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Upon reflecting on characters in horror games, Barbie is not the primary idea that comes to mind. But anyone who experienced the charmingly eerie 1998 PC game Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper knows that Barbie absolutely has final girl potential.

The Unusual Storyline

The storyline is appropriately absurd: Barbie and her pal Becky have just graduated from their local detective academy, since naturally that's a thing. A "seasonal fundraising festival" is happening nearby, and Ken is somehow the chairman of the event, despite the fact he and Barbie are indicated as teens. But the night before the carnival opens, tragedy strikes: Ken disappears via a magic show mishap, and the charity money disappears with him! Naturally, it's up to Detective Barbie, her friend Becky (who acts as her "mission control"), and the player to unravel the puzzle of his vanishing.

Sleuth Barbie was saying gamer names out loud long before Fallout 4 and Starfield attempted the trick — and she could pronounce nearly any name.

Things Get Weird

The peculiarity emerges pretty much immediately. When launching the game, users are asked to choose their name from a list, and Barbie will speak to the player by name throughout the game. It's hard to stress how long and thorough this name list is. If you're someone who has consistently found it difficult discovering trinkets with your name on them at souvenir stores, you might assume you're unfortunate here, but you're mistaken. There are thousands of names on the list, which seems to list almost all versions of every feminine forename in existence, from very usual to surprisingly rare. Even though Barbie utters the player's name with a honestly alarming amount of lively energy, it isn't similar to text-to-speech, which has me questioning how long Barbie actress Chris Anthony Lansdowne remained in the studio reciting almost all girl's name under the sun.

Investigating the Fair

When gamers provide their name, they assume control over Barbie as she examines the area of the crime. It's after dark, and she's all alone (except for Becky, who periodically contacts via the Crime Computer). Looking back, I can't move past how much exploring the game's spooky festival site feels like playing Silent Hill 3. Sure, this carnival doesn't feature blood and rust, or overrun by frightening monsters like Lakeside Amusement Park, but the feel is unquestionably eerie. The situation becomes more suspicion-raising when Barbie starts noticing a shadowy form lurking in the fair. It appears she's not by herself after all.

Nothing like a nerve-wracking pursuit down a absurdly lengthy chute to raise your heart rate.

Unsettling Rides and Chases

As you guide Barbie through more and more creepy games and exhibits (the spooky decoration closet still terrifies me), the player will find evidence, which she forwards to Becky to analyze. The clues finally direct Barbie to the enigmatic character's location, and it's up to her to hunt them down, following Ken's captor through a assortment of carnival/theme park staples including collision vehicles, an massive chute with diverging routes, and a dimly lit tunnel of love. These chases were genuinely heart-pounding — the music becomes intense, and a single misstep could lead to the suspect getting away.

Surprising Depth

Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper had a astonishing degree of complexity, especially for a late '90s point-and-click game targeted at female children. Instead of costuming Barbie, or engaging with her equines, Detective Barbie focused on genuine interactive elements, had a engaging narrative, and was extremely spooky. It even had some replay value — every game session changed the types of clues players would discover, and regarding Ken's kidnapper, there were multiple suspects — the culprit's name varied every playthrough you played. When the puzzle was unraveled, players could even generate a young sleuth emblem to show off for ultimate peer respect.

Baby's first jumpscare! The clues in this room squeak noisily or emerge unexpectedly as players investigate them.

Heritage and Follow-ups

Certainly, after a couple of repeats, you'd finally encounter everything the game had to offer, but it was incredible for its time, and even generated two subsequent titles: 1999's Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery, and 2000's Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise. The company continues releasing Barbie video games currently — the upcoming title is Barbie Horse Tails (yes, another horse riding/accessorizing game), which releases in the coming weeks. While the graphics are a certain upgrade over Detective Barbie, I question Barbie Horse Tails contains the same degree of interactive complexity, replayability, or general spookiness as its late-nineties predecessors, which is a bit unfortunate.

An Introduction to Scares

Regardless of Mattel's original intentions for the game, Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper finally evolved into my gateway to the horror genre, and I'd love to see Detective Barbie appear in another playful-yet-eerie game that involves more than dress-up and horse-riding. The world has numerous pony lovers, but it could absolutely employ more resilient kid investigators cracking important fundraising fair mysteries.