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When you think of characters in horror games, Barbie hardly is the first name that comes to mind. But anyone who played the charmingly eerie 1998 PC game Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper knows that Barbie certainly holds final girl potential.

The Unusual Storyline

The setup is suitably strange: Barbie and her companion Becky have recently completed from their neighborhood investigator school, since naturally that's an actual institution. A "fall charity carnival" is taking place locally, and Ken is somehow the festival head, even though he and Barbie are suggested to be teenagers. But the night before the carnival starts, misfortune hits: Ken disappears via a magic show mishap, and the donation funds vanishes with him! Of course, it's up to Detective Barbie, her friend Becky (who functions as her "guy in the chair"), and the player to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

Investigator Barbie was saying gamer names out loud well before Fallout 4 and Starfield attempted the trick — and she could articulate virtually all names.

The Strangeness Begins

Things get weird almost right away. Upon starting up the game, users are invited to pick their name from a list, and Barbie will verbally refer to the player by name during the entire adventure. It's hard to stress how comprehensive and complete this selection of names is. For those who has often struggled locating souvenirs with your name on them at gift shops, you might assume you're unfortunate here, but you're incorrect. There are thousands of names on the list, which looks to include nearly every variation of every female first name in existence, from extremely popular to unexpectedly uncommon. While Barbie speaks the player's name with a frankly terrifying amount of bubbly enthusiasm, it isn't similar to text-to-speech, which has me wondering how long Barbie voice actress Chris Anthony Lansdowne stayed in the sound room rattling off virtually each female name under the sun.

Exploring the Carnival

Once players have entered their name, they take command of Barbie as she examines the area of the crime. It's late at night, and she's all alone (except for Becky, who sometimes updates via the Crime Computer). In retrospect, I can't move past how much roaming about the game's eerie fair location resembles playing Silent Hill 3. Certainly, this carnival lacks blood and rust, or infested with terrifying creatures like Lakeside Amusement Park, but the feel is unquestionably eerie. It only grows more suspicion-raising when Barbie begins observing a shadowy form lurking in the fair. It appears she's not by herself after all.

It's hard to beat a tense chase down a hilariously extended slide to raise your heart rate.

Spooky Games and Hunts

While piloting Barbie through progressively disturbing amusements and displays (the spooky decoration closet still gives me nightmares), the player will find evidence, which she sends to Becky to analyze. The clues finally direct Barbie to the unknown person's location, and it's her responsibility to track them down, following Ken's captor through a variety of fairground classics including bumper cars, an enormous slide with branching paths, and a faintly lit romance passage. These chases were genuinely heart-pounding — the music gets tense, and a single misstep could result in the suspect escaping.

Unexpected Complexity

Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper had a unexpected amount of detail, especially for a late '90s point-and-click game aimed at young girls. In place of costuming Barbie, or playing with her horses, Detective Barbie focused on actual gameplay, had a captivating plot, and was incredibly eerie. It even had a degree of repeat play appeal — every game session altered the varieties of hints players would come upon, and concerning Ken's kidnapper, there were several persons of interest — the identity of the guilty party altered with each session you played. When the puzzle was unraveled, players could even generate a Junior Detective badge to exhibit for maximum girl-world street cred.

The earliest scare! The clues in this room groan audibly or appear abruptly as players examine them.

Influence and Successors

Of course, after a few replays, you'd ultimately experience everything the game had to offer, but it was remarkable back then, and even produced two follow-ups: 1999's Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery, and 2000's Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise. Mattel is still producing Barbie video games nowadays — the next one is Barbie Horse Tails (yes, another pony care/styling experience), which releases later this month. Although the visuals are a certain upgrade over Detective Barbie, I am skeptical Barbie Horse Tails includes the same amount of play detail, repeat appeal, or typical creepiness as its 1990s forerunners, which is somewhat disappointing.

An Introduction to Scares

Irrespective of Mattel's original intentions for the game, Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper ultimately turned into my introduction to scary media, and I'd love to see Detective Barbie feature in another playful-yet-eerie game that extends past costuming and equestrian activities. The globe contains numerous pony lovers, but it could definitely use more resilient kid investigators unraveling critical benefit festival cases.