Dare to play.

A series of DRM-free Adventure Games based on the Nancy Drew novels, released mostly for the PC by HerInteractive starting in 1998. The company typically releases two new games a year, to much critical acclaim. However, due to an overhaul of the game engine and (reportedly) internal trouble at the company, over four years passed between the release of Sea of Darkness (the 32nd game) and Midnight in Salem (the 33rd and most recent game).

Titles include:

Two additional games with a less immersive format  Lights, Camera, Curses! and Resorting To Danger  have been released under the "Nancy Drew Dossier" heading. Most of the games are available on Steam note Except for Stay Tuned For Danger , and a digital version of The Curse Of Blackmoor Manor is now available on GOG.com . Big Fish Games also has all releases from 2000-2014 (including the Dossiers).

For trope sheets on individual games, see the recap page. Be warned, all spoilers are unmarked!

Accidental Misnaming: Professor Hotchkiss calls you by a different name every time — even in the same conversation — and it's never "Nancy". She does manage to get your name right in Treasure in a Royal Tower; she just forgets it again when you call her for help in later games. Same goes for other characters' names: "Baxter" instead of "Dexter", for example. Also true (once) for Casey Porterfield in Deception Island, and repeatedly for Lori Girard in Last Train.

Action Girl: You and a surprising amount of side characters. Noisette Tornade, who worked as a French spy during WW2.

Connie Watson, who in the original Secrets Can Kill does a flying kick at Mitch, even though he's got a gun.

Action Mom: Kasumi Shimuzu, who gave her daughters a freaking sword as their inheritance. Kate Drew, of course.

Adaptational Villainy and Adaptational Nice Guy: To keep things interesting for people who read the books, the culprits will potentially be changed, making the new culprit the former and the old culprit the latter.

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Adventure Game: Except for the Dossier spin-offs, all these games are played in a first-person perspective, similar to Myst.

Air-Vent Passageway: You have to escape a locked room this way in The Deadly Device. And you might even find out you weren't the first to go that way... You have to break into a locked room the same way in Treasure in a Royal Tower.

Alpha Bitch: Warnings at Waverly Academy's Izzy Romero. Leela Yadav comes pretty close, too, but she is shown to be an otherwise nice girl (if not a tad obnoxious). Deidre Shannon in Alibi in Ashes is another example. Downplayed in her reappearance (well, just as a phone contact) in The Deadly Device. The teaser for Midnight in Salem now has her desperately asking you for help.

Aluminum Christmas Trees: Believe it or not, people have hidden treasures and written cryptic riddles as to how to find it.

In Stay Tuned for Danger, Millie sometimes says "Don't take any wooden nickels, young lady!" This may seem like a Non Sequitur, but it actually isn't. ◊

Nancy's car and Jane's . Yes, cars actually look like that. Or used to in the 30's. For those of you too young to remember, they actually didn't look the way they do now until the late 90's.

Always Close: After completing the last challenge in The Silent Spy, the following cutscene shows that Nancy defused the bomb at the very last second, regardless of how much time you actually had left.

Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The multicolored glowing cave lizards from Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon.

Ambiguous Disorder: Rentaro in the Shadow at the Water's Edge is socially awkward, and even lampshades this by saying that he works with machines because they tolerate awkwardness. Can also apply to Mason from The Deadly Device. He shows all the symptoms of OCD, from arranging the items on his desk in a certain order to (allegedly) alphabetizing the ingredients for a sandwich before making said sandwich.

Colton from Ghost of Thornton Hall appears to have issues with anxiety and depression, but again, no one specifically states what his issues are.

Joy in Carousel is pessimistic as a rule, never talks about anything other than work or her (dead) parents, and rarely shows any emotion other than resigned sadness. A large part of the game's plot is helping Joy resolve her grief and move past her isolation. The possibility that she may have depression is obvious, but never made explicit. Xenia in Labyrinth mentions that she suffered from a "vast sadness" as a child that she suspects will always return for her, which also sounds a lot like depression. It's easily to see how she could be making it up, though, seeing as she's an exceptionally manipulative villain.

Patrick in Medallion definitely conveys the impression that he's been knocked on the head too many times during his rugby career, although nobody comes out and says it.

Amplified Animal Aptitude: Iggy the iguana and Isis the white wolf. Most of the named non-primate animals in these games (except Bob the horse and especially Mr. Mingles) fit in this trope, in fact. Casper the squirrel is also a decent example.

Ancient Astronauts: Sonny Joon in Secret of the Scarlet Hand believes this to be true, in the sense that he thinks the Maya were spirited away by aliens— despite the fact that roughly seven million Maya people are alive and well today.

Jamila in Tomb of the Lost Queen claims aliens taught humans to build the Egyptian pyramids, and cites Sonny Joon as the source of this belief. She's lying to cover up her true reason for being there... although The Shattered Medallion makes that more ambiguous.

Ancient Tomb: Locating Nefertari's hidden burial chamber within one is your chief goal in Tomb of the Lost Queen.

...And That Little Girl Was Me: Renate's story in The Captive Curse.

Anger Born of Worry: Carson is furious at you during The Silent Spy's beginning. This is because you are doing the exact same thing that got Kate murdered . He later clarifies that he isn't angry at you, exactly, and cools down after a talk with Ned.

Art Evolution: The graphics were never really going to win any awards, and the animations were quite limited (Even for early 00s standards), but as the series progressed, the animations and graphics got more and more detailed, the designs became much more realistic, and the characters started making more and more fluid motions. Compare Sea of Darkness to Message in a Haunted Mansion.

Artistic License  Animal Care: You can get kicked off the ranch in The Secret of Shadow Ranch if you don't take proper care of the animals. Bet outright states that you could have killed the horses after you admit to giving them the wrong food.

As You Know: Alibi in Ashes has to rely on this a lot, as the game takes place in River Heights, where Nancy and her friends have always lived. They have a lot of information about the people in town, but the player doesn't, so Nancy, Bess, George, and Ned end up making comments such as "Remember— Deirdre's always had it in for you!" or "Remember all of those times that Brenda did something crazy to get a story?" throughout a lot of the game.

Ascended Fanboy: Or fangirl. Bet in Secret of Shadow Ranch is an in-universe example. Bet: Omigosh. You mean,

Ed: Be still, my palpitating heart.

Bet: Ed!

Bet: You tell her she's welcome to visit Shadow Ranch and do all the research she wants, anytime she wants.

Ed: Don't I get a say in this?

Bet: No. Omigosh. You mean, Charleena Purcell is going to write a book that takes place on our ranch?Ed!You tell her she's welcome to visit Shadow Ranch and do all the research she wants, anytime she wants.Don't I get a say in this? Her Interactive also held a contest to get your picture put in Secrets Can Kill: Remastered as students in the high school. Michael "Arglefumph" Gray, one of the most well-known Let's Players of the series, was one of the contest winners. note On the Student of the Month board, he's the picture for September.

The Anticipator: This happens in virtually every game. No matter what, the villain knows exactly when you will finally thwart their plans. They nearly always wait for you in a final area in order to do away with you. Permanently. Some occurrences are: In The Final Scene, Joseph Hughes is waiting for you to enter the attic where Maya is found .

is waiting for you . In Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Emily Griffin is waiting for you to solve a puzzle in order to trap you. This person even brandishes a bone menacingly at you and tries to lock you in an underground safe .

Ascended Meme: The fandom has a tendency to make fun of the clothes shown in your suitcase, usually a green shirt decorated with a stylized horse head and what seems to be a pair of mom jeans. Then, in The Silent Spy, you'll discover a letter from your deceased mother telling how you continued to wear the "ugly" horse shirt to school despite teasing because you wanted to be liked . Spy also gives us the following gem: Alec: If you're so attached to your mom's jeans, why did you take them on an international flight? Similarly, in the early games, your voice actor says "It's locked" in a very deadpan way. They kept this in future games, so many fans play a game of trying to find all the locked doors they can just so they can hear the "It's locked." voice clip.

Asian and Nerdy: Rentaro from Shadow at the Water's Edge runs headlong into it. Hal Tanaka from Secrets Can Kill could also apply - about the only thing he does through the entire game is study, and he outright admits that his goal is to become a doctor.

And, as it turns out in The Shattered Medallion, Sonny Joon.

Asshole Victim: Jake Rogers from Secrets Can Kill. Given that his classmates only remember him as a blackmailer and a bully, it's remarkable that they stop short of saying he deserved his fate. Though in the Remastered version he does ultimately contribute (posthumously) to helping you solve the mystery and bust another criminal . To a lesser extent, this also applies to Niko Jovic from The Deadly Device, though he's not quite on Jake Rogers' level.

Deconstructed somewhat in one of Thorntons multiple endings, you can leave the Big Bad, a thief and murderer, whose lies have ruined Harper's life, to die in a fire — akin to the one she caused even if you chose to save everyone else . The game's stance is that, whether the murderer deserved to die or not, you will feel bad that you essentially killed someone , and your feelings are important, even if Clara's life isn't

The Atoner: Moira Chisholm in The Secret Spy, whose lies to Kate inadvertently caused her death .

Awesome Mc Coolname: Noisette Tornade in Danger By Design translates from French as hazelnut tornado, which either sounds like a really bizarre weather phenomenon or a really awesome dessert.

Ax-Crazy: Many of the villains' sociopathy is played disturbingly straight. A prominent example goes to Stay Tuned For Danger villain Dwayne Powers , for being the only one so enraged and crazy that he tries to kill you AGAIN in Ransom of the Seven Ships with an elaborate and time-consuming plan of revenge .

, for being the only one so enraged and crazy that he . Thanos Ganas in Labyrinth of Lies is another example. Not only does he have connections to the Greek mafia and multiple past murders on his record, but you find a confession note written by Grigor near the end of the game, which he wrote in anticipation of being killed by Thanos after the heist .

is another example. Not only does he have multiple past murders on his record, but . This becomes a literal case in Sea of Darkness, although the villain does not actually harm you with the axe, instead using it to trap you in an ice cave.

Bad "Bad Acting": Niobe. Justified, since it's a front for an elaborate heist, and she's the least experienced of all her co-conspirators — except probably for Thanos .

Bad Boss: Minette from Danger by Design. She's gone through three assistants, and after playing Design, you'll understand why. She will also fire you if you don't answer the phone in time.

Bad Liar: In Danger by Design, if you get caught by the police in the tunnels, your response to being arrested on the spinning newspaper is, "You mean this isn't the way to the Eiffel Tower?" (Normally, though, you're a pretty good liar- unless the plot requires otherwise.)

