She's a double-dealing diva with a taste for thievery
- by Alana Hagues
The world's greatest thief Carmen Sandiego is no stranger to video games, but amazingly, she's managed to avoid the Switch in her near-40-year career. That is, until next year when Carmen Sandiego will be coming to all consoles.
Revealed by IGN, Carmen Sandiego appears to be based on the 2019-2021 Netflix series, where the titular thief is no longer the one you're chasing — you're now rooting for her. Controlling Carmen Sandiego, you'll be attempting to defeat the Villains' International League of Evil (VILE), which she once belonged to.
Instead of being an "edutainment" game like most of the older games, Carmen Sandiego's 2025 adventure will see you solving the crimes yourself. Gameloft told IGN that it will still feature the "core game loop" of those older titles, but you'll be able to fully explore cities. There's also a classic "The Acme Files" mode, which acts as a tribute to the original Carmen Sandiego games from the '80s.
Carmen Sandiego will launch on Netflix first in Q1 2025, with Switch and other consoles to follow later in the same quarter.
Will you be adventuring with Carmen Sandiego? Let us know in the comments.
[source ign.com]
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About Alana Hagues
Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate.
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Comments 25
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- cmlobue
+1 to the staff for using the final verse of the Rockapella song.
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- Wildvine53
I’m looking forward to playing this! The show was cute, and I’m glad we’re finally getting another game
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- Ryu_Niiyama
And now the theme song is stuck in my head.
(also had no idea the series was rebooted. )
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- Desrever
I am AWFUL with geography and was never able to play the videogames as a kid. The game show on PBS on the other hand, I would watch everyday. Did I learn anything about Geography from watching the show? Absolutely not. Did I learn the names of all the crooks? Absolutely yes. Patti Larseny, Double Trouble, Vic the Slick, Kneemoi, and the rest all have a permanent spot in my brain that is far less helpful than any actual geography would have been.
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- Tempestryke
Mad props for mentioning the song
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- JohnnyMind
Pretty cool, I'll finally be able to play at least one Carmen Sandiego game thanks to this new one coming to Switch!
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- Tyranexx
This really brings back memories. I used to love the show and playing the edutainment games back in the day.
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- LadyCharlie
The new Carmen Sandiego cartoon is surprisingly delightful, and it's neat seeing a game centered around it. A detective game feels right at home for the IP, so I'm gonna keep an eye on this.
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- Captain-N
Mayor Pauline's secret life. That's the how, and why there were plenty of moons in New Donk.
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- TenEighty
That looks cool. Hopefully the gameplay is good too.
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- JSC016
Going into this one cautiously optimistic because the team working on this is Gameloft. Their games usually aren’t my cup of tea, but I’ll still keep an eye on this.
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- Anti-Matter
Ah, Carmen Sandiego.
That world class female thief,
I knew her name since when I was kid.
There was the PS2 / GameCube / XBOX version in the past.
I hope the game will have PS5 version.
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- Royge
@JSC016 think again, the studio behind this game is not just any Gameloft studio: it is Gameloft Brisbane, the only studio in the group that makes games without micro-transactions and without mandatory connection, their last game, The Oregon Trail, was very qualitative and even won many awards !!
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- Royge
Really looking forward to playing it, the last game from the studio that developed it (Gameloft Brisbane) was the remake of The Oregon Trail which I loved!!
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- JSC016
@Royge Ooooooh okay. I did not know that. Well, I’m feeling much more hopeful now.
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- buxner
This absolutely does not look like Carmen Sandiego. Where are the geography puzzles?
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- Royge
@Anti-Matter Yes it will also be released on ps5
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- Thomystic
At first I thought we were getting a Pauline game. But this is even better. I'd love it if the originals were thrown in as a bonus.
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- MrCookieCrisps
Going from the gameplay of Apple Arcade's Oregon Trail to this is going to be a massive undertaking.
Wish they got Microids to do a Syberia style game or make a Hitman-clone with knockouts being the only way of defeating enemies.
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- Coolmusic
I rather be chasing Carmen than being her tbh (yes, I'm being nostalgic-whiney here).
In anycase, I give this a try.
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- SmashBall35
I watched the Netflix version, and I quite enjoyed it. Depending on how this looks, I might consider getting it! I do wish the art style was more like the show…. Still looks fun nonetheless!
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- MidnightDragonDX
So you play as Carmen and she’s reformed. Interesting. The original story was she worked for ACME before turning to crime. Still, looks cool
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- MasterGraveheart
Nice! I rather enjoyed this version of Carmen Sandiego, too.
And, like so many others here, the song is stuck in my head again. DO IT ROCKAPELLA!!
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- SillyG
I've actually never played a Carmen Sandiego game to any length, though I think we had one or two on our primary school computers in the mid 90s. I'll reserve judgement and hold out for a physical release, but I'll keep my options open.
Not crazy about the chibi-ish character design though, which would have been fine on, say, the DS, but purely out of necessity. But why do devs keep opting for this on far superior hardware?
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- rvcolem1
Dang I was hoping it was a geography game, or world history game. Where in the world, where in time, where in the USA is Carmen sandiego...
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