I Remain Unsettled by the Creepy Barbie Game That Remembered My Name.
When you think of leads in scary games, Barbie isn't the first name that comes to mind. However, those who played the pleasantly spooky 1998 PC game Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper knows that Barbie absolutely has heroine capabilities.
The Bizarre Setup
The storyline is fittingly bizarre: Barbie and her friend Becky have newly finished from their area sleuthing college, since naturally that's an actual institution. A "fall charity carnival" is in town, and Ken is somehow the event organizer, although he and Barbie are indicated as adolescents. But the night before the carnival starts, disaster occurs: Ken goes missing via a magic act accident, and the donation funds vanishes with him! Naturally, it's the responsibility of Detective Barbie, her friend Becky (who functions as her "guy in the chair"), and the player to unravel the puzzle of his vanishing.
Investigator Barbie was uttering user names verbally well before Fallout 4 and Starfield attempted the trick — and she could pronounce nearly any name.
The Creepiness Starts
The peculiarity emerges pretty much immediately. When launching the game, users are asked to choose their name from a list, and Barbie will address the player by name all through the experience. I must underline how long and thorough this name list is. If you're someone who has consistently found it difficult finding keychains with your name on them at souvenir stores, you might think you're out of luck here, but you're mistaken. There are thousands of names on the list, which appears to catalogue nearly every variation of every feminine forename in existence, from incredibly common to astonishingly scarce. While Barbie speaks the player's name with a frankly terrifying amount of cheerful excitement, it isn't similar to text-to-speech, which has me pondering how long Barbie actress Chris Anthony Lansdowne remained in the studio listing damn near every girl's name under the sun.
Roaming the Festival
When gamers provide their name, they gain control of Barbie as she examines the area of the crime. The time is late, and she's all alone (except for Becky, who periodically contacts via the Crime Computer). Reflecting now, I can't overcome how much roaming about the game's creepy carnival grounds is similar to playing Silent Hill 3. Certainly, this carnival lacks blood and rust, or infested with horrifying beings like Lakeside Amusement Park, but the feel is unquestionably eerie. Things only get more paranoia-inducing when Barbie starts detecting a dark figure lurking in the fair. Turns out she's not by herself after all.
It's hard to beat a nerve-wracking pursuit down a absurdly lengthy chute to raise your heart rate.
Unsettling Rides and Chases
As you guide Barbie through more and more creepy games and exhibits (the spooky decoration closet still gives me nightmares), the player will discover hints, which she sends to Becky to scrutinize. The clues ultimately lead Barbie to the mysterious figure's location, and it's up to her to find them, chasing Ken's kidnapper through a variety of fairground classics including bumper cars, an enormous slide with diverging routes, and a poorly illuminated love tunnel. These chases were genuinely heart-pounding — the music gets tense, and a single misstep could lead to the suspect fleeing.
Unexpected Complexity
Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper had a unexpected amount of detail, especially for a late '90s point-and-click game designed for young girls. In place of outfitting Barbie, or engaging with her equines, Detective Barbie centered on actual gameplay, had a captivating plot, and was creepy as hell. It even had certain replayability — each playthrough switched up the kinds of evidence players would come upon, and regarding Ken's kidnapper, there were several persons of interest — the offender's persona changed each time you played. After the case was cracked, players could even generate a apprentice investigator insignia to show off for top-tier social status.
A child's initial fright! The clues in this room creak loudly or emerge unexpectedly as players examine them.
Influence and Successors
Naturally, after a handful of reruns, you'd finally encounter everything the game had to offer, but it was remarkable back then, and even spawned two sequels: 1999's Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery, and 2000's Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise. The brand remains releasing Barbie video games to this day — the forthcoming game is Barbie Horse Tails (yes, another equestrian/customizing adventure), which launches soon. Even though the images are a certain upgrade over Detective Barbie, I am skeptical Barbie Horse Tails features the same degree of interactive complexity, replay value, or general spookiness as its end-of-century ancestors, which is kind of a shame.
An Introduction to Scares
Despite Mattel's original intentions for the game, Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper ended up becoming my introduction to scary media, and I'd appreciate observing Detective Barbie appear in another fun-but-spooky game that goes beyond costuming and equestrian activities. Society possesses numerous pony lovers, but it could definitely use more tough young sleuths solving high-stakes charity carnival crimes.