Bald of Evil: Shorty Thurmond from The Secret of Shadow Ranch and Victor Lossett from The Deadly Device.

Be as Unhelpful as Possible: If the suspects were actually honest with you, the games would be far, far shorter. Justified for the culprit, of course, and the few suspects who are innocent of the main crime but doing something else illegal and/or against the rules of where they are employed.

Bears Are Bad News: One of the "Good News, Bad News" scenarios if you lose the final puzzle at the end of Warnings at Waverly Academy: The Good News: The giant pendulum that was about to slice you in half just before the camera cut away apparently missed and struck open the wall..

The Bad News: Waiting for you on the other side of the wall: Angry bears. Rule of Funny dismisses the Fridge Logic as to how or why they'd supposedly be there.

Fridge Logic as to how or why they'd supposedly be there. In Tomb of the Lost Queen, Lily tells us that the probability of "contracting" a curse is the same probability that you'd end up "white-water rafting with a hungry bear. Who also has the bird flu. And he's holding dynamite."

Berserk Button: Many suspects, villains or not, have them. Mystico the Magnificent's is you asking for anything except for "something very special."

If you lose Jacques' medallion , he will get mad at you and not talk to you for pretty much the rest of the game.

, he will get mad at you and not talk to you for pretty much the rest of the game. Malachi Craven is really easy to set off. So is Minette.

Elliot Chen will kick you out if you accidentally knock down a can of paint. Alexei Markovic does the same with anyone who breaks one of his antiques.

Do not break Colin Baxter's microscope.

Do not suggest to Jasmine Ivy from Resorting to Danger that Eda Brooks, from Lights, Camera, Curses!, is her sister. Or suggest that Jasmine looks and sounds like Eda. Jasmine really hates Eda!

Leela Yadav likes having a boyfriend. Do not steal him from her.

Abdullah Bakhoum doesn't take too kindly to anyone who dares suggest that aliens built the pyramids.

Miwako reacts badly whenever her mother is brought up, and usually will stop talking to you. She will also kick you out of the Ryokan if you ask her about an article that is detailing her mom's death. Justifiable - you're giving her proof that you've been inside her room without permission and pilfering her belongings.

One case involves you having to go into someone's briefcase, read his manuscript, and ask him a question about something mentioned in said manuscript. The question itself is so specific, he asks where you heard of it, and mention that you read it in a book, he'll (correctly) deduce you were poking around his belongings and game over.

Bring Shorty unripe vegetables one too many times...

...or try to collect the white hen's eggs while she's there, for that matter.

Harper in Ghost of Thornton Hall gets you to push Clara's For the Lulz: the Thornton matriarch doesn't know who her father is.

in Ghost of Thornton Hall gets you to push Clara's For the Lulz: the Thornton matriarch doesn't know who her father is. Don't you dare get caught with your hands in Renate's purse. Justifiable - you're stealing things from her purse.

Ewan MacLeod's is messing with the temperature controls in the server room

Xenia Doukas loses it when you inform her that you discovered that some of the art pieces on display are forgeries .

Beware the Nice Ones: In nearly every game, the suspect who is the nicest to you turns out to be the villain, though this is nicely averted once in a while to keep the games from becoming too predictable. Sometimes someone who isn't the culprit can go in this territory. A notable example is Daryl from Secrets Can Kill Remastered who gets angry with you when you ask too many questions. It turns out that he had top secret information, which he gave "Detective Beech". Jake used this information to blackmail both of them and you can guess how well this ended for him.

Beneath the Mask: Nearly every culprit. Literally with Minette.

Big Bad: While the series itself has no real "Big Bad", every game usually has one (Sometimes two) figure(s) that act as this, called "The Culprit" by the fandom and Word of God. The Culprit is the one committing the game's crime, and sometimes makes attempts on Nancy's life, although some of these happen by mistake. However, there is one aversion (see No Antagonist).

Word of God. The Culprit is the one committing the game's crime, and sometimes makes attempts on Nancy's life, although some of these happen by mistake. However, there is one aversion (see No Antagonist). Perhaps the closest that the series itself has to a Big Bad is Dwayne Powers, the only culprit to return .

. Bigger Bad: Several of the "Culprits" are merely figures working for another group, such as the Greek Mafia in Labyrinth of Lies and the Fredonian Government who Yanni has been spying for .

Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Thorntons, although not many of them are alive anymore. The Penvellyns subvert this trope. They live in an extremely scary mansion and many of them are/were interested in science and the occult, but these are all Red Herrings. They're mostly good people- they just have a lot of secrets and consider their heritage very important. An Easter Egg in Thornton (the portrait hanging in Charlotte's bedroom) implies these families may be related.



Big Beautiful Woman: J.J. Ling in Danger By Design. Her job as a plus-size model actually requires that she be this. Hollywood Pudgy, since J.J. specifies that she's three pounds shy of a "perfect size 12" like Minette wants. Even worse if Minette is going by European sizes, where a 12 is closer to a US 10.

Big Damn Heroes: "Way to go, Ralph!" Arguably Holt Scotto in Danger on Deception Island; you've already defeated the Big Bad by the time this person shows up with the Coast Guard, but their arrival means you won't have to deal with the culprit's henchmen.

in Danger on Deception Island; you've already defeated the Big Bad by the time this person shows up with the Coast Guard, but their arrival means you won't have to deal with the culprit's henchmen. Both Alex and Magnus in Sea of Darkness - Alex catches the Big Bad while Magnus rescues you from being trapped.

Big Eater: Professor Hotchkiss who has a Bizarre Taste in Food. Also, Bess. Several phone conversations with her mention her continual attempts to diet.

To get some achievements, you have to indulge your sweet tooth until you can't take it anymore.

Big Friendly Dog: Ironically, the so-called "ghost dogs" in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake are actually this — when they're not being ordered to act vicious by means of a silent alarm. After their former owner goes to prison, Sally ends up adopting them . Truth in Television. If a dog's acting violent in real life, there are five possible reasons why: the dog feels threatened, the dog is unused to humans, the dog is hunting and/or fighting for survival, the dog's owner is not disciplining it correctly, or the dog is being trained to be violent. And only the last two reasons could explain a dog pack attacking a house .

Big "NO!": In The Final Scene's climax, you get the option to do this in response to Brady insisting that he demolish the theatre despite the fact that Maya could be trapped inside it . You can choose not to, but why would you? In Blackmoor Manor, a statue does this whenever you fail a particular puzzle.

Bilingual Bonus: The family's surname in Shadow at the Water's Edge is Shimizu. The Japanese word "shi" translates to "death," and "mizu" to "water." Yes, this is significant. The Shimizu kanji on the doorplate at Yumi's apartment literally means "spring water", using the characters for "clear/pure" and "water". There's no kanji meaning "death" involved. However, this could be a way of invoking the famous Japanese superstition regarding any word pronounced like "shi", instead of directly showing the kanji itself.

The Creature of Kapu Cave. "Kapu" is the Hawaiian word for "Taboo".

In a morbid-humor example, one of the cemetery zones in Crystal Skull is called "Terra Siesta". Yes, Bruno Bolet actually named one of the final resting places in his custody "Dirt Nap".

See also Meaningful Name below.

Bishōnen: Sonny Joon, of all people.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Antonia "Toni" Scallari from Alibi in Ashes: a city official who runs the local ice cream shop. She may smile sweetly and pretend to root for you, but secretly she's pushing the police to railroad you into the ground, just because the cases you solve make her look bad in the polls. It's so bad that towards the end of the game, she keeps her Stepford Smiler face on while refusing to help you stop the real arsonist. Also, Helena Berg in The Phantom of Venice, Emily Griffin from Ghost Dogs at Moon Lake and Anja Mittelmeier in The Captive Curse. All are as friendly as can be and Anja even offers you relationship advice. Yet, Helena turns out to be the mastermind behind the thefts in Venice ; Emily is behind the fake ghost dogs so that she can get her hands on buried gold bars ; and Anja is pretending to be the monster that stalks Castle Finster to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend .

in The Phantom of Venice, from Ghost Dogs at Moon Lake and in The Captive Curse. All are as friendly as can be and even offers you relationship advice. Yet, ; ; and . Connie Watson in the original Secrets Can Kill makes for a Double Subversion of this trope. She seems nice and responsible, the most open of the students...but just like the others, she refuses to help you catch the culprit- even after you make it clear that her reluctance may cause another murder. However, she comes through in the end.

In The Shattered Medallion, Kiri Nind is the nicest person to you at the beginning of the game, but she turns out to be one big bitch.

This trope isn't just confined to female villains, either. Joseph Hughes, Taylor Sinclair, Elliott Chen, Andy Jason, Shorty Thurmond, and Rentaro Aihara are among the male characters who at first appear helpful and amiable to Nancy but wind up attempting to kill or at least foil her.

Bladder of Steel: Played straight most of the time, but subverted in The Final Scene: you must make a trip to the bathroom before the game will let you receive an important phone call. In White Wolf of Icicle Creek, going to the bathroom several times is necessary to receive an Easter Egg. In Danger by Design, you can actually develop Dietrich's pictures in the dark room by simply flushing the toilet ten times (if you'd rather not try to work in the dark).

Bond Villain Stupidity: Some of the culprits tend to do themselves in by gloating about their plans rather than attack or kill Nancy right away or making some kind of escape. The culprit for Treasure in the Royal Tower willingly answers Nancy's questions about everything they've done in the game even though they just sprayed mace in her face and they acknowledge that it won't last for long.

The culprit for The Captive Curse explains their motive to Nancy and gloats about how Nancy can't do anything to stop them. In order to defeat the culprit, Nancy has to activate a trapdoor the culprit is standing on while they're still talking or else she will be attacked.

When Nancy confronts the culprit in Shadow at the Water's Edge, she is supposed to grab the audio recorder and trick the culprit into confessing everything. The culprit could easily try to force open the door and get out or just attack Nancy, but they choose to talk and give Nancy proof that they were trying to sabotage the ryokan.

Book Ends: Nearly every game begins and ends with a letter from you to either Ned or her family. Thornton begins and ends with you being woken up in the middle of the night by a call on her phone. The first time, it's Savannah Woodham, a ghost-hunter who needs you to take her place. The second time, it's a secret agent .

Bowdlerization: Romance subplots in the original book versions tend to get dropped in the games, such as between Bess and Rick in Stay Tuned for Danger and between Rose and Louis in Message in a Haunted Mansion.

Breather Episode: After the dramatic, tear-inducing The Silent Spy comes The Shattered Medallion , in which you trek across New Zealand to win a contest.

