If you grew up in the 1980s, you remember the Carmen Sandiego games, which turned boring geography lessons into fun, criminal-catching adventures. Netflix, Gameloft and HarperCollins Productions are reviving the Carmen Sandiego series with an all-new game that lets you play as the famous fedora-wearing felon.
Netflix Games announced today that Carmen Sandiego will be released on the Netflix mobile streaming app for iOS and Android in Q1 2025. The game will also be released at a later date for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC on Steam. Carmen Sandiego will be free to play for Netflix subscribers with no in-game purchases or online play.
The new Carmen Sandiego puzzle-adventure game is based on the 2019 Netflix interactive animated series, with Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez voicing the titular thief. The new game picks up where the series left off, but it’s more than just an interactive TV show. Netflix, GameLoft and HarperCollins will send players on an adventure around the world as Carmen Sandiego through a series of puzzles, clue-gathering, flying and stealth missions. Players will track down members of the evil organization VILE in different cities, using clues that reveal each villain’s true identity to obtain warrants and make arrests.
Of course, before its Netflix reboot, Carmen Sandiego was a classic educational game series that began on computers in 1985 as “Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?”. The geography puzzle game requires players to track down Carmen and the eponymous den of thieves who have stolen the world’s rarest cultural artifacts.
The Carmen Sandiego game has gone through several variations and was the inspiration for an iconic PBS children’s game show that ran for five seasons in 1991. The series has also been adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon on FOX and an animated series on Netflix, which is also developing a live-action Carmen Sandiego movie starring Rodriguez, according to Entertainment Tonight.
