Thus, players are never so overwhelmed that they abandon the story, a common problem in many older Nancy Drew titles where the difficult puzzles would prompt players to seek answers from the Internet (guilty). The puzzle solving, clue-collecting mechanics work in a mystery game and they also work in Shattered Medallion’s primary setting: a reality TV show. The game starts with Nancy and her best friend being selected for the show Pacific Run: New Zealand, a parody of programs like Survivor and The Amazing Race. As in most Nancy Drew games, The Shattered Medallion educates the player on its geographical setting without fetishizing that locale. In this case, the show’s challenges are New Zealand-related tasks, like sheep shearing and panning for gold. I never knew there were so many breeds of sheep-yet another fact to add to the long list of “Things Nancy Drew has taught me,” which includes the folk history of Lycanthropy and what shoes Marie Antoinette was wearing when she died. While the challenges educate players on New Zealand, the primary narrative unfolds at base camp through interactions with the other characters. The game may have benefitted from the game tasks directly aligning to the plot: like many other Nancy Drew games, this format makes The Shattered Medallion a game about its characters rather than about a mystery. Even so, many Nancy Drew games end with a standard mystery climax, but this game builds toward a much more complex ending, due in part to the narrative focus on the characters, specifically a series regular background character named Sonny Joon.
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