The Hardy Boys have finally rated a game by themselves. They almost had their own adventure in Her Interactive’s Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, but they had to share the action with Nancy Drew. They are solo this time around, though, in The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft, designed by XPEC and published by The Adventure Company. They have a lot to live up to, though, to meet the standard set by Her Interactive.

Immediately, players are presented with high energy action from the Hardy boys, two male teens who love to solve mysteries. Like Nancy Drew, the original Hardy Boys are a long-standing series of novels spanning the 1920’s to the 1970’s, with spin-off series published afterwards until now. Unlike the teens in the original series, evidently these two guys aren’t afraid to cause a bit of property damage in their sleuthing, or even to steal evidence. A little later in the game, another teen even impersonates a police officer, which is a big no-no in real life.

Reality aside, the stage is seemingly set for an action packed game. However, after this frenetic introduction, the action slows to a crawl while Frank and Joe leisurely explore the town, high school and other locations to solve the mystery.

The Hidden Theft involves a theft of security bonds from an eccentric man, Samuel Spencer, who lives on a large estate. As these bonds were kept in a safe with a combination that only he and his brother, Thomas Spencer, knew, Samuel believes that his brother is somehow involved in the theft. Security bonds can be cashed by anyone, so it is imperative that the bonds are recovered quickly. Frank and Joe Hardy, the teen sleuths, are requested by an organization called the American Teens Against Crime, to help solve the mystery. What is really funny about this slightly hokey organization is that the teen representing them is the one who impersonated the police officer.

The game is a standard adventure game, where players interview characters, collect inventory items and solve puzzles. Much of this game is spent in talking to characters and walking around places looking for things to take. Despite the action sequence in the introductory cartoon, there is not much action. While there are some interesting puzzles later in the game, it seems to take forever to get to them.

The puzzles are engaging for the most part, and while challenging at times, are never too difficult or frustrating. There is a good mix of inventory-based and manipulative type puzzles. Sometimes puzzles will involve switching player roles from one Hardy teen to the other, so they can do different things or access different inventory objects. This is fun, but is not utilized as much as it could have been.

The interface is not as easy or intuitive as it could be. Players will move Frank and Joe by clicking on footprint icons that will show in the corners of location, indicating that they can move to another place. However, this doesn’t work very well, and sometimes it’s hard to get Frank and Joe to a place that will trigger the footprints. The large inventory menu is displayed smack dab in the middle of the screen, obstructing the view of the screen. It’s not readily evident how to use the needed object and get out of the menu. Players will need to left-click the desired object, then right-click to get out of the menu. How to open certain inventory objects is also not easily understood. I wasted quite some time in the beginning of the game before I realized I could double-click on an item and open it to extract the contents.

On the whole, this is a fair game for young teens. The plot is intriguing and will keep interest for much of the game. The American Teens Against Crime idea is silly, but it’s not really a big part of the game after the first chapter. The dialogue and comments from Frank and Joe are the best part of the game, and will definitely connect to young teens. The writing is well-done, and I especially enjoyed their mom’s comments. The puzzles are also good, but there aren’t enough of them, especially in the beginning of the game. If compared to the Nancy Drew games, The Hardy Boys isn’t as entertaining, but this is the first game in the series and is a good beginning. Hopefully there will be more games to come, with some improvements.

Gameplay: 7.0
An average adventure game for teens. The story is interesting, but the action is pretty slow. Much of the time players will be moving from one location to another, trying to figure out what to do next. The puzzles are fun enough, but there aren’t enough.

Graphics: 8.0
The game looks very nice, and the Hardy boys are drawn and animated very well. The game is very attractive. The outside locations could use some more detail, though.

Sound: 7.0
The music and sound effects are average, but not annoying.

Difficulty: Medium
The level of difficulty is medium, with some puzzles harder than others, but none too difficult.

Concept: 7.0
Well, there is nothing new here than from other adventure games. The execution is good but not wonderful.

Overall: 7.0
A nice enough teen adventure that doesn’t have any inappropriate content, but one that could have been better. More things to do, more puzzles. The story is interesting, though, and the teen characterization of the Hardy boys is well-done.