Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time

Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time, originally titled and still referred to in-game as Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, is a 1997 edutainment point-and-click adventure game developed by Broderbund for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers. The game is a remake of the 1989 game Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?. In the game, the player, an ACME Time Pilot, must capture Carmen Sandiego and her V.I.L.E. henchmen, who are using using a time travelling device stolen from ACME called the Chronoskimmer to alter major historical events. The player and five ACME Good Guides must correct these events to keep our timeline intact.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Despite being the first traditional adventure game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise, it still captures the charm, fun and educational value of the previous Carmen Sandiego games.
 * 2) Good cartoony graphics.
 * 3) Great vocal performances, especially from the ACME Good Guides and historical figures such as William Shakespeare (who is voiced by Mario himself, Charles Martinet).
 * 4) Lynne Thigpen reprises her role from the PBS game shows as the Chief of ACME and continues to put on a great over-the-top performance as in those shows. Better yet, she's still in live-action.
 * 5) The Chronopedia is filled with helpful, then-accurate information written with the help of Encyclopædia Brittanica.
 * 6) Since there are cases that would cause issues for certain players, the developers made sure that those players can still play and complete the game.
 * 7) *Case 4 requires players to know which colors of kimono jackets and linings for Renee Santz to wear in front of the seasonal rooms' guards. The colors are described on mouseover text for colorblind players.
 * 8) *Case 16 requires players to listen to Ludwig von Beethoven's music to rearrange score sheets. There is an option for deaf and hard-of-hearing players that will change the mouseover text of the sheets from colors to their correct ordinal positions.
 * 9) There is a special custom cases feature (meant for teachers to use for their students) that allows players to play a specific sequence of cases instead of the full game, so you can play your favorite cases in the order you want or only play cases of a specific theme (such as American history).
 * 10) For obvious reasons, the game takes breaks in reality to allow the cases in the game to proceed, such as having commoners like you and your ACME Good Guide meeting rulers and leaders unopposed by guards and certain anachronisms and other inaccuracies are added. Thankfully, the game manual acknowledges these as much as it possibly can. The manual also provides help for young players who are struggling in the game.
 * 11) Good soundtrack, with the game featuring the only known official release of the theme song to the Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? game show (it's on either disc as Redbook audio). Listen here!

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Low replay value: Unlike other Carmen Sandiego games, this game tells a very linear story that turns out exactly the same every time you play it. You can replay any case you've completed, but what's the point if everything plays out the same?
 * 2) Plot hole: Dee Cryption was somehow captured after the disc one cases despite you never meeting her until Case 17.
 * 3) *The game does sort of make up for this by having her not be arrested right away when you find her with the Time Cuffs; she runs off into another room where she is protected by a force field.
 * 4) Polly Tix goes mostly unused as an ACME Good Guide; she only appears in two cases while the other four each appear in four cases.
 * 5) Ivan Idea might be too '90s for some players.
 * 6) The game has major problems installing and running natively on modern Windows machines. See its PCGamingWiki page for more.
 * 7) There is a lot of unused content left over on the discs, including stuff that the developers likely forgot such as certain audio cues (such as the one for arresting Buggs Zapper in the Aztec Empire). Makes for a great article on The Cutting Room Floor, though!
 * 8) There was supposed to be a case set between the Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome cases, but it was dropped early on. Chances are that this is supposed to be the first case with Dee Cryption as the henchman to arrest and Polly Tix as the ACME Good Guide.