Carmen Sandiego brings classic PC game vibes with a new heist on Google Earth
Carmen Sandiego is going back to her roots.
Before she was the star of a Netflix series and a '90s game show with a rockin' a cappella theme song, the slippery thief was a video game pioneer. Those classic PC games are the inspiration for a new Carmen story that plays out inside Google Earth.
"The Crown Jewels Caper" is a brief but completely endearing throwback in which you talk to locals and use the clues they drop to find Carmen's next location on the map. And because all of this plays out in the Google Earth app, you have a camera zooming around to show you the sights.
The story ties directly to the characters and art style of the Netflix series, though the small handful of cutscenes have more of a pixelated Ye Olde Video Game look. The whole thing doesn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes to play through, though Google's announcement promises "other capers in the near future."
Just to help you better set your expectations: This is a cool, little story but it's not the kind of game you'll play again and again. Where the original Carmen games mixed things up every time with random locations to visit and clues to unravel, The Crown Jewels Caper is a scripted story.
It's still an enjoyable blast of nostalgia and will cost you nothing, so it's worth checking out. You can try it right here on Android, Chrome, and iOS.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
