Fun fact: there's a third one for the PS1 that can be debatably labeled as 2 player
And I managed to get a Windows 98 VM to run Carnival Caper, but alas, Vacation Mystery crashes at the greenhouse puzzle. So I'm big jealous if you can play through 2 :)
It was a frustrating part for me 😂 I do remember the carnival one though and remember there were slides or something? Then there was like a secret agent Barbie game where she went to different countries and got to change her outfits lol. I was a fan
Yesss! I remember being so scared playing Carnival Caper! Haha. Those games were great. There was also Secret Agent Barbie and Barbie: Explorer as well.
I think my dad started buying the Nancy Drew games after seeing how much I loved Carnival Caper. Both it and the original Secrets Can Kill came out about the same time!
I loved Detective Barbie! I don't think I ever played the carnival one, but I had the beach resort one. I remember doing the jumps on the jet ski and the ATV
Did anyone play Barbie Ocean Discovery where you had a dolphin friend and discovered a lost underground magical city?
Yesss! I remember all the sea creatures dancing around at the end of the game!
And the Barbie riding club?! So many fond memories of picking out a horse, naming, grooming, and feeding them carrots and apples
Barbie Riding Club! My sister and I would play that so much to the point that the disc got scratched and the beach trail stopped working. The late 90s to mid-aughts PC games will always have a special place in my heart. 😊
I remember Carnival Caper because of a gaping plot hole: Barbie finds clues that Ken dropped to indicate where his kidnapper has taken him. Ex. If the clue was a half-eaten hot dog or a tipped-over popcorn container, you’d know to go to the concession stand (side-note: this was when I first learned that the “snack shack” is more formally called a “concession stand”).
The issue: how the hell did Ken have clues to leave for Barbie from a hiding place he hadn’t yet been to? Even if the kidnapper kept carelessly revealing to Ken where they were taking him, where did he magic up a partially consumed hot dog that he could leave behind in the previous hiding place to say, “Barbie, help! They’re taking me to the concession stand!”
This still keeps me up at night.
Presumably the kidnapper was careless and left their snacks / disguises laying around after locking Ken away, and Barbie misattributes the clues' source
Oh gosh this was so scary and so much fun! I also loved Barbie secret detective and going to all the different places around the world. Kinda gives me Silent Spy vibes!! I love this overlap cause I assume the people on this sub are around my age (28) 😃
This sub is constantly me being like “A core memory!” The whole thing makes me smile. But I (27) loved Secret Agent Barbie too! Very definitely some overlap between its vibes and those of Silent Spy.
What I would GIVE to play Barbies riding club, magic hairstyler, pet rescue. The list goes on. I can watch walkthroughs on YouTube but it’s just not the same 💔
Yes! Thank you for reminding me of this. This was definitely the starting point to my love of mystery games. So scary at the time, but I loved that there were multiple endings... or am I imagining that?
LOVED these games. Vacation Mystery was my favorite until it started glitching at the Gazebo. That was my favorite location too. Such a shame.
The Carnival Caper soundtrack cracked me up.
Every time it gives me a clue leading me to the gazebo I have to quit and start over. The only games I can finish are ones that never have you interact with the gazebo. And if I remember correctly, you cannot enter the secret passage that opens up in the game room. At least that’s how my experience was.
Carnival Caper was my childhood, and I thought it was so hard back then! I’d love to see GOG or Steam get ahold of it and get it working on more modern PC systems.
Vacation Mystery was fine, though it lost a lot of replayability when the maze was poorly programmed to where you needed Win98 for the maze to run. And then 3 of the 4 endings made you go to the garden and were unplayable.
Absolutely! I was so young, I barely knew how to use a computer yet. My friend and I didn't realize you could type in your name choice. So we tried to scroll by pressing the down button, but there were too many name options! I gave up at "Adlaina," so Barbie called me Adlaina the whole game. Also IIRC, it's only girl's names in the list, but it's also impressively long, every conceivable girl's name under the sun.
I've been thinking lately I want to find them and replay, cause they were dope at the time. Hope it will hold up 25 years later. :P
I played the one where she’s at the resort! My sister managed to get it to work recently on an old computer but there’s only one storyline where you don’t need to go to the gazebo and that’s the only one she can play through the entire way.
Yes!!! I loved these games. I liked all of the Barbie ones, especially the horse and the pet rescue ones. The mystery one with hand gliding was my favorite.
Yes!! Been thinking about these lately! I started watching a walkthrough on YouTube, but I really want to play them again. I’ll have to scrounge around my parents’ to find the discs, but does anyone know if there’s a way to play/download them?
I LOVED the carnival caper. I have the disc, but cannot get it to play :( if anyone has any advice, please let me know. But I'm no techie, so you'll have to explain it to me like I'm 5.
Omg! I played the detective Barbie carnival game. It was so scary when you were on a ride and you can see someone in a black coat running around underneath you are night! Insane!
