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When considering leads in scary games, Barbie isn't the initial thought that springs to mind. But anyone who delved into the delightfully dark 1998 PC game Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper recognizes that Barbie absolutely has heroine capabilities.

The Unusual Storyline

The premise is suitably strange: Barbie and her pal Becky have just graduated from their neighborhood investigator school, since naturally that's a thing. A "seasonal fundraising festival" is happening nearby, and Ken is somehow the chairman of the event, even though he and Barbie are suggested to be teenagers. Yet the nighttime before the carnival begins, misfortune hits: Ken goes missing via a magic show mishap, and the charity money goes missing with him! Naturally, it's the responsibility of Detective Barbie, her friend Becky (who functions as her "guy in the chair"), and the player to unravel the puzzle of his disappearance.

Detective Barbie was speaking player names aloud far earlier than Fallout 4 and Starfield tried the gimmick — and she could articulate virtually all names.

The Creepiness Starts

The oddity starts pretty much immediately. When launching the game, users are invited to pick their name from a list, and Barbie will address the player by name all through the experience. I cannot emphasize how comprehensive and complete this name list is. If you're someone who has often struggled finding keychains with your name on them at gift shops, you might think you're out of luck here, but you're incorrect. There are thousands of names on the list, which appears to catalogue nearly every variation of every feminine forename in existence, from extremely popular to astonishingly scarce. Although Barbie says the player's name with a truly unsettling amount of bubbly enthusiasm, it doesn't seem like text-to-speech, which has me pondering how long Barbie actress Chris Anthony Lansdowne spent in the recording booth listing almost all girl's name under the sun.

Roaming the Festival

When gamers provide their name, they assume control over Barbie as she investigates the location of the crime. It's after dark, and she's completely by herself (except for Becky, who occasionally checks in via the Crime Computer). Reflecting now, I can't overcome how much wandering around the game's spooky festival site feels like playing Silent Hill 3. Sure, this carnival lacks blood and rust, or overrun by terrifying creatures like Lakeside Amusement Park, but the vibes are decidedly creepy. It only grows more paranoia-inducing when Barbie starts detecting a dark figure prowling the park. 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

As you guide Barbie through more and more creepy amusements and displays (the spooky decoration closet still gives me nightmares), the player will come across clues, 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, chasing Ken's kidnapper through a selection of fairground classics including collision vehicles, an massive chute with splitting ways, and a dimly lit tunnel of love. These chases were truly thrilling — the music gets tense, and a single misstep could result in the suspect fleeing.

Unexpected Complexity

Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper had a astonishing degree of complexity, especially for a late '90s point-and-click game aimed at girl youths. Instead of costuming Barbie, or interacting with her ponies, Detective Barbie focused on actual gameplay, had a engaging narrative, and was creepy as hell. It even had certain replayability — every game session altered the types of clues players would stumble across, and concerning Ken's kidnapper, there were several persons of interest — the culprit's name changed each time you played. Once the mystery was solved, players could even generate a Junior Detective badge to show off for maximum girl-world street cred.

Baby's first jumpscare! The clues in this room squeak noisily or appear abruptly as players examine them.

Legacy and Sequels

Of course, after a couple of repeats, you'd eventually see everything the game had to offer, but it was remarkable back then, and even generated two subsequent titles: 1999's Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery, and 2000's Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise. The brand remains releasing Barbie video games to this day — the upcoming title is Barbie Horse Tails (yes, another pony care/styling experience), which launches in the coming weeks. Even though the images are a definite improvement over Detective Barbie, I doubt Barbie Horse Tails contains the same level of gameplay depth, replayability, or general spookiness as its end-of-century ancestors, which is kind of a shame.

A Gateway to Horror

Regardless of the brand's primary aims for the game, Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper finally evolved into my entry point for frightful entertainment, and I'd appreciate observing Detective Barbie star in another playful-yet-eerie game that goes beyond outfitting and pony play. The globe contains plenty of horse girls, but it could certainly benefit from more resilient kid investigators cracking important fundraising fair mysteries.