Gameloft and HarperCollins Productions announced a new Carmen Sandiego game, simply titled Carmen Sandiego.
In the many games and extended media of Carmen Sandiego, she has always been portrayed as the villain that needs to be stopped. This new game by Gameloft finally turned the tables as players will be donning the red hat and trenchcoat of the master thief.
But players are not playing as her in the role of a globe-trotting thief. Somehow, Carmen has gone straight, using her sneaky abilities and gadgets to capture villains of VILE, the criminal organisation that she would have led in other depctions.
Expect to travel to locations around the world including Japan, Egypt and sunny Singapore as part of this new adventure.
The new Carmen Sandiego game will be a premium single-player puzzle adventure game. The keyword “premium” here is important, as Gameloft is mostly known for their free-to-play games including Disney Speedstorm, Disney Dreamlight Valley and Asphalt.
Carmen Sandiego started out as the 1985 text-based adventure game “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”. It’s an early example of educational games, as players are exposed to world geography and history through its line of games.
In the 90’s, Carmen Sandiego has its own cartoon show and even a game show. The game show even inspired similarly formatted shows in regions outside of the US. Malaysian kids of the ’90s might remember “Di Mana Joe Jambul?”.
The Carmen Sandiego IP continues to be influential today. Indie adventurer Chinatown Detective Agency explicitly namedropped the Carmen Sandiego games as an inspiration.
More recently, there’s a new Carmen Sandiego show produced by HarperCollins Prroductions on Netflix as well as 10 new books in 2019. A live-action show is in development at Netflix as well.
The new Carmen Sandiego game will be availablee first for Netflix subscribers on iOS and Android via the Netflix app. A release on PlayStation, PC (Steam), Xbox and Nintendo Switch will be coming in Q1 2025.