Breakout Villain: Dwayne Powers from Stay Tuned for Danger and Ransom of the Seven Ships has become this among a portion of the fanbase - partly because he's the only villain to have been featured in more than one game , partly because of their over-the-top persona embracing elaborate villainous schemes and bombastic character.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: The culprit of Stay Tuned shouts that "Time's up!" if you fail to finish a timed puzzle before attacking you. This is justified, though, as Dwayne has confused reality with fiction ("Real life is a soap opera.") and thus treats everyone like characters in a plot... which they are. They've just mixed up the villains with the heroes. In-universe, oddly enough, in Labyrinth of Lies where Grigor's lines for the play have him break the fourth wall and lampshade it.

Any time Bess & George say they can't give you a hint because you're (playing as) a Senior Detective, or Nancy's notes point out she doesn't have a Task List for the same reason.

Brick Joke: In Tomb of the Lost Queen, you just barely remember to release the cobra as you finish your letter home . Early in Sea of Darkness, you can ask Soren about his job at the Cultural Center, and his description includes the line "Nothing says I love you like a new murder tool." Among the possible anniversary gifts you can buy for Ned, the one that produces the best endgame result is the replica Viking sword.

In Phantom of Venice, Nancy uses a fake identity from a spy. In The Silent Spy, that person then returns and tells Nancy it's impolite to use other peoples' identities.

Broken Bridge: If you try to get into Thornton Hall's basement before Harper takes you there, a scythe will drop down from the ceiling and force you to use the Second Chance button. Dangerous animals are a common bridge-breaking obstacle, like the rattlesnake under Zebra Rock in Secret of Shadow Ranch or the eel that blocks a snorkeling Frank Hardy in Creature of Kapu Cave. Neither will budge until the game's ready to allow it.

Burn the Witch!: In The Curse of Blackmoor Manor, this was Elinor Penvellyn's fate.

But Thou Must!: Nearly every game ends with you either going right into the villain's lair or confronting the villain herself, even when you have enough evidence about their crimes to go to the police. (You can refuse to go, but the plot won't progress until you do.) A Justified Trope in that, well, the series is based off mystery novels, and at the end of mystery novels, the protagonist always confronts the villain. It's more dramatic. In Sea of Darkness, Dagny's heater breaks. Nancy points out that there is in fact a pub right around the corner, but Dagny won't tell Nancy what she needs to do next (and won't budge) until you solve the most blatantly-contrived puzzle in the series. (Hilarious though...)

Stay Tuned was especially guilty of this trope. At the end, Lillian calls you and asks you to met her at the TV studio. At night. With no one else around. And right after that, you receive a note threatening to murder Nancy if she doesn't go back to River Heights now. And you have to go.

In Shadow, you have no choice but to demand Takae tell you about her daughter's death. Even though you know the memory hurts her deeply. Even though every time you have tried this previously, it resulted in Takae getting angry and refusing to speak with you at all.

In Thornton, you have to tell Clara/Wade that Harper is hiding in the basement , even though Harper warns you not to do so.

Butt-Monkey: Lamont in Legend of the Crystal Skull. His sole reason for existence is so Bess can do various cruel things to him in order to get a clue for you, much to the player's amusement.

Calling Your Attacks: Played realistically. At the end of Danger By Design, Minette 's insistence on calling her attacks makes her easier to defeat. In fact, the Ichi-Do book that you read beforehand politely points out that this trope is the "only weakness" of the style.

Canon Immigrant: Not really an immigrant, but it took nearly eighty years and numerous untold books, spin-offs, movies, TV series, games and who knows what else for someone to finally give Nancy's deceased mother a name, Katherine "Kate" Drew (nee Austin) — which may just be another Shout-Out to Lost (Evangeline Lilly's character is named Katherine "Kate" Austen).

Canon Welding: Alibi in Ashes does this with a few of the different book series. Brenda Carlton is exclusive to the Files spin-off series, and Deirdre Shannon is exclusive to the Girl Detective series (Simon and Schuster considers Girl Detective an official continuation of the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories; however, in reality, they fit better somewhere between Series Reboot and Spin Off.) However, they're both suspects in Alibi in Ashes, which effectively weld both the Files and Girl Detective series to the original Nancyverse. It's especially interesting because they're pretty much Expies of each other (both are the Alpha Bitch that functions as a jealous nemesis to you, although Deirdre is a more straightforward example, while Brenda is more an Alpha Bitch all grown up.)

Can't Get Away with Nuthin': While sneaking around and lying to people are perfectly acceptable tactics, neglecting any sort of real-life safety tip (leaving your hotel room without turning off the iron, not wearing a helmet or life jacket) will always get you fired or killed so fast it's hilarious. This is cranked Up to Eleven in Secret of Shadow Ranch, where if you give Shorty Thurmond unripe vegetables one too many times, you get kicked off the ranch and are told you won't be allowed to return until you gain "the proper respect for produce".

Captain Obvious: Nigel Mookerjee's memoirs in The Curse of Blackmoor Manor, which you must transcribe, contain statements like "I was very small when I was born." Well, duh...

Cerebus Rollercoaster: It's worth noting that, despite the series developing Cerebus Syndrome, the game went in and out of its seriousness. The video game series started with a murder investigation, then went to much lighter-hearted (and less violent) crimes being committed such as theft and fraud, with a few atmospherically dark games like Blackmoor Manor sprinkled in amongst Lighter and Softer or Denser and Wackier settings like Haunted Carousel or Haunting of Castle Malloy. Then the series took a turn for the darker (see Cerebus Syndrome below). Right after Silent Spy, we have Shattered Medallion which was about... a reality TV show racing across New Zealand, then a forgery ring in Labyrinth of Lies taking The Mafia into account.

Cerebus Syndrome: Eventually, though no two fans can agree exactly when the series began to get darker. You could probably narrow it down to a few options. It could be Legend of the Crystal Skull, which was the first seriously scary game since The Curse of Blackmoor Manor and came after the extremely silly Creature of Kapu Cave and White Wolf of Icicle Creek. The Deadly Device, which features a murder as the main case for the first time since the first game, is another good contender, especially since the game that follows it - Ghost of Thornton Hall - is probably the darkest game released so far, literally and metaphorically. You could also make a fair argument for the double feature of Secrets Can Kill Remastered and Shadow at the Water's Edge.

Changeling Tale: In The Curse of Blackmoor Manor, it's rumored that one of the Penvellyns (specifically, Elinor Penvellyn) was a changeling.

Chekhov's Gun: Where to begin...? How about with the flash paper and ring in The Final Scene? Acquired as a seemingly useless prize early on, it winds up being the very last item used, to get Joseph away from the marquee controls .

in The Final Scene? Acquired as a seemingly useless prize early on, it winds up being the very last item used, . In Shadow Ranch, the most random of these is a book that provides vital information about a 19th-century purse Nancy finds ... a book which George , of all people, just happened to buy at an airport because she was desperately bored.

Nancy finds ... a book which , of all people, just happened to buy at an airport because she was desperately bored. A multi-game one: you know how you occasionally mention that your mother is dead? Well, in the 29th game, we get to see her via flashbacks, discover more about her past, and eventually get a good idea of what killed her .

Chekhov's Gunman: Remember Samantha Quick, the spy whose identity you borrow in The Phantom of Venice? You meet her in The Silent Spy. She's really an American spy named Zoe Wolfe. However, her alias of Samantha Quick is unimportant to the plot of that game, though you will find the false passport in Zoe's hotel room .

Clairvoyant Security Force: Paige Griffin (Warnings at Waverly Academy). Especially at 3:00 AM, in the basement.

Clear My Name: In Alibi in Ashes, this is basically what you have to do when you're accused of arson.

Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Sonny Joon, full stop, especially when he finally appears in The Shattered Medallion. Nancy: Do you believe in aliens?

Sonny: Well,

Nancy: Crazier things than aliens existing?

Sonny: Sure, crazier things. Take a word and say it fifty times in a row and at some point you'll be like, "What's that sound I'm making? What's it mean? (increasingly angry) Why don't I speak my own language? Why did I borrow this one?" So... (suddenly calm) In conclusion, all y'all animals and mountains, equally unlikely and insane.

Nancy: That's an interesting way of looking at it.

Sonny: Is it? And then hilarious. : Well, I'm not one of those Area-51 types , but why not? Crazier things have happened.: Crazier things than aliens existing?: Sure, crazier things. Take a word and say it fifty times in a row and at some point you'll be like, "What's that sound I'm making? What's it mean? (increasingly angry) Why don't I speak my own language? Why did I borrow this one?" So... (suddenly calm) In conclusion, all y'all animals and mountains, equally unlikely and insane.: That's an interesting way of looking at it.: Is it? I think it's scary Professor Hotchkiss has a broad streak of this trope, as does Casey Porterfield (the maritime historian from Deception Island)

Cockney Rhyming Slang: Makes for some confusion while ordering food from the Boar's Head in Curse of Blackmoor Manor.

Collector of the Strange: Bruno Bolet's collections of glass eyes, scale models, and exotic pets. All of which are plot-relevant.

Color-Coded Stones: In Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, the gemstones you must find to operate the steampunk device that reveals the location of Jake Hurley's mine not only look exactly as this trope predicts, but exactly like the pictures of their type in a book you acquire.

Comic-Book Time: Time passes, yet you apparently stay the same age and are still referred to as a "silly American teenager" ten years after the first game supposedly began. Especially amusing in that the exact same voice actors and silly-teen references are used in Secret of the Old Clock, which is a 1930s period piece!

The games have been threaded together since the beginning, however. In the ending for Secrets Can Kill, you mention Aunt Eloise got a letter from a friend about a TV studio and death threats, which led into Stay Tuned For Danger. The last few games like Shadow at The Water's Edge and The Captive Curse have also stated they've occurred one right after the other. What has been ten years for us might actually have only been a couple of months or years in the Nancyverse, in which case she's solved 26 cases so fast she could get any law-enforcement job she'd want.

However, in Ransom of the Seven Ships, Dwayne Powers, the culprit from Stay Tuned for Danger, says that he'd been in prison "for several long years", yet you are still a teenager despite the eighteen-game gap . This one could be chalked up to the fact that Dwayne is the only genuinely crazy villain in the series who honestly believed life was a soap opera and was deluded. He could have just been either exaggerating or the aforementioned deluded state he lived in caused him to really believe it had been many years when it had only been maybe a year .

culprit "for several long years", yet you are still a teenager despite . This one could be chalked up to the fact that . Also, we know at least three winters have taken place since the series began. Treasure in the Royal Tower and White Wolf of Icicle Creek both feature snowy landscapes in North American locations, and Sea of Darkness explicitly takes place in early January.

