Each bit of edutainment I’ve sampled thus far has felt insincere. I never played the Carmen Sandiego games and were I to start, I wouldn’t pick the DOS version. Good God look at it:

I think I did watch that cartoon, though. Watching a bit of it now it’s remarkable how similar the concept is to the DOS game. Carmen gives the detectives clues, learning happens, and then they follow those clues to more clues. There are even educational bits of dialogue. One of Carmen’s henchmen pushes the protagonists out of a helicopter and Carmen goes, “Don’t you ever do that again. There are always choices when you use your brains and not your brawn.”

*shudder*

There must be some very smart people behind the Carmen Sandiego franchise if it has been this successful. They make Carmen Sandiego hot then tell you to chase her. It’s like they knew I would fall for that MY WHOLE LIFE.