It’s not hard to fancy yourself an amateur detective after reading a Sherlock Holmes adventure and solving the crime right alongside the famous duo. This sentiment has been felt by readers since Conan Doyle’s heyday, and has inspired game companies to create fun ways for enthusiasts to test their own abilities. The Parker Brothers, who brought us game closet classics such as Risk and Sorry, created a card game in 1904 based around these fictional works. Since then, there has been no shortage of card, board, and video-based entertainment all centered on Holmes and Watson.
If you’re not afraid of early ‘90s graphics, there are a great many early PC games that can be downloaded for free or for severely reduced prices. “Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective” offers three different 90-minute cases to play through, solve, then defend in court. Electronic Arts also tried their hand at sleuth-based games, offering “The Case of the Serrated Scalpel” (1992) and “The Case of the Rose Tattoo” (1996).
For those with more modern taste in PC gaming, the options become more plentiful and graphics become more sophisticated. Game developer Fogwares has a line of Sherlockian games, with “Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments” being the most recent.
If portability is important to you, there are endless puzzle and hidden object games available as apps on iTunes and Google Play. Most notable is “Sherlock Holmes, The Last Breath,” created by Ink Spotters. This interactive graphic novel has over 100 panels of art that the reader/player must discover through investigation.
No matter the medium you prefer to have your games in, there is a way to channel your love for mysteries into a single or multiplayer adventure.
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Written by Megan Elias