Nancy Drew started out as a ghost-written series of detective books from the 1930s aimed at young headstrong girls, which has sold over 200 million copies. Now, 75 years later, after re-issues, revisions, reprints and TV series, the latest installments in a growing list of simple, fun games based on the original books are available.

Recently we played the 12th and 13th games – Secrets of the Old Clock and Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon. The games are based upon the books, and it shows: quaint early American charm overflows from every facet of the game, almost irritatingly so at times. The story is, nonetheless, involving and loaded with more complexities and fun that you would expect from a budget title.

With such a pedigree behind them, the series of puzzle-solving mystery games do not need to rely on graphical wizardry to lure you in. The strength of the story negates the need for complex animation – navigating the game world is done through clicking on the relevant part of the 2D image you are presented with. The upshot of this is that if your kids have your old PC, there’s every chance that these titles will run with minimal issues. It’s like playing a somewhat crude game from the early 1990s, polished to compete with the current crop of available titles.

As the story unfolds logic problems have to be solved before the game will advance. Some of the puzzles are really quite complex, and great exercises in lateral thinking. Between the moments of triumph over quirky mini-games and the storyline, there is one other aspect of this game that makes it stand out: accessibility. Everything is in reach, and the controls are simple enough that anybody should be able to listen to the story and play after toying with a few simple intuitive icons. The level of involvement makes the series a great alternative to free Flash games.

Although they go against the grain of most games being released, they are good family fun and we certainly enjoyed them. The new releases that we played retail for $29.95 and the other titles in the series are $14.95, available from most major technology outlets.