Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek Review (Nintendo Wii)

Mystery. The chase. The overwhelming desire to know exactly “Who done it?” To throw aside all inhibitions and follow your gut instinct when you know the truth. It’s a feeling that every child lusts for – and some grownups too.

There were two book series that used to fill that void. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

While most boys flocked to the Hardy Boys just for the chance to see Frank and Joe land one of their signature “crushing blows,” girls tended to opt for the more subtle dignified approach of Nancy Drew. She was the stereotypical upper-middleclass girl of her time: wore long skirts, enjoyed making finger foods, and involved in the social scene. Regardless of what activity she was involved in, she was always able to find time to uncover the truth and stop the ‘bad guys.’

Now, Nancy Drew has made the jump to the home gaming on the Nintendo Wii.

Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is a point-and-click gaming adventure that seeks to quench your thirst for mystery.

The game starts off with Nancy traveling to the Canadian Rockies to investigate a string of suspicious accidents at the Icicle Creek Lodge. If people going on a vacation at a place called “Icicle Creek” isn’t mysterious enough, there is an eerie wolf who likes nothing more than to terrorize guests and keep them up at night with its howling.

Your adventure starts under the guise of the maid and the cook. Although, a cliché role for a woman (cook and clean) it works to your advantage. You’ll be able to snoop around in the guest bedrooms undetected. Just keep in mind that as a worker, you’ll have a tight schedule to keep. You’ll have to get the rooms cleaned before noon and you are also on the clock to get the meals ready.

Cooking gives you a chance to engage in one of the Nancy Drew sub-games. You get to do all sorts of cool motions with the Wii-mote from chopping to stirring. It can be a bit tricky at times, but you’ll just have to learn to be precise. Of course, if your patience level is low you will find yourself saying, “screw it” to achieving a great accuracy ranking.

There are some other interesting sub-games, but definitely not enough to maintain the fun factor on this game. Snowmobiling is by far the best. There is also a snowball fight you get into with a little girl. It’s fun the first and second time, but keep passing through her territory and you may quickly get bored.

There is also a fishing game that is almost not worth mentioning. It is terribly boring and tedious to play.

The graphics immediately place you in the comfort (or discomfort) of being in the cozy Icicle Creek lodge. There are only small moments when you will feel like you are back playing on a 80s console (like with the atrocious fishing game).

One thing that does stick out is the use of seemingly arbitrary cut scenes throughout the game. The cut scenes aren’t say a movie of character dialogue and action. No, it’s just five seconds of you walking through snow. Well, really it’s just the camera walking through snow since this is a first-person POV title.

The sound maintains a chilling pace, and will constantly reminds you that you are indeed playing a mystery game.

The game play is consistent with what you would expect from a point-and-click game. The main caveat here is the loading screen. You won’t be able to move more than five paces, inside or outside the lodge, without being stuck with a loading screen. This really drags down the pacing of the game. Since it is already more of a slow take-your-time title, the loading just becomes excessively cumbersome. Move to the staircase. Loading screen. Approach a door. Loading screen. Suffer through a 5 second useless cut-scene of you walking through snow. Loading screen.

Overall, Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek will stimulate your thirst for adventure with some cool snowmobiling and Wii-mote cooking activities in between. The game gets weighed down by excessive loading time, but if mystery is your thing, you’ll live with it.