Nancy Drew games could've been much more "classics"?
 

Ok, I've tried only slices of "The Phantom of Venice" and "The Captive Curse", but i can't shake the feeling that the massive series could have been on pair with Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight... only if it took a little more attention to details and the character of Nancy herself.

I hear you - in that case, the series wouldn't be THIS big since it would took more time to polish the individual titles, and after all - why would they bother - they're still one of the best selling titles. But i say this because i think the games i've tried were not bad as i thought by hearing many of the negative reactions, but still lacked a bit here and there to be above average.

Just wait till Shlaymara sees this topic...
:D

On topic: I played only the first ND game and I liked it. Not much of a story, but the puzzles were nice. One of these days (if not earlier) I'm gonna play more of those.

I know what you mean diego! The games are very formulaic & really don't stand up against more polished titles. But they usually try to present an interesting story with an assortment of puzzles & many of the earlier games had an educational angle - they've got to be a comfortable diversion for me!

They seem to be targeted at teenage girls but do seem to appeal to a wider audience.

The trouble is that the Gabriel Knight series has 3 titles, the original Monkey Island has 3 titles followed later by a 4th as opposed to 25 Nancy Drew games since 1999? with a 26th on the horizon. Yes, there was/is so much potential to improve these games in terms of story, character, graphics, movement etc but would the series have been able to maintain the same output which seems to have contributed to it's continuing popularity & survival? :)

Agree. Good games but with little tweaks it could've been brilliant series.

I am not so much into goodie-two-shoes characters but Nancy is okay. Then the "guest stars" are often really tasty.

Still, a Nancy Drew game made it into the top 100.

I've only played two ND games and from that experience alone, I think the series potential could only ever extend to what the Dreamcatcher Agatha Christie games achieved. To be on the level of Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight a massive overhaul would be required so that the game was no longer recognizable from what it was.

I think they do well at what they do... There have been a couple of not so good ones, but most of them are pretty good. A nice mystery/detective story and some really good puzzles. I eagerly await the next one.