Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Broderbund Software scored probably their biggest hit with this series. Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego is a popular PC “edutaiment” game (with many spin-offs) where players track down the title villain, a former detective for Acme who decided to turn to crime, and her henchmen of VILE (short for Villains’ International League of Evil), which is surprisingly equal opportunity. It’s mentioned in many games and some of the spin-off media we’re talking about in this article (as well as the short-lived DC comic) that Carmen only turned to crime for the challenge. Being a kids franchise, Carmen is able to steal things that should be impossible, like lakes, Mount Rushmore, and things like that.
The question comes with how you portray the games in TV form. Two game shows and a cartoon all tried to figure that out, and some recent conversations on Twitter, as well as a recent episode of Game Show Reviewer, a review show that posts to a website that also features a number of my RU comrades, brought these all to mind, and they have some darn good intros. I don’t usually talk about game show intros because (a) they aren’t storytelling entertainment and that’s what BW Media Spotlight is about and (b) they just introduce the players and hosts and you can rarely hear the music until the closing credits. The Carmen Sandiego games are a different story.