This trope also applies to other characters. Bess, George, and the Hardy Boys don't seem to be aging either, and Jane from Blackmoor Manor is still a tween crushing on the same film star three games later.

Commedia dell'Arte: In The Phantom of Venice, the gang of art thieves use the names of Commedia dell'Arte characters as code names.

Complexity Addiction: Everyone in the Penvellyn family — every second heir , at least. So, let's say you want your family to keep something secret. Forever. How do you make sure this happens? Well, if you're like Randulf, the first Penvellyn, you first build a giant castle out in the middle of nowhere, with multiple hidden compartments and secret rooms, some of which will kill whoever goes through them in the wrong order. And then leave in said castle a hint about how to get through said secret rooms and reach it. Done? Okay, good. Now when your intelligent grandson comes along, tell him about the secret and where the hint is. Then see that he creates another layer of security on top of your own secret passageways to protect the secret and keep it safe, and insist that he leave a sufficiently cryptic hint about how to get through said layer. Then ask that he does the same thing with his grandchild. Now get the Undying Loyalty of another completely unrelated family, tell them about your plan, swear them to secrecy about said plan, and make them promise to train their heirs as mentors and teachers to your own, so that even if a future Penvellyn heir is orphaned, someone will always be around to initiate them into the clan legacy and help them keep said secret. everyone involved played their parts to a T ... even the people who were born long after Randulf's death. Captain James Lawrence in Sea of Darkness also has some of this. To ensure that only a descendant of his will find his ship's treasure, he not only scatters several puzzle pieces all over his ship and within the town he settled in, he hid the final clue to opening his chest... in the lyrics of a lullaby to be passed on to each child in his line .

Continuity Nod: In Alibi in Ashes, Brenda Carlton says that the fire at Town Hall is the biggest thing to happen since Old Man Crowley's will was found, a reference to the very first Nancy Drew book (which was also adapted into a game), The Secret of the Old Clock. The blog Nancy Incognito records several.

Convection Schmonvection: Averted in The Captive Curse. Opening the glass furnace without protection will get you severely burned. The Good News: You're safe from the castle's monster.

The Bad News: But not from the furnace's monster. Yes. There is a furnace monster. That's how bad today is going for you. Played straight in Creature of Kapu Cave, where you can freely walk around inside the caverns of a volcano and beside rivers of magma with no ill effects at all.

Also played straight in the Hades sets of Labyrinth of Lies.

Cooking Mechanics: Used in multiple games, such as: Danger on Deception Island: Nancy Drew, as the Player Character, makes a sandwich, and there's many possible sandwiches the player can choose to made, adding things such as jellyfish, mayonnaise, baking soda, ice cream, tomatoes, mustard, and peanut butter. If a bad sandwich, a.k.a using the expired mayonnaise, or adding baking soda , is created, The Food Poisoning Incident, which is a Non Standard Game Over, results.

, is created, The Food Poisoning Incident, which is a Non Standard Game Over, results. Danger by Design has a parfait-making minigame, in which the player must pile ice-cream, fruit, cream, and candy into a layered sundae.

Cool Loser: Dwayne, Joseph, Lou, and Loulou.

Cool Old Lady: Hilda Swenson in Danger on Deception Island. Vivian from Ghost Dogs.

Cool Train: Where two thirds of Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon is set. It was the private train of, strangely, a failed gold miner, and contains lots of varnish and fancy furniture, as well as a secret passageway and a funky steampunk apparatus .

Corridor Cubbyhole Run: When stealing the Sadal Malik sapphire in The Phantom of Venice, you must do this to avoid laser-equipped Roombas, er, security robots wandering the halls of the warehouse where the sapphire is being kept.

Cosmic Plaything: Karl in The Captive Curse believes himself to be one.

The Cuckoolander Was Right: Sonny's grandfather, apparently, at the end of The Shattered Medallion .

Cuteness Proximity: In Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, your reaction when you meet the eponymous dogs being held in an underground pen is to remark on how the ghost dogs are a hoax, after all...but if you go back to see them again, your subsequent reactions are to Squee! and ask them who's a good dog, a good boy, yes they are!

Cutting the Knot: In Danger By Design, you need to find a sprig of fresh mint. Unfortunately, there's a shortage of it (since the mint farmers are on strike) and the only place you can find it is at the market stalls, sold at an insultingly high price: 100 euros, which you will almost certainly lack at that point. So you could go off and paint souvenirs to earn the money... or you can order the restaurant's 8-euro ice cream and take the mint on top of it. Also counts as Guide Dang It!, because the game gives no hint you can do this. Unless you see Arglefumph's playthroughs ... or you remember that you'd acquired grease for a stubborn keyhole in exactly the same way in Curse of Blackmoor Manor, by retaining the butter from a meal you'd ordered . After you first complete Blackmoor Manor's laborious moving rooms puzzle, a shortcut becomes available, meaning you don't have to do the puzzle every time you travel through that tunnel. The game doesn't tell you this beforehand either.

Could Say It, But...: Alibi's Chief McGinnis and Alexei Markovic indulge in this. Respectively: "Nancy, I've worked with you for years! Of course I know you're innocent. But I can't help you with this, and I can't let you out of jail. That would be against the law. By the way, do you see this nice new evidence board we just hung up? Pity there's not much on it. Maybe if more evidence about this case appeared on the board, I might just see it. The next time I come out for a coffee. I like coffee. Almost as much as I like catching criminals. (Incidentally, there's the inter-office speaker cops use to call me out of my office. Nice, isn't it?)"

"No, I won't tell you kids where the entrance to the town's underground sewer tunnels are! That place is dangerous! Just go off and clear your friend's name somewhere else. But before you go, look at my books. I've been collecting them for years. There's so much information about the town in them, it's really something. You kids should respect history more."

Creepy Child: Jane Penvellyn in The Curse of Blackmoor Manor. There's just something so damn creepy about her... which proves to be not that far off when she turns out to be the culprit .

Creepy Doll: The late Camille Voulet's dolls in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, particularly Naughty Tina, what with her cracked face.

Creepy Good: Blue Moon's cryptkeeper. He's fascinated by graves, and hoarsely warns you that Camille's ghost will be watching over hers...but he's also courteous and completely harmless. Ethel from Blackmoor Manor also counts. She has a habit of popping up at the most unexpected times and is seen preforming a creepy ritual with Jane, but is not the culprit and just wants to help Jane preserve the family legacy.

Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle: In the Russian translation of "Danger By Design", Minette's name had to be changed to "Marie", since the word "minet", which sounds exactly like her name, is Russian for "fellatio".

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Dwayne Powers' motivation for his villainy deeds is him being unable to get over the fact that he didn't become an actor and get the girl . He seems a one-off villain in who at times appears rather childish and wimpy. He is also the only character so far to appear twice as a villain of a game and leave the possibility for at least one more appearance . Bess is also this; she's not a moron, but her lighthearted, playful view of life contrasts strongly with your curiosity and Nerves of Steel. All through Skull, she's suggesting that you abandon the scary investigation and have fun with her. But when the situation calls for it, she is badass enough to infiltrate a secret society and accuse someone of murder .

Crystal Skull: What you're searching for in The Legend of the Crystal Skull.

Dada: The appropriately named Poppy Dada from Secret of the Scarlet Hand has art like this.

Damsel in Distress: Emily in Old Clock.

Darker and Edgier: The Ghost of Thornton Hall is probably the darkest ND game yet (not only in terms of scary factor, but also in terms of psychological atmosphere), beating out even Secrets Can Kill. Depending on your actions at the end, you can leave three people to die and two others seriously injured . And before Thornton, there was Alibi. In nearly all of the games up until that point, there was one culprit, one person doing all the bad things to everyone — and when you caught them, everyone could be happy. The series had its fair share of Nightmare Fuel, but most of it was related to the creepy settings and the bad things people had done in the past, not the present. In Alibi, there is quite a strong undertone of Humans Are Bastards, we see firsthand the results of complete social ostracism, and the ending is bittersweet; because even though you've resolved the troubles of both Nancy and Alexei, they still have to live with the knowledge that in their time of need, the people of their hometown abandoned them .

Nightmare Fuel, but most of it was related to the creepy settings and the bad things people had done in the past, not the present. In Alibi, there is quite a strong undertone of Humans Are Bastards, we see firsthand the results of complete social ostracism, and the ending is bittersweet; . The trailer for the 29th game consists of nothing but a phone call to you in the middle of the night, while a heavily processed voice effectively informs you that not only your mother is alive, but that she is also a spy The second trailer released ramps it up considerably. For the first time you get shot at with an actual gun, and this may be the first game where instead of being caught up in some external affair she is the center of attention and is possibly being intentionally targeted by the bad guys. Screenshots show a training arena, the caption of which states that you can 'hone your combat skills', which may indicate more physical confrontations or events than in past games.



Dark Mistress: In Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, Mickey Malone's girlfriend, Vivian.

Dartboard of Hate: Mickey Malone had a photo of his FBI nemesis on the dartboard at his speakeasy .

Dead Man Writing: In Thornton, you find a note Charlotte wrote in anticipation of her death. Crosses over with Gambit Roulette. Please, please, please- never let this fall into the wrong hands.

If you find this and do not know what it is, please, I'm begging you to put it back and hide it well.

If you know who I am, then this will help you understand what I did.

Deadpan Snarker: You are often this. Bess, George, and their Uncle Ed (from Shadow Ranch) have their moments too.

Death by Looking Up: Inverted, oddly enough; looking up when something is about to fall on you is necessary to actually avoid it. Looking down leads to instant death and Second Chance screen. Also played straight on occasion, when the proper response is to step back immediately upon hearing the noise cue that something's about to fall on you.

Or, in Kapu Cave, where you must step to the right. Very quickly.

Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: It is possible to die (or simply "lose," as in make a mistake so egregious that the main supporting character of the game orders you off the case), but depending on what era of games you are playing, one of two things will happen: In the early games, you will get booted to the main menu. However, if you simply click "Second chance," you will get dropped right back to before you died with no consequence.

In the later games, after you get the good news, bad news gag, the game will simply ask if you want to try again, at which point you will, again, be dropped back to before you messed up. In both cases, death has no real consequences.

Death Trap: Nearly every game features a form of a death trap.

Demoted to Extra: Unlike the books, Nancy's friends don't usually accompany her on the case. However, she can contact them over the phone.

Did I Mention It's Christmas?: Just after Christmas in Skipbrot, actually - Soren's records suggest you arrived in early January - but as Icelanders consider Yuletide to last until Epiphany (Jan. 6), the village holiday decorations are still up. Not that anyone comments on them.

