I Spy Mystery

I Spy Mystery is the ninth game in the I Spy series from the team of Scholastic and Black Hammer. In this edition, elements from earlier I Spy games have been re-combined into 13 new mysteries, each one comprised of 3 - 6 I Spy riddle pictures, and culminating in a final mystery to solve. Solving each final mystery generally rewards the player with an extra animation.

The player is presented with a messy desktop scattered with 13 folders. Each folder is labelled with a title, and clicking on a folder will open it up to reveal a set of photographs depicting parts of scenes. Clicking a photograph takes the player to the picture page.

Gameplay follows the pattern set by previous I Spy games; the player reads or listens to a rhyming list of items on the picture page, then uses the mouse to click on the items hidden in the picture A headphone icon on the bottom left causes the riddle to be read aloud again; an arrow on the bottom right takes the player back to the previous screen, and a question mark on the top right lets the player hear instructions. As in earlier games, some of the pictures are personalized with the player's name hidden among the items. Most, if not all of the pictures have been recycled from older I Spy games, although some of them have had things added or subtracted to create extra clues for the final mysteries.

The game is recommended for ages 6 - 10, and exercises the player's skills in problem solving, logic & reasoning, reading, rhyming, following directions, and visual memory & discrimination.