A simple point and click mystery, with a bland, story gamers have heard before. Nancy Drew the Hidden Staircase has nothing new to add. No new quirks in gameplay, nothing special in regards to sound or graphics. The gameplay is extremely short and leaves you wondering just where it is your game actually went. Fans of the Nancy Drew franchise might be interested in checking out this version of their favorite books in game form, but Diehard GameFAN deeply encourage them not to bother. Either that, or check out HerInteractive for a better, more informed gaming choice.
Gamertell has posted an article that relates a story published in Betty & Veronica Digest Magazine to a surge in female-oriented games being released September 2008.
From the article:
"In an issue of Betty and Veronica Digest Magazine (no. 125, Jan. 2002) with a story titled 'Game Gambit' featuring fictional game maker Zapco Games. The company has asked Betty, the blonde-next-door and sometimes gender-bending teenager, to help test a series of arcade games targeted towards girls. The story starts with Betty claiming most games and being too violent for girls and Zapco shows her a series of prototypes that Betty rejects as being too stereotypical..."
The fictional, stereotypically female-oriented arcade games in the comic book story are strangely close to the eight DS releases listed in the article.