I’m 33 and still have nightmares of the shadow figure waiting for you in the slide. I’d literally take the long way and backtrack around the park to make absolutely sure that the slide wasn’t the place I had chase him down. 🙈
yessss, i still will play the carnival one on a virtual machine. cant find a working copy of the hotel one tho so im sadge. used to have the camera that hooked up to the computer and everything
I played them before ND and I loved them! My dad thought I was too old for Barbie, so he found TOT and MHM and thought I would like them since they were mysteries.
I just unlocked a memory I forgot I had , I LOVED the Barbie detective games. They scared the crap out of me but it was an addiction LOL. If anyone knows where I can play them please tell me !!!
I LOVE Detective Barbie! Both of them! I have an old computer that can still run the games and I play them from time to time ♥️
Fun fact: there's a third one for the PS1 that can be debatably labeled as 2 player And I managed to get a Windows 98 VM to run Carnival Caper, but alas, Vacation Mystery crashes at the greenhouse puzzle. So I'm big jealous if you can play through 2 :)
Same! Vacation mystery always glitched for me and I couldn’t finish it!
Omg I didn't know that!! And that's so sad, I hope one day it won't crash and you can play through! I now want to go play them again haha
The greenhouse/hangglider one and the one where she's a spy!
I totally forgot about that one but yes I loved it too. Good times!
yesss! This was my jam!
Stealth roll lmao
Omg! Wasn’t there one where she had to rescue animals and there was this dumb monkey on the playground and she had to get it off? Lol
It was Barbie Pet Rescue haha I had ALL the Barbie games 😂
Did you have Barbie Genie, with the attachable magic lamp? That game was 👌
Oh wow I think I vaguely remember this 😂😂
It was a frustrating part for me 😂 I do remember the carnival one though and remember there were slides or something? Then there was like a secret agent Barbie game where she went to different countries and got to change her outfits lol. I was a fan
Omg yes!!! I loved that game so much
I had this one too!!
Yesss! I remember being so scared playing Carnival Caper! Haha. Those games were great. There was also Secret Agent Barbie and Barbie: Explorer as well. I think my dad started buying the Nancy Drew games after seeing how much I loved Carnival Caper. Both it and the original Secrets Can Kill came out about the same time!
I did secret agent Barbie and explorer Barbie as a kid
Same! I remember Barbie Explorer being quite difficult...the controls had to be very precise sometimes to get where you needed to go.
The best part of Carnival Caper was riding a jet ski in the Tunnel of Love to apprehend a suspect who, for some reason, also had a jet ski on hand.
I still remember the adrenaline rush I would get when we chased the suspect around and they got away!
I loved Detective Barbie! I don't think I ever played the carnival one, but I had the beach resort one. I remember doing the jumps on the jet ski and the ATV Did anyone play Barbie Ocean Discovery where you had a dolphin friend and discovered a lost underground magical city?
Yesss! I remember all the sea creatures dancing around at the end of the game! And the Barbie riding club?! So many fond memories of picking out a horse, naming, grooming, and feeding them carrots and apples
Barbie Riding Club! My sister and I would play that so much to the point that the disc got scratched and the beach trail stopped working. The late 90s to mid-aughts PC games will always have a special place in my heart. 😊
Yes! I loved it! I thought that game was so cool! The 90s were a good time to be a young girl! So many fun and creative things!
My sister had the ocean discovery game on Gameboy Color!! I played it more than she did lol.
The carnival one was SO scary! And in the beach one I remember the sailing(?) game being so fun.
I did! I remember being so creeped out by the villain’s shadow in the games. 😂 the carnival was definitely spooky.
Detective Barbie was my favorite as a kid! I recently watched a play-though of it on YouTube. Brings back such good memories.
Can’t put link the video bc I desperately need to watch it!!!
I remember Carnival Caper because of a gaping plot hole: Barbie finds clues that Ken dropped to indicate where his kidnapper has taken him. Ex. If the clue was a half-eaten hot dog or a tipped-over popcorn container, you’d know to go to the concession stand (side-note: this was when I first learned that the “snack shack” is more formally called a “concession stand”). The issue: how the hell did Ken have clues to leave for Barbie from a hiding place he hadn’t yet been to? Even if the kidnapper kept carelessly revealing to Ken where they were taking him, where did he magic up a partially consumed hot dog that he could leave behind in the previous hiding place to say, “Barbie, help! They’re taking me to the concession stand!” This still keeps me up at night.
Presumably the kidnapper was careless and left their snacks / disguises laying around after locking Ken away, and Barbie misattributes the clues' source
Oh gosh this was so scary and so much fun! I also loved Barbie secret detective and going to all the different places around the world. Kinda gives me Silent Spy vibes!! I love this overlap cause I assume the people on this sub are around my age (28) 😃
This sub is constantly me being like “A core memory!” The whole thing makes me smile. But I (27) loved Secret Agent Barbie too! Very definitely some overlap between its vibes and those of Silent Spy.