Didn't Want an Adventure: A basic staple of the games' stories is that Nancy simply plans a vacation and ends up getting tangled in a mystery. At some point she will make at least one comment about how she wasn't looking to risk her life.

Disappeared Dad: In Thornton Hall, Jessalyn's father is never even mentioned by any of the characters, even though his daughter is both soon-to-be-married and missing. He's apparently alive, as his name appears without a death-date on the family tree, but that's it.

Disproportionate Retribution: You can get booted from the games for some downright silly reasons, such as... picking under-ripe vegetables in Shadow Ranch! Holt from Danger on Deception Island will have you arrested if you bring him a female crab. Yeah, catching them are illegal, but it's not as if Nancy ever intended to eat it ... and he's the one who'd insisted you catch one, in the first place!

Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: In The Secret of Shadow Ranch, one hen in the henhouse has a sign above her reading "Hey you! Don't even think about taking my eggs when I'm here. It makes me crazy!" If Nancy tries to collect eggs from her, she will get attacked. A second time, and she will get kicked off the ranch.

Dreaming of Things to Come: The beginning of The Phantom of Venice . Also, after certain manipulations in White Wolf of Icicle Creek, you get to see a bizarre dream that implies the wolf is innocent. It is quite correct.

Drowning Pit: The water tank in The Phantom of Venice; the ship's bilge in Sea of Darkness.

Door Roulette: Used infamously in Blackmoor Manor. Anyone who completed it on their first try either used Arglefumph's walkthrough or has a photographic memory.

Dull Surprise: "Fire" . Despite that it has a punctuation mark next to it, Nancy just says "Fire" as if it's something she sees every day.

Dumb Blonde: Lori Girard of Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon. Subverted in that she's actually smart enough to believably kidnap herself. She also knows she won't be able to find the game's treasure on her own, and manipulates you into doing it for her .

Dumb Muscle: Patrick Dowsett, The Shattered Medallion.

The Dutiful Daughter: Miwako Shimizu in Shadow at the Water's Edge, as opposed to her rebellious older sister, Yumi.

Early Installment Weirdness: The first game, Secrets Can Kill. Compared to the later games in the series, it has a darker atmosphere, and had 2D "drawing" animations of the suspects instead of the 3D models from the rest of the series. Additionally, Nancy Drew is investigating a murder, when later games have Nancy investigating less violent crimes such as thefts, threats, or odd feelings... or just getting caught up in something while on a vacation or staying with friends.

Easter Egg: Constantly, if you know where to look.

Elegant Gothic Lolita: Yumi Shimizu in Shadow at the Water's Edge, though her favoring of the color pink makes her more of a Sweet Lolita.

Engineered Public Confession: The threat of this is what prompts Rentaro to confess for real at the end of Shadow at the Water's Edge .

Even Evil Has Standards: In Alibi in Ashes, Deirdre dislikes you for several reasons, especially for you seeing Ned. But she states that although she dislikes you, she doesn't hate you enough to accuse you of burning down Town Hall. She even helps you out in a later game, The Deadly Device .

Everybody Did It: All four of the theatre troupe members in Labyrinth of Lies are involved with the art heist. Xenia is the Big Bad ; Thanos, The Dragon , Grigor, the grifter with connections to move the art out (who is also Xenia's intended fall guy); and Niobe was forced to actually copy the art

Evidence Dungeon: The culprit's lair in Alibi in Ashes. A bag in the room you have to inspect even prompts Nancy to say that it contains all the evidence she needs, and it really does contain everything.

Evil Costume Switch: Happens in Labyrinth of Lies. As you near the end of the game, Xenia changes from her pretty white robe into one that's black and red and patterned to look like a lava flow. This makes her suitably sinister-looking when she later reveals herself as the Big Bad

Evil Redhead: Several villains fall under this category, namely Lisa Ostrum from Treasure in the Royal Tower, Marion Aborn/'Jane Willoughby' from Secret of the Old Clock, and Minette from Danger by Design .

Exact Time to Failure: In The Final Scene, you have exactly three days to find Maya.

Exact Words: In Midnight In Salem, Frances Tuttle's will turns out to be hidden within a dollhouse in the Hawthorne House's basement. While it may not make sense at first, one should recall that the letter from Frances found earlier in the game said "The will is in the house". It didn't say it was in the Hawthorne House.

The Faceless: Multiple: Nancy, as the games are in first-person perspective. Bess and George were faceless until Ransom of the Seven Ships. The closest we've get to seeing Nancy's face has been a photograph in the ending letter of Shadow at the Water's Edge, where Nancy's facial features are blocked out by cartoon fruit. We also see Nancy from the back at the very end of Labyrinth of Lies. In Sea of Darkness, a picture of a girl makes her remark that the girl looks like her.

Carson also doesn't show physically in the games. His only appearances are through phone calls to his daughter. The Silent Spy is the best example of Carson's non-physical appearance. There's a flashback where he is having an argument with his wife without showing him and his profile picture on Nancy's phone is blank.

Minette in Danger By Design. She wears a white mask so no one can she her face (and, no doubt, to give the animators some time to slack off). Turns out she was hiding her lame alien tattoo . The same goes for Enrico Tazza in The Phantom of Venice, who always wears his Carnivale mask when you meet him.

. The same goes for Enrico Tazza in The Phantom of Venice, who always wears his Carnivale mask when you meet him. Plus, all the people you talk on the phone with, old people who left secret passages behind. Oh, and Sonny Joon — until The Shattered Medallion came out.

Failed a Spot Check: The player can invoke this on Nancy. In Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, you will burn down the forest if you don't put out the fire in the shed. A similar situation occurs in The Haunted Carousel where you can burn down the hotel if you leave the iron on in your room.

Falling Chandelier of Doom: In Message in a Haunted Mansion, this is how you can trap the villain at the end; untie it any earlier, however, and it's a game over.

Fangirl: Rita Hallowell in Warnings at Waverly Academy takes this trope Up to Eleven.

Fashionable Asymmetry: Henry Bolet wears a fingerless glove on one hand.

Fetch Quest: AKA "Nancy does everyone else's chores" cliche.

Fictional Counterpart: Multiple: The Koko Kringle bars.

Danger by Design has Pricsy Colors, the cases of which look a lot like Prisma colors.

Fishing Minigame: Multiple, necessary to the plot: Secret of the Old Clock

Creature of Kapu Cave. Can catch other things as well.

White Wolf of Icicle Creek. Can catch other things as well.

Fission Mailed: In White Wolf of Icicle Creek, triggering an avalanche will bury you in snow and cause a Game Over. The first time you visit Chicken Ridge, the same cutscene will play... except this time it's part of the plot, and you have to wait until Isis digs you out . After that, the game continues as normal.

Foreshadowing: Multiple: A bit of Gameplay and Story Integration, too. In Warnings at Waverly Academy, you find Rachel in her room after talking to her earlier and for some reason, she doesn't recognize you as much. And if you had seen Arglefumph's Let's Play or had played the game before, you'd notice that she has a lock of hair on the left side of her face . Most people would have simply chalked this up to the fact that she might have been under a lot of stress and hadn't recognized the "new girl" as much as her other floor-mates. It's actually because you're not talking to Rachel — you're talking to Kim .

in her room after talking to her earlier and for some reason, she doesn't recognize you as much. And if you had seen Arglefumph's Let's Play or had played the game before, . Most people would have simply chalked this up to the fact that she might have been under a lot of stress and hadn't recognized the "new girl" as much as her other floor-mates. . Also, the villain of "Warnings at Waverly Academy" is supposed to be the ghostly Black Cat. I'll give you three guesses as to what race the real villain is .

. In The Captive Curse, Anja initially tells you that she sent in her resume, crossed her fingers, and hoped. Turns out she'd lied on the resume, giving new significance to her "crossing her fingers" (which some kids do when they lie, to ward off being found out) .

. In Stay Tuned for Danger, cracking open a fortune cookie in Dwayne's office reveals this (coded) message Even though revenge should be sweet/Jealous acts will end in defeat. Very fitting for a foiled Yandere

Very fitting for a In The Final Scene, Simone Mueller suggested a stage name for Nancy, which is "Samantha Quick". It wouldn't be until The Phantom of Venice when Nancy uses the name.

Most of Jane's doodles in Blackmoor Manor are her gushing about Brady Armstrong, but one from the "Norse Runes" pamphlet translates as "Mom", and is surrounded by little hearts. Guess who she misses terribly and hopes will come back to live with her father if she can chase Linda away?

The Food Poisoning Incident: If you make a bad sandwich in Danger on Deception Island.

Food Porn: The cooking minigames would be far, far more annoying if they didn't have this. (Someone made a Tumblr blog dedicated to all the series' instances of this. Some were even featured in a scrapbook you can find within The Shattered Medallion!) In particular, Danger by Design has the parfait-making minigame, in which you must pile ice-cream, fruit, cream, and candy into a delicious layered sundae. Not a minigame, but just reading the menu description of a Fundae in Carousel will make you gain a few ounces.

Friendly Enemy: In Alibi in Ashes, Deirdre is ultimately this toward Nancy. She admits that she hates the teen detective—but she doesn't hate hate her, and in fact enjoys disliking her so much. Nancy seems to return the favor.

Gaiden Game: The Dossier series.

Gambit Roulette: The culprit tricks you into helping them with their Evil Plan in Ransom of the Seven Ships. It counts as this trope because there are too many damn ways to die. If you had reached one of the many possibilities to get a game over, if you hadn't gotten past the carefully-set traps, or if you had figured out the true identity behind Johnny Rolle/Poole too early, the culprit's plan would have failed

Game Over: There are various ways that you can encounter this. Some result in Nancy's death while others lead to her being relieved of the case. Thankfully, you always get a second chance and make the correct choice.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: Bess and George usually serve as the "hint line" over the phone, to help you out whenever you are stuck. They tend to give information they shouldn't be aware of at all, especially because they aren't there and don't know about the secrets any more than you.

The first two games are particularly bad about this; there are random word puzzles all over the place (for example, some where words are upside down or the spacing is incorrect) that give some sort of hint about a puzzle somewhere in the game, including those that are part of the end game. There is absolutely no logical explanation as to how they could be there at all, and are pretty much there more for a gameplay element than for plot development. While other games tend to have the puzzles more integrated into the plot, Sea of Darkness features a very blatantly contrived puzzle that is Played for Laughs. Nancy's reaction sells it.

"That was the strangest wiring panel I've ever seen."

