Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise

About

Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise is a point-and-click adventure where you track down stolen art across a cruise ship and three tropical destinations. Play solo or team up to search for clues using tools like infrared lipstick that highlights hidden details. Talk to passengers, solve puzzles, and use vehicles to navigate the ship and ports. Between investigative work, take breaks with mini-games like jet ski races and aerial ring challenges that let you compete for speed and precision. The game stands out for its early 2000s multiplayer focus in a genre often dominated by single-player experiences. Its mix of mystery and lighthearted mini-games created a niche appeal, though its target audience of younger players limited broader recognition. The tropical setting and Barbie’s gadget-driven sleuthing offer a playful twist on classic adventure mechanics.

Storyline

Three pieces of valuable artwork have been stolen from a cruise ship's art gallery. Now it's up to Detective Barbie to catch the brazen art thief. To catch the thief, Barbie will search for clues throughout the ship and also on three tropical islands equipped with gadgets, the most important being the infra-red lipstick. The infra-red lipstick reveals clues when Barbie looks through it. Barbie can also speak to the passengers of the cruise ship in an attempt to get information on the case. Barbie can even take a break from her formidable detective work by racing her friend on jet skis in the water or air racers in the sky. The jet ski mini-game is the usual get to the finish line first competition, but the air race is decided by which competitor can fly through the most rings and fill a meter first. There is also a shuffle board mini-game. Each of these mini-games can have their difficulty settings changed from easy, medium and hard.