Play Nancy Drew - The Hidden Staircase Online

Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase came out for the Nintendo DS in 2008, developed by Her Interactive. It was part of that wave of adventure and mystery games that really suited the DS's touchscreen, offering a more tactile way to investigate. It didn't try to be a flashy blockbuster; it was just a solid, focused mystery game for players who liked to think.

You play as Nancy Drew, of course, and your main job is to figure out who is haunting the Twin Elms mansion and harassing its owner, Helen. The gameplay is all about screen by screen exploration, tapping everywhere with the stylus to find clues and hidden objects. You also talk to a small cast of characters, picking dialogue options to get information and sometimes even using a bit of psychology to catch them in lies. The puzzles start simple but gradually require more logical connections, and the game doesn't hold your hand too much, which makes solving them genuinely rewarding. It feels like you're actually doing the detective work yourself.