Game Within a Game: Shadow at the Water's Edge features a pachinko parlor, there are some nautically-themed games in The Haunted Carousel, Jane Pennvellyn in Blackmoor loves playing board games, a millionaire in Old Clock built his own golf course... There are lots of examples, you get the idea. Often leads into Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer. Such minigames must often be completed once to advance the plot, no matter how illogical that might be. As with Venice's mob boss, who demands that anyone doing business with him must beat him in a game of Scopa.

Your cell phone has come "pre-loaded" with a few minigames as well, should you wish to take a break from the investigation.

Gaslighting: The culprit does this in Secret of the Old Clock.

Genre Savvy: Randulf the Red, so very much. Instead of hiding his treasure behind just one puzzle, he arranged a Thanatos Gambit in which every branch of his family added a puzzle on top of his own, ensuring that said treasure's protection only got stronger and stronger as the generations progressed. The only reason anyone outside the Blackmoor family could find it was because of the malice of Jane, the latest Blackmoor heir, whose crimes threw a Spanner in the Works — that is, Nancy. Complexity Addiction.

Genre Shift: The Silent Spy quickly changes from "mildly scary investigation game" to "tense spy thriller where the fate of Glasgow is at stake." The shift is not permanent, though, the next game being set along more traditional lines.

Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The culprit in The Haunting of Castle Malloy seems to be a banshee, but we all know banshees aren't real! Instead, it's a feral old woman flying around on a jet pack ! Duh. Surprisingly, there's not as much a "culprit" as in other games.

Good News, Bad News: The good news: there just might be a way out of a "Game Over" scenario after all. The bad news: Just kidding! The bad news will always be there to dash those hopes! Except in Ghost of Thornton Hall, to preserve the atmosphere, and every game before The Phantom Of Venice, which didn't have the good news/bad news yet and just took you back to the main menu. This has been dropped starting with Thornton Hall.

Gold Digger: Henry Bolet's girlfriend is one. Henry admits that he knows this, but won't break up with her because he's afraid of being alone.

Gory Discretion Shot: Because you're playing in first person, you don't get to see the details in the more gruesome Game Over scenarios, which is actually a good thing, considering the more horrific ways to die — for example, one way to die in Treasure in the Royal Tower is by not pre-setting the elevator, not solving a puzzle in time, and thus getting crushed by an elevator. Or in the final trap on Warnings at Waverly Academy, which references Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.

Goth: Mel from Warnings at Waverly Academy and Henry Bolet from The Legend of the Crystal Skull.

Grande Dame: Mrs. Drake in The Curse of Blackmoor Manor and Prudence Rutherford in various games.

Granola Girl: Ingrid Corey in The Haunted Carousel.

Gratuitous Foreign Language: French in Danger By Design, Italian and German in The Phantom of Venice, Hawaiian in Creature of Kapu Cave ("Kapu" means "forbidden", "Pua" means "flower", and you get addressed as "wahine" at some point). Which often leads to some Genius Bonuses when certain puzzles require you to translate something. For example, in "Danger by Design," if you know how to speak French, you don't have to purchase a dictionary to translate Dieter's list of stock photos.

Genius Bonuses when certain puzzles require you to translate something. For example, in "Danger by Design," if you know how to speak French, you don't have to purchase a dictionary to translate Dieter's list of stock photos. Also the hieroglyphics in Tomb of the Lost Queen.

Shadow at the Water's Edge. Good God, Shadow at the Water's Edge. Takae's butchering of the English language is somehow supposed to sound authentic, but in reality, it just sounds sloppy. No real Japanese person, no matter how old, would pronounce "always" as "ala-ways". Also in this game, if you already know the kanji for "man" and "woman", you might not make the mistake of trying to use the men's bathroom!

Curse of Blackmoor Manor: if the historian in the library sneezes Nancy will say "bless you" in one of several foreign languages and he will respond in the same language.

Greed: A common motive for the culprits' actions is money. In Message in a Haunted Mansion, the culprit is intentionally causing accidents so they can look for Diego Valdez's gold.

In Secret of the Scarlet Hand, the culprit's goal is to open the monolith and take the Whisperer's writings, which would be sold on the black market.

Grumpy Bear: An assortment of suspects are often like these. One particular example that stands out is Holt from Danger on Deception Island who pretty much holds a gruff attitude in general, and in one possible Game Over scenario he will turn you over to the police... for catching a female crab. So yeah... For what it's worth, he seems to be begrudgingly admitting he has to turn you over to the police. Dexter Egan from Treasure in the Royal Tower is another good example, although he warms up to you. A little.

Tex in Secret of Shadow Ranch. Nicely enough, his sour character is rather subverted by the fact that he and Mary Yazzie are in love and have been secretly seeing each other .

Grumpy Old Man: Bill Pappas in Stay Tuned for Danger, Red Knott in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, Gunnar Tonnisson in Sea of Darkness. Renate in The Captive Curse is a female example, though she warms up to you.

Guide Dang It!: Admit it, you've had your own moment with at least one puzzle per game. If not the puzzles, missing one small item or detail from a rarely-visited area will drive you to the brink of frustration.

Hacking Minigame: Found in Lights, Camera, Curses!, wherein you have to view encrypted security camera footage. Also shows up in The Deadly Device.

Hard Head: By now, Game-Nancy isn't all that far behind Books-Nancy for the world record on "average number of times knocked out per adventure", yet she generally bounces back fine. Subverted with the occasional Game Over when she's clobbered worse than usual, and in Kapu Cave when Joe Hardy ends up in the hospital for observation.

He Who Must Not Be Seen: Nancy and her friends aren't show for most of the games. Nancy's friends do eventually get physical appearances and pictures for their contacts. Nancy, on the other hand, is never fully shown in any of the games. The audience is teased by the possibility of seeing her face, but we only get glimpses of it.

Hell Hotel: The main setting for Shadow At the Water's Edge.

Hellhound: The eponymous dogs in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake look like this.

Heterosexual Life-Partners: In The Deadly Device, Gray Cortright and Niko Jovic .

Hidden in Plain Sight: A database in The Silent Spy reveals that Logan (a temperamental, somewhat bumbling one-time assistant to Savannah Woodham) is a Cathedral informant. Suffice it to say that they are not the kind of person you'd expect to be mixed up in espionage — which is probably why they were chosen in the first place.

Hide Your Lesbians: Subverted; Dagny Silva from Sea of Darkness is possibly the first lesbian character (definitely the first explicitly lesbian) in the video game series.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Late in Labyrinth of Lies, Thanos Ganas traps you in a cage in Tartarus. Some time after you escape, you see Thanos coming after him, and have to trap him in that same cage. It doesn't hold him long though.

Homemade Inventions: Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine, whose visible components include bike handlebars, smokers' pipes, a gramophone's trumpet and an old oven.

Hope Spot: The fourth danger route in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon. The cart flies off a gap in the tracks and sticks the landing. All seems well until boxes of TNT come into view...

How We Got Here: Phantom of Venice starts off with you getting locked in a room that is filling with water. The rest of the game is a flashback leading up to that scene — and you'd better figure out how to stop that water once you get there.

Hyperspace Arsenal: How did you manage to carry a cotton picker around Thornton Hall? Or a full wetsuit around Paris? Averted in Scarlet Hand. The calendar stones are far too heavy for you to carry them around like normal, as she immediately tells you. If you carry them for too long, you will drop them. Thing is, they're also very breakable, and of irreplaceable historical value — dropping them nets you a game over.

are far too heavy for you to carry them around like normal, as she immediately tells you. If you carry them for too long, you will drop them. Thing is, they're also very breakable, and of irreplaceable historical value — dropping them nets you a game over. You also refuse to carry Bob's saddle outside the stables in Secret of Shadow Ranch.

Idiot Ball/Too Dumb to Live/What an Idiot!: Depending on how sadistic the player is feeling, this can be deliberately invoked in you in the many methods to get yourself killed or fired. Played painfully straight at the end of Ransom of the Seven Ships without the player having to do anything (or in this case, not being able to do anything). So Nancy, that bum whom you've been helping turns out to be a former culprit out for revenge, not to mention a culprit who proved to be unstable and dangerous in the past Stand there and do nothing apart from whimpering "Oh no" when he launches a trap that you have been aware of since you first arrived on the beach. What makes it really outrageous is how the past games at least gave you a chance to outrun the culprit.

turns out to be What makes it really outrageous is how the past games at least gave you a chance to outrun the culprit. Sometimes, the suspects themselves can be prone to this. For instance, towards the end of Warnings at Waverly Academy, one of the characters has her term paper erased by the Black Cat. The player has the option of asking if she kept a hard copy, and her answer is..."No! It would've been like printing out a book!" Anyone who has gone to college and written a term paper can tell you why this reasoning is just plain stupid. Possibly a bit explicable in that this is actually high school, but even then, given the professionalism that Waverly Academy expects of its students, you'd think the students would know that. From the same game, girls asking the new girl to do their homework for them. As anyone can tell you, that's a very stupid idea. It may be a case of "It's not cheating unless you get caught", but you could easily get several other girls either expelled or dropped out of the valedictorian running for cheating on their homework.

Nancy and the culprit both clutch the Idiot Ball in Message in a Haunted Mansion; there's one point in the game where she receives a threatening note commanding her to leave the mansion (actually an understatement, considering the note is written in a very visibly angry script and in all capital letters). First off, the culprit waits until she's at the door to deliver the note, rather than waiting until she's asleep or away from her room. Second, Nancy completely fails to notice this golden opportunity to figure out who the culprit is and doesn't think to open the door when she gets the note. The game could have been over much quicker if she had just thought to open the door when she got the note.

I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Who the hell would go to a place called Deception Island?

Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Sinclair from Scarlet Hand. When even Sonny Joon admits your tie is too garish, you might want to change your look...

Incredibly Lame Pun: On the Overcharge Batteries from Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake. Their slogan is "It pays to overcharge!"

Infant Immortality Jane, the pre-teen culprit, accidentally gets stuck in a potentially life-threatening trap which you must free her from... except no matter how long you take, she never dies, despite being stuck in an enclosed space that would guarantee suffocation within minutes . Strangely enough, if you don't move out of the way of the trap in time, you get stuck in there with Jane - and you get a Game Over. So it can be averted - kinda .

Induced Hypochondria the placebo effect is discussed at length.

Informed Ability: In Stay Tuned For Danger, Mattie Jensen, the actress whom you are staying with, is repeatedly stated to be a very talented actress, and has the awards on her home shelf to show for it. And yet in the one scene where you actually get to see her act...well... Then again, this could be justified in that the more egregious bad acting can easily be fixed in editing so that the one take where Mattie is either outstanding, or at the very least not quite so awful, is shown on television.

Informing the Fourth Wall: More common in the older games, but still recurs now and again.

