The Lady Liberty Larceny

The Lady Liberty Larceny
Developer(s)	Gamelion Studios
Publisher(s)	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Series	Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math
Platform(s)	WiiWare
Release date(s)	2011
Genre(s)	Educational

The Lady Liberty Larceny is a 2011 game; the first in the 5-part Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math series. It was the first English console game from the Carmen Sandiego franchise since 2004's The Secret of the Stolen Drums. This "short, educational detective adventure" is "only available as a download through the Nintendo Wii Shop".^[1] The game was developed by Gamelion Studios,^[2] and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.^[3]

Production

With the recent release of The Magic School Bus on the DS, this game continued the trend of classic edutainment software being resurfaced.^[4] On this new development in the franchise, Bethlam Forsa, EVP Global Product Development for HMH said: "For decades, Carmen Sandiego has remained one of the most beloved, engaging educational institutions – helping students to master key concepts in reading, math, history and geography. This new slate of games for the Wii, starting with The Lady Liberty Larceny, will challenge students with fun new stories and characters".^[5]

Though the subject is maths not geography, the gameplay is very reminiscent of the original Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game.^[6] Much like the original games in the series, the game has a light-hearted sense of humour, and many of the characters have "funny, punny names".^[6] The game covers maths topics such as geometry, angles, axes, logic puzzles, and fractions, and is aimed at the school curriculum for Grades 4 and 5.^[7] The game is "presented as an animated comic book".^[3] Locations travelled to include New York City, Shanghai, and Berlin.^[5]

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to "travel the globe, solve brain-twisting math puzzles, and catch [the crook]".^[7] The game has 3 modes: Story Mode (a single-player playthrough of the game), Practice Mode (playing individual puzzles in single-player), and Multiplayer Mode (completing individual puzzles the fastest against other players).^[7] The player uses "the Wii Remote to point at the screen and highlight characters to talk to, or point to the part of the screen you want your agent to walk to. You can also press and hold the B Trigger at any time in these scenes, at which point your cursor transforms into a hidden object scanner". Each location will provide clues which will reveal where to head to next, and several Hint Coins are also scattered around the environments.^[6] After finding three clues, the player can study the dossiers of the V.I.L.E.'s motley crew of criminals and deduce who is the villain".^[3]

Plot

Carmen Sandiego and her VILE henchmen stole The Statue of Liberty from New York City, and The Chief has asked the player to go out and catch the thief. This mystery sees the player "chatting with a variety of colorful game characters in cities around the world".^[1]

Critical reception

Commonsensemedia gave the game 3/5 stars for both quality and learning, calling it a "fun, low-budget, educational gumshoeing adventure", and recommending it for "those who prefer reading to reflex-based action". It noted that fluctuations in puzzle difficulty, and a frustrating navigational problem near the end make the game frustratingly difficult as players struggle with how to progess. The game's educational properties – its abundance of "mathematical concepts...world geography, cultures and their customs" was praised.^[1]

IGN noted a few similarities between this game and the Professor Layton series, and suggested that the former sought inspiration from the latter due to the gameplay elements of collecting coins and solving puzzles. It noted "Whoever picked up the Professor Layton games and realized their style of puzzles could reinvigorate the Carmen Sandiego franchise was a genius -- it's a great combination of a newer type of video game puzzle play and a classic educational brand". Despite a small criticism of its short length, the game was given a rating of 8/10.^[6]

NintendoLife game the game 5/10 stars, writing "Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math: The Lady Liberty Larceny could have been great, but falls very short of being significant. It looks and sounds nice, controls well and has a whole lot of charm, but what it comes down to is that the actual game itself as a whole package isn't very satisfying, even for 600 Points. If there had been more puzzles, or at least a different variety with each playthrough, then this would have been a very different story. But, as it stands, it's a bit of a robbery in itself".^[8]

Giving the game a score of 13/30, Wiiloveit wrote "Simply put, this so-called "comeback" of such a beloved educational franchise is far from enjoyable and I actually find it very upsetting that the developers didn't go to further lengths to fully capture what Carmen Sandiego has always been about.".^[4]

USA Today gave the game 3.5 stars out of 4, concluding "Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math: The Lady Liberty Larceny makes doing math fun and it also presents a great mystery story for kids to solve".^[3]

References