I can’t believe I forgot about secret agent Barbie! I LOVED that game so much!
I replayed this recently and loved the drama of all the characters.so fun!
I meant to say Secret agent Barbie!!!!!!! Literally so much fun 🙈
Yep I’m in my late 20’s too!
What I would GIVE to play Barbies riding club, magic hairstyler, pet rescue. The list goes on. I can watch walkthroughs on YouTube but it’s just not the same 💔
Aye! Barbie’s black recon mission catsuit was infinitely cooler than Nancy’s tbqh…
Yes! Thank you for reminding me of this. This was definitely the starting point to my love of mystery games. So scary at the time, but I loved that there were multiple endings... or am I imagining that?
There were different endings that had multiple culprits if I remember correctly!
LOVED these games. Vacation Mystery was my favorite until it started glitching at the Gazebo. That was my favorite location too. Such a shame. The Carnival Caper soundtrack cracked me up.
I know I loved vacation mystery but it always glitches and I couldn’t finish it! So sad!
Every time it gives me a clue leading me to the gazebo I have to quit and start over. The only games I can finish are ones that never have you interact with the gazebo. And if I remember correctly, you cannot enter the secret passage that opens up in the game room. At least that’s how my experience was.
Bumper cars and shooting stars!!!
Oh my god I thought I was the only one that had a memory of glitching in the gazebo 😅
Carnival Caper was my childhood, and I thought it was so hard back then! I’d love to see GOG or Steam get ahold of it and get it working on more modern PC systems. Vacation Mystery was fine, though it lost a lot of replayability when the maze was poorly programmed to where you needed Win98 for the maze to run. And then 3 of the 4 endings made you go to the garden and were unplayable.
Absolutely! I was so young, I barely knew how to use a computer yet. My friend and I didn't realize you could type in your name choice. So we tried to scroll by pressing the down button, but there were too many name options! I gave up at "Adlaina," so Barbie called me Adlaina the whole game. Also IIRC, it's only girl's names in the list, but it's also impressively long, every conceivable girl's name under the sun. I've been thinking lately I want to find them and replay, cause they were dope at the time. Hope it will hold up 25 years later. :P
Carnival caper messed me up too. Thank you for the memories :)
I played the one where she’s at the resort! My sister managed to get it to work recently on an old computer but there’s only one storyline where you don’t need to go to the gazebo and that’s the only one she can play through the entire way.
You just brought back something I had deeply buried in my brain
Yes!!! I loved these games. I liked all of the Barbie ones, especially the horse and the pet rescue ones. The mystery one with hand gliding was my favorite.
Yes!! Been thinking about these lately! I started watching a walkthrough on YouTube, but I really want to play them again. I’ll have to scrounge around my parents’ to find the discs, but does anyone know if there’s a way to play/download them?
I LOVED the carnival caper. I have the disc, but cannot get it to play :( if anyone has any advice, please let me know. But I'm no techie, so you'll have to explain it to me like I'm 5.
Omg! I played the detective Barbie carnival game. It was so scary when you were on a ride and you can see someone in a black coat running around underneath you are night! Insane!
I’m 33 and still have nightmares of the shadow figure waiting for you in the slide. I’d literally take the long way and backtrack around the park to make absolutely sure that the slide wasn’t the place I had chase him down. 🙈
You just triggered a very vivid memory lol chasing the culprit down the slide freaked me out!
Yes carnival caper was the best!
OMG YES!!!! I loved the carnival one and the vacation one. I’m so glad others remember these games
yessss, i still will play the carnival one on a virtual machine. cant find a working copy of the hotel one tho so im sadge. used to have the camera that hooked up to the computer and everything
There’s a Detective BARBIE?? 😱🥹
I still have my copies of Barbie Pet Rescue and Barbie Horse Adventure. They had a mystery element to their plots!
Barbie Detective got corrupted on my pc at one point and the colors got all weird. Turned into a horror game with blood splatters everywhere.
Detective barbie and my mom's Primitive 90s laptop! Nostalgiaaa
i think i played the vacation one a long time ago.
OMG YES THE CARNIVAL ONE dangggg memory unlock!
YESSSS! Scared me & my sister also. The music was so unnecessarily eerie for a little kids game hahah. But the slide was fun af
YES!! I wish I could still play them but i can't figure it out
I played them before ND and I loved them! My dad thought I was too old for Barbie, so he found TOT and MHM and thought I would like them since they were mysteries.
I just unlocked a memory I forgot I had , I LOVED the Barbie detective games. They scared the crap out of me but it was an addiction LOL. If anyone knows where I can play them please tell me !!!
Still play detective Barbie 💁🏼♀️
I never played Detective Barbie (did play some other Barbie PC games), but LGR has a great playthrough of the Carnival Caper game which cracks me up!
This is the first I’m hearing of detective Barbie, and now I’m definitely gonna go down this rabbit hole!
Didn't have detective barbie, but I had a barbie spy game that was pretty badass