Intrepid Reporter: The games have had four of these as suspects, so far: Lisa Ostrum, Helena Berg, Brenda Carlton, and Moira Chisholm. You yourself are like this and have noted that reporters are a lot like detectives—the parallels are especially obvious when you learn that Nancy's mom was a reporter (and sometimes spy) herself. Maya in The Final Scene may also be this. It's difficult to tell though, as she's kidnapped early in the game.

Invisible Writing: In the game The Haunted Carousal; she helps out the bookkeeper with some puzzles that would reconnect her childhood (long story). One puzzle involved a piece of lemon scented paper that showed a message when ironed.

The Irish Mob: One can assume the gangster, Mickey Malone in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake was part of this.

Ironic Nursery Tune: "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home..." in Ghost of Thornton Hall.

It's Personal: The story of The Silent Spy is about Nancy's mom, particularly the mystery behind her death .

I Warned You: Savannah is careful to warn you about the...nature of the Thornton Hall case. You don't understand Savannah's fear, until you get to spend time in the house. Savannah: I didn't call you here just because you're a good detective. I called you because you're a skeptic.

Jerkass: Most seemingly jerkass characters turn out to be Jerks With Hearts of Gold, but not Simone Mueller of The Final Scene, who uses the kidnapping of your friend Maya as publicity fodder.

Jet Pack: You get one of these in The Haunting of Castle Malloy.

Karma Houdini: The culprit in Ransom of the Seven Ships, who becomes the first (and so far, only) villain to escape from Nancy. Tino Balducci of Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon claims that anything he did during that case is now all "water under the bridge" when Chantal insists that you call him for help in White Wolf of Icicle Creek.

Also, villains who've attempted to kill you, in the course of the game, are often described as going to jail for robbery, extortion, fraud, etc. You'd think attempted murder charges would rate a mention...

The culprit in Shadow at the Water's Edge doesn't get arrested or face charges, but it's ultimately subverted, since he still doesn't get off easily. Despite that one of Rentaro's inventions almost killed you, he actually did not intend to do it at all, and probably would have been charged with manslaughter at worst. However, the resolution, depending on what you did, has Rentaro either being fired from his job and never seeing Miwako again, or he gets to keep his job but Miwako is so angry at him that she breaks off their relationship .

However, the resolution, depending on what you did, has . Not to mention the culprit of Warnings at Waverly Academy. She locks a claustrophobic girl in a closet overnight, sending her into a mental breakdown where weeks later she still isn't speaking. She also puts nuts into food of a girl allergic to them, sending her into the hospital and pulling her out of school for several weeks, the girl even states that she was lucky not to have died from it. Not to mention trying to kill you. Yet the only punishment she gets is to be expelled from the school.

Thanos is said to have gotten out of jail due to connections with the local police.

Kimono Is Traditional: In Water's Edge, Takae — the most staid of the characters — is also the only one to wear a kimono.

Kleptomaniac Hero: A staple of the series. If you can pick it up, you should pick it up, because it will be important later. At this point, you have stolen everything from priceless Mayan artifacts to chewed gum. During Crystal Skull, you are asked to go into someone's room to get a Koko Kringle bar for them. The game gives you a trophy for stuffing yourself with the remaining bars.

Alex Trang from Sea of Darkness outright calls you a "klepto."

Lack of Empathy: You, surprisingly. Sometimes you have to ask really cruel, invasive questions to advance the game. In the true ending of Resorting, Elwood is apparently so unaffected by his sister's attempt at mass murder that he writes a hit screenplay about it .

Lame Pun Reaction: Bess pulls off a lot of puns, much to George's dismay.

Lampshade Hanging: Several of the above tropes for the book are commonly lampshaded in the games, especially you, staying the same age throughout the games: "Right I forgot, you're celebrating your...seventieth birthday next month?" Professor Hotchkiss, a fan favorite recurring character, calls you her own favorite recurring character in Tomb of the Lost Queen.

Nancy from Alibi in Ashes: "I get knocked unconscious and thrown into a dungeon every other week."

A phone conversation in Old Clock: Nancy: You know how I always seem to end up in these really old houses with secret passageways?

(Beat)

George: Sometimes I think they follow you around. Amusingly, Bess and Ned also get to have this conversation with you in "Crystal Skull" and "Captive Curse" respectively. You know how I always seem to end up in these really old houses with secret passageways?Sometimes I think they follow you around. Bess and George accuse you of being able to find a secret passage in anything, up to and including a blueberry muffin.

Either the Cerebus Syndrome of the last few games or the series-wide tradition of putting you into near-death experiences prompts your character to point out, in Sea of Darkness, that you're "hard to kill."

The heating puzzle from Sea of Darkness is... not quite an electrical circuit puzzle. This prompts Nancy to say that it was the weirdest wiring panel she's ever seen.

Large Ham: Many of the voice actors have too much fun with their roles (especially the ones voicing the villains when revealed at the end, or the ones voicing the particularly over-the-top suspects), but the culprit at the very end of Stay Tuned For Danger deserves an honourable mention . Justified as Dwayne thinks life is a soap opera. Once in a while, Nancy Drew herself gets in on the action . Prop Master of DEATH!

The announcer of PUNCHYYYY LARUUUUUEE!

GRAAAH! Confound you, Nancy Drew!

Later Installment Weirdness: In Midnight In Salem, Brittany Cox replaces Lani Minella as the voice of Nancy. Also in Midnight In Salem, whether you play in Junior or Senior Detective Mode, there are no hints whatsoever.

Lawful Stupid: Jeff Akers, a park ranger in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, occasionally falls into this trope. His actions include fining Sally for littering because she left a half-eaten ham sandwich on a picnic table and issuing you a citation for destructive behavior after you were locked in a burning shed. However, it's quite possible that he behaves this way to compensate for the fact that his grandfather was a gangster . That or he's just really bored.

Legacy of Service: In Curse of Blackmoor Manor, young Jane Penvellyn's tutor Ethel comes from a family who has served the Penvellyns since at least the Middle Ages. Not only does she teach Jane astronomy, math, science, French, and other varied subjects, she also serves as Jane's introduction into the long-standing and confusing traditions of the Penvellyn family. And she's completely necessary for this, because the traditions are passed from grandchild to grandchild, thus making it very difficult for the Penvellyns themselves to pass on the knowledge . Although only one of their family actually worked for Blue Moon Canyon's Jake Hurley, the engineer's son and grandson continued to obediently preserve and pass along a rhyme that contains key clues to activating Hurley's projector.

Lethal Chef: In Danger on Deception Island, at one point, you must make a sandwich. But if you use any expired or blatantly inedible ingredients (such as baking soda and fresh jellyfish) to make this sandwich and give it to either yourself or your hostess, one or the other gets food poisoning and the game ends. Likewise, in Secret of Shadow Ranch, you can get fired for overbaking the cake, or bringing Shorty unripe vegetables three times in a row. It's funny. The former game is a strange example of this — it is not the combination of ingredients themselves that can make you or your hostess sick; rather, it's the individual ingredients by themselves (such as the aforementioned baking soda). As long as you use ingredients that are fresh and are actual food, you can make any kind of combination of different ingredients for a sandwich and it won't make one of you sick, no matter how incredibly disgusting it would be in real life (such as an ice cream and mustard and peanut butter sandwich).

You can become a Lethal Animal Chef if you fail to consult online before baking Loulou's cakes in Blackmoor Manor (which will cause her to die while spouting out movie quotes), or if you mix food for the horses in Shadow Ranch incorrectly (which will turn them colicky and get you kicked off the ranch).

Let Me Get This Straight...: In one of Shadow Ranch's game over sequence caused if you overbake the cake, this is Aunt Bet's reaction. "So what you're saying is, you destroyed my oven, severely damaged my kitchen, and caused my cook to quit?"

Lighter and Softer: The first game, Secrets Can Kill, although not spooky, was actually much Darker and Edgier than later installments, as the crime under investigation is a cold-blooded murder and you must point a handgun at the culprit to prevail; the player must even click while doing this, which feels like you're shooting him, even if it's just to confirm where you're aiming so he'll surrender . One instance where going Lighter and Softer for the sequels was an improvement. The Remastered version of it, while still keeping certain plot elements from the original, looks like it might be Lighter and Softer than the original... and then this is massively subverted at the end when the culprit holds you up at gunpoint.

Locked Door: It's locked. It's locked. I need a key for this. It's locked. I need something to make this work. It's locked. It's locked. ARGH!!!!! Hilariously lampshaded in Trail of the Twister via a radio advertisement: Announcer: How many times has this happened to you?

Nancy: It's locked.

Announcer: Those days are over with the new Lock Buster Infinity! Made from space age nanotubes, Lock Buster Infinity opens every door!

Love at First Note: How Dirk and Frances fell in love. Charleena: [talking about Cappy Munger] His establishment contained the only piano within fifty miles. Frances, being as smart as she was, taught herself how to play it. That's apparently how she met Dirk. He heard her composing a song one day and fell in love on the spot. [talking about Cappy Munger] His establishment contained the only piano within fifty miles. Frances, being as smart as she was, taught herself how to play it. That's apparently how she met Dirk. He heard her composing a song one day and fell in love on the spot.

Love Makes You Evil: In Shadow at the Water's Edge, Rentaro scares away guests from the ryokan in hopes that he can convince Miwako, his childhood sweetheart, to move away with him to the city .

The Mafia: The Phantom of Venice.

The Greek mafia, Kronos, plays a part in Labyrinth of Lies.

Malevolent Masked Men: The Jolly Rogers act like this when Bess spies on their meeting and is captured. Subverted when they let her go unharmed.

Mama Bear: Mama Chicken, rather: the white hen at Shadow Ranch freaks out and attacks if she's present when Nancy tries to collect her eggs.

The Man Behind the Man: For most of Labyrinth of Lies, Thanos and Grigor are set up as the most villainous characters, particularly after Thanos locks you in a cage and you spot Grigor carrying a forged vase up a lift. Turns out the real Big Bad is Xenia Doukas, with Thanos as her Dragon and Grigor as the fall guy .

Master of the Mixed Message: Many of the suspects get this way, but the only one you seem to get particularly frustrated with is Sonny Joon. Sonny: Did you read my papers? Don't read my papers.

Nancy: Why not?

Sonny: Because they're fascinating and full of mystery.

Nancy: You're sending me mixed messages.

Sonny: No I am. : Did you read my papers? Don't read my papers.: Why not?: Because they're fascinating and full of mystery.

Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Nearly all of the strange occurrences are explained away eventually as being from a secret passage, hidden music player, images from a projector... You get the idea. But there's always enough unexplained events that you are left wondering. Rentaro: A ghost doesn't need to be real to haunt you. Most prominent in Thornton Hall where carbon monoxide explains everything. Everything. Except for the multiple scenes you can get where Charlotte gets pissed at you and instakills you, forcing you to restart. And the 'HELP ME' message that carves itself into the fireplace — at a point where it would be impossible for the villain to have done so — and then disappears. And Nancy Drew's name appearing out of nowhere on one of the crypt's gravestones, in a place where any fumes from the faulty furnace would be easily dispersed. And we never do learn what sparked the climactic fire that destroys Thornton Hall Also, something that requires explanation: the moving statue of Charlotte in the cemetery . No way was that carbon monoxide poisoning . The game's writers claim that Harper Thornton engraved Nancy's name on the gravestone, as some kind of plea . And that the ghost-induced death scenes were actually you hallucinating and having a heart attack, both caused by the gas . According to this , the game over sequence caused by Charlotte was not meant to be interpreted literally; it was just a dramatic way of showing that the plot would end if you made that particular choice.

explains everything. Everything. Except for Not every second chance is fatal, sometimes Nancy is simply removed from the case. At this point in the game, Nancy has found Jessalyn . If she doesnt work along with Jessalyn s plan, the entire thing falls apart. In Blackmoor Manor, the Penvellyn treasure (a fallen meteor) is valuable because Penvellyn superstition holds that it brings luck. On one hand, it seems awfully stupid to devote your family to protecting a cosmic trinket ...but on the other, the Penvellyn family has endured for centuries, gaining both wealth and fame. Their luck may not be supernatural, but they definitely have a lot of it.

Meaningful Name: In White Wolf of Icicle Creek, it turns out that Guadalupe Comillo is a conservationist with a keen interest in wolves. A possible translation for Guadalupe is "Valley of the Wolf." The name of the terrorist organization in The Silent Spy is "The Revenant", which is the English and French word for "ghost". But in its language of origin, French, this word has one more shade of meaning, because there it literally means "the one who comes back", from revenir, "to come back". Coming back is exactly what The Revenant tries to do in this game .

Memento MacGuffin: You mention that Ned gave you a locket just before she goes to Italy. There's a picture of the phantom thief holding a locket on the cover of the game. Was there ever any doubt that the locket would become this? Interestingly, the cover's locket looks nothing like yours. You do manage to retrieve it, at least .

Miles Gloriosus: Police detective Tino Balducci in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon.

The Mole: Ewan MacLeod in The Silent Spy.

Monster Misogyny: The monster's victims in The Captive Curse are Always Female.

Monster-Shaped Mountain: Chicken Ridge from White Wolf. Three Finger Rock from Kapu Cave.

Mood Whiplash: Some of the conversations could come across as this. If the person you talk to gets upset with Nancy, the conversation could end with them cheerfully sending her off.

Multiple Endings: Occasionally, a game will feature a tidbit of dialogue that subtly changes your post-game monologue. That is, the end of the game itself stays the same, but what happens in the epilogue will be a little different. For example, about halfway through Danger by Design, you can choose whether or not to get Minette's assistant Heather McKay fired . Though the game goes on either way, if you choose to spare Heather, she lets you model in her spring show. If you fire her, she stays angry at you and you aren't invited . The Nancy Drew Dossier downloadable games, a spinoff subseries with a less immersive format, also allow for multiple endings, based on whom you choose to name as a prime suspect halfway through the investigation.

Shadow at the Water's Edge has a minor version of this at the ending. After confronting Rentaro after recording him admitting to the hauntings, he asks you if he can confess to Miwako himself. If you choose not to let him do this, he leaves the ryokan for good and Miwako and Takae remain angry at him. If you allow him to confess on his own, Miwako breaks up with him, but he is eventually allowed to help modernize the ryokan "in small, Takae-approved ways."

In what is possible the most intense version of this trope in the Nancy Drew game series, you have three options for the end of Ghost of Thornton Hall: Save Harper and Jessalyn but let Clara perish, save everyone and get the happy ending, or save no one and allow Clara, Wade, Colton, Harper and Jessalyn to (possibly) die. Sure it's unclear whether or not any of them are okay, and the latter two are hospitalized in the bad ending, but still...

Mythology Gag: Items from previous games pop up all the time, as do occasional references to the book series: Quite a few of the games share the names of and/or are loose adaptations of books from the main series or Nancy Drew Files series. Often, the villains and other suspects of these games will be the same ones from the books, though how much their motives in the games match those of their book counterparts tends to vary.

Despite Nancy having a steady boyfriend in Ned, there's some Ship Tease with her and Frank Hardy; it's mostly one-sided on Frank's end, but in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, Nancy's friends ask her which of the Hardys she likes, and she has the option to choose either one (or Ned). In the 80's crossover books between the Nancy Drew Files and Hardy Boys Casefiles, Nancy and Frank share a mutual attraction, and in the more modern 00's crossovers between Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers, Frank has a similar one-sided crush on her like in the games.

In some of their appearances and phone calls, Frank and Joe casually mention working for a secret agency for teenagers called "ATAC" (American Teens Against Crime), which is right out of their Undercover Brothers series. In the crossover books between the two, Nancy and her friends become some of the few people who know about their involvement with ATAC, which is why the boys don't mind mentioning it around her.

Professor Hotchkiss's purple ski boots from Treasure in the Royal Tower are in a garden shed in The Ghosts Dogs of Moon Lake

It's possible to unearth a broken carousel horse head in a dumpster in The Phantom of Venice. The horse is Glory from The Haunted Carousel

Renee in Legend of the Crystal Skull and Mel from Warnings at Waverly Academy both have dolls from Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon.

One of the bad guys on the slot machine in Secret of Shadow Ranch, El Diablo, is half of another pair of star-crossed lovers from the backstory of Message in a Haunted Mansion.

A statue of Aeolus, the automaton from Blackmoor Manor, is for sale in Lamont's curio shop from Crystal Skull.

Jane in The Curse of Blackmoor Manor forces you to play a number of games based on previous HerInteractive releases. Jane herself has a crush on Brady Armstrong, an actor who appears in The Final Scene.

Jane seems to be designing games herself, eventually, as "Jane's Game Portal" in Danger By Design would suggest.

All of the guests in the seating plan puzzle in The Haunting of Castle Malloy are characters from previous games.

In addition to this, suspects will return in later games for phone cameos — you can phone Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon's Tino Balducci in White Wolf of Icicle Creek and the aforementioned Professor Hotchkiss (a fan favourite) in The Legend of the Crystal Skull and Tomb of the Lost Queen. Charleena Purcell does this in reverse; you can phone her in Secret of Shadow Ranch, and in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, she returns as a suspect. Dwayne Powers from Stay Tuned for Danger is the most striking example, as he returns to be the culprit in Ransom of the Seven Ships, almost twenty games after his debut. In addition, in Ransom of the Seven Ships, he's the first culprit to actually escape from you, leaving it open for him to return a third time.

And, in the more recent games, if you use a bathroom, you will make a comment referencing a previous game.

On occasion, this is lampshaded; you ask Bill Kessler in White Wolf of Icicle Creek if he's related to Rolfe Kessler, the carousel horse maker, from The Haunted Carousel. The man cheerily replies that he has no idea.

If you give Mystico the Magnificent a "wrong" answer, he will say "Ack! What do you think I am?" and then he lists the descriptions of characters of previous games who could give you what you asked for.

One of the telegram recipients from Old Clock gives you a "hot tip" in exchange for his message: a clue for succeeding at a challenge from Blackmoor Manor.

Also in Old Clock, the opening speech references your friend Helen Corning, who was in the first few Nancy books then Put on a Bus in favor of Bess and George. Since the whole game was a period piece from the very first Nancy story, referencing her was a cute, appropriate case of Shown Their Work.

A portrait of Penelope Penvellyn (from Curse of Blackmoor Manor) can be seen in Charlotte's bedroom in Ghost of Thornton Hall.

Savannah Woodham, the author of a book on paranormal phenomenon from Shadow at the Water's Edge, is called upon for her expertise again by you in Ghost of Thornton Hall.

Moira Chisholm from The Silent Spy knows Dagny from Sea of Darkness - her name is on a book found in Dagny's suitcase.

Sonny Joon is this trope personified (finally, definitively so in The Shattered Medallion).

In the Dossier game Resorting To Danger, the animals in Helfdan's lab are Iggy the Iguana (Crystal Skull), Casper the White Squirrel (Waverly Academy), a black cat (Waverly also), and one of the monkeys from Seven Ships.

Near the end of Midnight in Salem, an letter of acception from Waverly Academy to Mei Parry can be found, she even gets a scholarship!

Never Smile at a Crocodile: Watch out for Bernie, the alligator from Crystal Skull.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lori Girard, your hostess in Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon is an obvious stand-in for Paris Hilton.

Non-Human Sidekick: Suki, a robot cat owned by Miwako Shimizu, in Shadow At the Water's Edge. Her boyfriend is trying to craft a robotic dog counterpart.

Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine is this for Joy in The Haunted Carousel.

No Antagonist: Haunting of Castle Malloy turns out to be this. The 'kidnapping' was a complete accident and the 'villain' did nothing but try to help the imprisoned victim .

Nobody Poops: In Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, the cast travel for two days on a Closed Circle luxury train, yet at no point are they seen eating food, nor does the train have anything resembling a kitchen note except the phone room, which contains nothing but antique plates and a puzzle-locked stove .

No Indoor Voice: Fatima: DO AH SOOOOOOOOOUND LIKE AH BUELL TA YOU!? Also Dr. Malachi Craven from Creature of Kapu Cave.

You at some points. Just try clicking on an item on the to-do checklist during a quiet moment. Nancy: CAN'T CHECK THAT OFF TILL IT'S DONE! Red Knott lampshades this in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, telling her that she'll drive all the birds away by talking so loudly. CAN'T CHECK THAT OFF TILL IT'S DONE! In Danger on Deception Island, while finding Katie kidnapped in the culprit's boat , you and Katie literally yell at each other. Katie: Nancy, I was afraid no one would ever find me! Nancy: WHAT HAPPENED!? HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!

Noodle Incident: We never find out if Brendan Malloy worked for the Nazis or not, or what made people think so. Or that furless, scurrying molerat... thing that scurries around occasionally in Thornton Hall. It's never explained or commented upon by you.

Played for Drama in Thornton Hall. The developers intentionally cut out several aspects of the setting and backstory (what the Thornton 'family business' was, why no one ever talks about Clara's father, why Colton went to a therapist, what exactly happened the night Charlotte died...) to preserve the game's age rating. We g