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When considering horror game protagonists, Barbie hardly is the first name that enters your head. Yet individuals who experienced the charmingly eerie 1998 PC game Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper knows that Barbie certainly holds final girl potential.

The Absurd Premise

The storyline is fittingly bizarre: Barbie and her friend Becky have newly finished from their neighborhood investigator school, since naturally that's a real concept. A "seasonal fundraising festival" is in town, and Ken is somehow the event organizer, even though he and Barbie are implied to be adolescents. Yet the nighttime before the carnival starts, misfortune hits: Ken disappears via a magic act accident, and the donation funds disappears with him! As expected, it's the responsibility of Detective Barbie, her friend Becky (who acts as her "support operator"), and the player to crack the case of his absence.

Investigator Barbie was uttering user names out loud long before Fallout 4 and Starfield used the feature — and she could pronounce nearly any name.

The Strangeness Begins

The oddity starts nearly instantly. Upon starting up the game, users are prompted to select their name from a list, and Barbie will address the player by name during the entire adventure. It's hard to stress how long and thorough this selection of names is. If you're someone who has consistently found it difficult locating souvenirs with your name on them at souvenir stores, you might believe you're unlucky here, but you're incorrect. There are thousands of names on the list, which looks to include practically each form of every feminine forename in existence, from incredibly common to unexpectedly uncommon. While Barbie speaks the player's name with a honestly alarming amount of lively energy, it doesn't seem like text-to-speech, which has me wondering how long Barbie voice actress Chris Anthony Lansdowne stayed in the sound room rattling off damn near every feminine name under the sun.

Exploring the Carnival

Once players have entered their name, they assume control over Barbie as she examines the area of the crime. It's late at night, and she's totally solitary (except for Becky, who periodically contacts via the Crime Computer). Looking back, I can't get over how much exploring the game's creepy carnival grounds is similar to playing Silent Hill 3. Sure, this carnival lacks blood and rust, or infested with frightening monsters like Lakeside Amusement Park, but the atmosphere is distinctly spooky. It only grows more anxiety-provoking when Barbie starts detecting a shadowy form lurking in the fair. It becomes clear she's not by herself after all.

It's hard to beat a anxious follow down a absurdly lengthy chute to get your blood pumping.

Eerie Attractions and Pursuits

While piloting Barbie through increasingly unsettling games and exhibits (the Halloween prop storage room still terrifies me), the player will come across clues, which she sends to Becky to scrutinize. The clues ultimately lead Barbie to the enigmatic character's location, and it's up to her to find them, following Ken's captor through a variety of amusement park standards including dodgem cars, an huge slider with splitting ways, and a faintly lit romance passage. These chases were truly thrilling — the music becomes intense, and an incorrect action could lead to the suspect escaping.

Remarkable Detail

Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper had a astonishing degree of complexity, especially for a end-of-the-century interactive title designed for girl youths. Rather than dressing up Barbie, or playing with her horses, Detective Barbie centered on genuine interactive elements, had a captivating plot, and was creepy as hell. It even had some replay value — every game session switched up the types of clues players would come upon, and when it came to Ken's kidnapper, there were several persons of interest — the offender's persona varied every playthrough you played. After the case was cracked, players could even produce a young sleuth emblem to show off for maximum girl-world street cred.

The earliest scare! The clues in this room creak loudly or pop up suddenly as players investigate them.

Heritage and Follow-ups

Of course, after a couple of repeats, you'd eventually see everything the game had to offer, but it was remarkable back then, and even generated two subsequent titles: 1999's Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery, and 2000's Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise. Mattel is still cranking out Barbie video games currently — the forthcoming game is Barbie Horse Tails (yes, another horse riding/accessorizing game), which launches later this month. Even though the images are a clear enhancement over Detective Barbie, I am skeptical Barbie Horse Tails contains the same level of gameplay depth, replay value, or overall eeriness as its 1990s forerunners, which is somewhat disappointing.

An Entry to Fear

Irrespective of Mattel's original intentions for the game, Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper ended up becoming my introduction to scary media, and I'd love to see Detective Barbie feature in another playful-yet-eerie game that involves more than dress-up and horse-riding. Society possesses numerous pony lovers, but it could absolutely employ more hard-boiled Junior Detectives solving high-stakes charity carnival crimes.