was it Italian)? It may not look like much but I did learn a few more words from the Latin languages – I could guess the overall meaning most of the time.

In addition, this pursuit to be the best detective ever is highly addictive. There was always a little fight among my siblings because I played “too much” and wouldn't let them play! I always wanted to do one more mission before quitting.

Depth: 7/10

I'm not too sure how to rate this feature.

You goal is to be the best detective around, completing 30 missions catching Carmen Sandiego and her crooks. You have seven days to do it, otherwise they run free and your boss will question whether you deserve your detective license...

The fact that the game is well-translated into five languages would count as depth. I mean, you would have to complete 150 missions before you completely beat the game.

Difficulty: 5/10

For those well-versed into geography, this game is a joke. The clues about where the thief has gone are usually fairly obvious and you usually miss your destination because you didn't use the controller properly. Also, who the thief is in each case is also easy to find out if you read what people in each city has to say.

The main difficulty, notwithstanding geographic knowledge, would come about for people who don't speak French, English, Italian, German or Spanish. Unless you have a native-like mastery of one of the languages, you might have a hard time understanding the clues. People will often use synonyms/subtle ways to tell you the clues. Instead of saying that the thief plays tennis, people might talk about a “sore elbow” or about some famous tennis player. Instead of talking about brown or black hair, they might say mahogany or ebony instead.

In short, unless you like the Carmen Sandiego TV show or are a geography nerd, this game is probably not for you. The graphics are almost completely static, there is no music/sound effect worth remembering and no action whatsoever. Compared to Carmen Sandiego, strategy games like Shining Force look like an action-packed zombie apocalypse.