Man, this one takes me back. You play as a rookie detective chasing Carmen Sandiego across Brazil—except she keeps hopping to new countries, leaving behind these weirdly specific clues. One minute you're in Rio, the next you're checking flight logs to figure out if she fled to Morocco or Japan. The geography lessons sneak up on you; I definitely didn’t know Lisbon was west of Madrid before this game.

The Sega Master System version keeps it simple—no fancy graphics, just you, a world map, and a notebook full of red herrings. Half the fun is realizing you totally misread a clue three steps ago and have to backtrack. It’s like a globe-trotting puzzle where Carmen’s always one step ahead, laughing from some new time zone.

Also, that theme song? Stuck in my head for 30 years.