Carmen Sandiego’s new game is educational in more ways than one

When it comes to educational video games, the Carmen Sandiego franchise is a benchmark. The original computer game, Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?was released in 1985 and has since had dozens of sequels and spin-offs. The first new franchise installment in 10 years will be released in 2025, simply titled Carmen Sandiegowill end up on store shelves (or, perhaps more accurately, on public library shelves). Polygon’s early, few-hour playthrough of the game showed it wasn’t just for fans of the franchise; the game is also highly educational, which is refreshing in the age of overstimulating and hastily created content for children. Carmen Sandiego also seems to be an excellent, kid-friendly crash course in playing video games.

In the new puzzle adventure game, Carmen Sandiego is a spy who works on a case-by-case basis to take down an evil group of thieves called VILE (just like she does in her Netflix TV show adaptation). As Carmen, the player visits locations around the world to uncover clues about suspects, pursue VILE agents, and ultimately serve a warrant to arrest the main perpetrator.

The educational elements are woven into the game mechanics, so you can’t help but learn facts about the countries you visit. For example, a witness who saw the thief might give you some information, such as that the thief talked about studying Mayan ruins and that they had red hair. You can use that first piece of information to select your next destination: in this case, Mexico City. At the same time, you use the information you learn about the thieves themselves to refine your suspect database, for example marking “red hair” as “yes.”

Learning doesn’t just come in the form of static facts; Carmen Sandiego is designed to encourage players to pay attention and take in the full picture. There will always be kids (and players in general) who want to skip all the dialogue and text and just focus on interactive gameplay mechanics. But in this case, you’ll quickly fail your missions if you don’t read that, so the incentive to absorb the facts and make informed decisions is high – and fun gameplay mechanics are still heavily incorporated throughout. This way Carmen Sandiego also successfully teaches the player how to play different types of video games in general; in one minigame you control Carmen in first person and in the next minigame you solve a puzzle with tangled wires. You’ll find yourself writing down quick math problems to determine how much time you have left to solve the case if you take another 10-hour flight around the world. You sit quietly at your computer for a few moments, deciding whether to chase down a suspected thief or just pocket him instead.

The game isn’t too easy, and since there’s no narration, it’s probably only suitable for strong readers or children playing games with adults who can read. There are some quirks that make me think it would fit well in a classroom, where a teacher can help students search for clues online (such as: In which country is Nara Park located?) and define difficult vocabulary (such as “southpaw” for lefties). But based on this example, Carmen Sandiego It looks like it will be a near-perfect new addition to the franchise, and more importantly, a near-perfect game for kids who love to learn.
The game has not been cleaned up, nor is it a watered down version of the original. In short, it doesn’t make too much of an effort to appeal to the youngest members of the audience, although I think they’ll enjoy it. It’s a Carmen Sandiego game through and through, which means it’s really fun And subtly educational. I, an adult without children, will probably spend several more hours with it, just for fun – but if I did If I have kids, I’m confident it would be a great first RPG/puzzle game for them.

Carmen Sandiego will be released in Q1 2025 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series This preview was played on PC using a pre-release download code from Gameloft and HarperCollins Productions. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.