History VideoGame / CarmenSandiegoWordDetective

* AdaptationalVillainy: Carmen is normally a thief that doesn't care about the moral hazard of her heists, but she would never hurt people directly. In this game. she uses the ACME agents as her guinea pigs for the Babble-On Machine and mocks them for getting captured.

* HardBoiledDetective: Nick Furtive appears to be an evil variant.

* MadScientist: Dr. D. Ranged.

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: The Babble-On Machine.

* PunnyName: Carmen's underlings, of course (consisting of librarian Otto Readmore, ship captain I.I. Captain, and Egyptian tomb dweller Queen Notalotenkammen, among others), but also the Babble-on Machine, which is a play on the [[Literature/TheBible ancient city of Babylon]]. This ties into the name of the tower it's housed in, which is [[MeaningfulName named for more than just a pun]] (see BiblicalMotifs above).

* WorthyOpponent: Carmen comes to consider Agent 13 this.

* BittersweetEnding: On the one hand, all of ACME's agents escape and are relatively unharmed, and the Babble-On Machine is toast. On the other hand, Carmen has escaped, and none of her villains are captured.

* FetchQuest: The game centers around solving puzzles to decrypt passwords, which are required to unlock and secure keys that free the captured agents so that you can obtain their part of the code to destroy the Babble-On machine. It's a fetch quest inside more fetch quests.

* MythologyGag: Some of the captured ACME agents resemble Good Guides from the 1995 versions of ''World'' and ''USA''.

** For the first two times you collect all of the passwords in a hideout, Chase sends you an [[ContinueYourMissionDammit e-mail alert to leave]] before a villain spots you.

* SadisticChoice: You can only free one ACME agent at a time and leave the others trapped in beams, with them brokenly begging for help. Eventually, however, you free them all and can focus on taking down the machine.

* TheWorfEffect: Fans of the previous games see their beloved good guides as agents. Agent 12 is Ann Tickwitee, who has been shown to go toe-to-toe with V.I.L.E. operatives. The opening features her getting captured, cuffed and mocked by Carmen, showing that Carmen has definitely gotten tougher and the stakes are much higher. It's especially noticeable when you realize ''Rock Solid'' was also caught.

* DarkerAndEdgier: As far as you can go within this genre (and series). The art style isn't anywhere near as colorful as in previous games, the music is much less upbeat, and this is the first game where the villains will actively attempt to ''harm'' the player as they try to make their escape from the lair. Depending on which villain is housing the key at the time, they can actually get surprisingly close to harming the player.

[[caption-width-right:350:Not pictured: VILE agents inches from your face.]]
An EdutainmentGame made in 1997 as part of the Franchise/CarmenSandiego franchise by Creator/BroderbundSoftware and featuring the titular villain in a scheme to cause a worldwide communications breakdown using her "Babble-On Machine".

* TowersOfHanoi: Variation, where you have to stack words in alphabetical order and can never stack them unalphabetized. ''[[VideoGame/CarmenSandiegoMathDetective Math Detective]]'' features an identical game with numbers instead of words.

-->'''Carmen:''' ''[to a henchmen]'' Take these keys and hide them. And not under your pillow like the last time.

!! Carmen Sandiego: Word Detective displays the following tropes:

An EdutainmentGame made in 1997 as part of the Franchise/CarmenSandiego franchise by Creator/BroderbundSoftware and featuring the titular villain in a scheme to cause a worldwide communications breakdown using her “Babble-On Machine".

The story opens with the latest agent in a line of failed missions being captured by one of Carmen’s surprise traps. This leads the chief and ACME agent Chase Devineaux to turn to the player character, dubbed Agent 13, to rescue the captured agents and destroy the machine. The gameplay centers around locating the keys to the agent’s cells using “password decoders”, in the form of various language puzzles hidden in various VILE hideouts around the world (and even beyond).

* BittersweetEnding: On the one hand, all of ACME's agents escape and are relatively unharmed, and the Babble-On Machine is toast. On the other hand, Carmen has escaped and none of her villains are captured.
* ContinueYourMissionDammit[=/=]TakeYourTime: The game's radar starts going off once all the passwords in a hideout are found to warn you of an approaching villain, but you can remain in the hideout for as long as you want without any ill effects. Even opening and closing the Transport menu repeatedly won't do anything (opening it when the radar is beeping moves and locks your view of the hideout into a certain position in preparation for the outgoing cutscene, and closing the menu is all that's needed to unlock it again); the villain won't even appear until after you click the Launch button and actually start teleporting away.

* FauxAffablyEvil: The blatantly mocking concern for Agent 12 when she’s been reduced to babbling nonsense is Carmen’s EstablishingCharacterMoment in the game.
* FetchQuest: The game centers around solving puzzles to decrypt passwords, which are required to unlock and secure keys that free the captured agents so that you can obtain their part of the code to destroy the Babble-On machine. It’s a fetch quest inside more fetch quests.

* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Every key you acquire can only be used to free a single agent. Justified as they're all made to fit the same lock and you can choose which agent you want to free before using the key (although it has no effect on the plot).
* KarmaHoudini: Carmen’s plan might have been ruined, but she escapes scot-free. For that matter, so do all of the other villains you encounter in the game.

** Agent 12 says "Uh oh" right before falling through a TrapDoor in the opening.

* SupervillainLair: The Tower of Babble serves as Carmen’s, and all of the environments of the game involve traveling to those of other VILE villains.

The story opens with the latest agent in a line of failed missions being captured by one of Carmen’s surprise traps. This leads the chief, Chase Devineaux, to turn to the player character, Agent 13, to rescue the captured agents and destroy the machine. The gameplay centers around locating the keys to the agent’s cells using “password decoders”, in the form of various language puzzles.

* DarkerAndEdgier: As far as you can go within this genre (and series). The art style isn't anywhere near as colourful as in previous games, the music is much less upbeat, and this is the first game where the villains will actively attempt to ''harm'' the player as they try to make their escape from the lair. Depending on which villain is housing the key at the time, they can actually get surprisingly close to harming the player.

* MythologyGag: Some of the captured ACME agents resemble Good Guides from past games.

* SupervillainLair: The Tower of Babble serves as Carmen’s, and all of the environments of the game involve traveling to those of other V.I.L.E. villains.

* WorthyOpponent: Carmen comes to consider Agent 13 this.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Some of the captured ACME agents resemble Good Guides from past games.

* AndIMustScream: The fate of the captured ACME agents; they get shackled, hit by the Babble-On Machine, and trapped in tubes. Fortunately once you free them they can talk normally.
* BittersweetEnding: All of ACME's agents escape and are relatively unharmed, and the Babble-On Machine is toast. On the other hand, Carmen has escaped and none of her villains are captured.
* DarkerAndEdgier: As far as you can go within this genre (and series). The art style isn't anywhere near as colourful as in previous games, the music is much less upbeat, and this is the first game where the villains will actively attempt to ''harm'' the player as they try to make their escape from the lair. Depending on which villain is housing the key, they actually get surprisingly close to harming the player.

* FunWithAcronyms: V.I.L.E. as the name for the villain organization.
* HardBoiledDetective: One of the V.I.L.E. villains appears to be an evil variant.

* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Every key you acquire can only be used to free a single agent. Justified as they all fit the same lock.

* MadScientist: One of the villains, Dr. D. Ranged.

** After you find a key, Chase sends you an alert to leave immediately, which you have to right before a villain spots you.
* PunnyName: Having either these or ObviouslyEvil names appears to be a requirement for joining V.I.L.E.

* SupervillainLair: The Tower of Babble serves as Carmen’s, and all of the environments of the game involve travelling through those of other V.I.L.E. villains.

AndIMustScream: The fate of the captured ACME agents; they get shackled, hit by the Babble-On Machine, and trapped in tubes. Fortunately once you free them they can talk normally.

An EdutainmentGame made in 1997 as part of the Franchise/CarmenSandiego franchise by Creator/BroderbundSoftware and featuring the titular villain in a scheme to cause a worldwide communications breakdown using her “Babble-On” machine.

The story opens with the latest agent in a line of failed missions being captured by one of Carmen’s surprise traps. This leads the chief, Chase Devineaux, to turn to the player character to rescue the captured agents and deactivate the machine. The gameplay centers around locating the keys to the agent’s cells using “password decoders”, in the form of various language puzzles.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted. In an agent list from various cultures with a villain plan made to scramble language worldwide, the American agents are captured just as easily as the rest. Though the chief is also American, the game never gives any identifying features to the player, leaving their nationality completely up to the imagination.

* DarkerAndEdgier: As far as you can go within this genre (and series). The art style isn't anywhere near as colourful as in previous games, the music is much less upbeat, and this is the first game where the villains will actively attempt to ''harm'' the player as they try to make their escape from the lair. Depending on which villain is holding the key, they actually get surprisingly close to harming the player.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The blatantly mocking concern for Agent 12 when she’s been reduced to babbling nonsense is Carmen’s establishing moment in the game.
* FetchQuest: The game centers around solving puzzles to power up the password decoder to collect keys to free the captured agents so that you can obtain their part of the code to destroy the Babble On machine. It’s a fetch quest inside more fetch quests.

* MadScientist: One of the villains. ...Dr. D. Ranged.

* TrapDoor: Agent 12 falls through one at the top of the tower of babble, leading to her capture.

* FreezeFrameBonus: ''Right'' as the V.I.L.E. villain is about to harm you, you'll see them stop in motion. And these freeze frames can be quite disturbing - as a monster is either about to hop at your face, snakes are snapping at you, someone is about to come forth and punch your lights out, a sword is ''just'' about to impale you...

* MadScientist: One of the villains.