The Mystery Cartridge

Ride or Die Sometimes your best friend is the last person you'd expect to be an international assassin. Platform: Prime Video Genre: Action / Comedy / Spy Thriller Created by: Tessa Coates Starring: Hannah Waddingham, Octavia Spencer, Bill Nighy, Sylvia Hoeks Episodes: 8 Runtime: Approximately 45–55 minutes per episode Release Date: July 15, 2026 Mystery Cartridge Classification: BEYOND THE CARTRIDGE Rating: OPEN THE FILE — RECOMMENDED The Case Let's establish something right away: Ride or Die is ridiculous. Not "this show has a couple of unbelievable moments" ridiculous. It is how in the hell are these two people still alive? ridiculous. And that's exactly why we had such a good time watching it. Prime Video's Ride or Die follows Debbie Claybourne, a former lawyer living a relatively comfortable life in London, and Judith Burton, her best friend of decades . Debbie thinks she knows Judith. She does not. Judith is actually an international assassin...

The 15 Most Suspicious Things a Video Game Character Can Say There are certain things you learn to recognize when you've played enough mystery games. A character smiles too much. Someone disappears immediately after telling you they're going to check something. A perfectly innocent-looking person somehow knows a detail that hasn't been made public. And then there's the dialogue. Because video game characters have a remarkable talent for saying things that should immediately make us suspicious. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it's so obvious that you practically want to reach through the screen and shake the protagonist. And sometimes a character will say something so suspicious that you know, right then and there, that they are either the murderer, involved in the conspiracy, hiding a massive secret, or about to get killed. So, in the interest of public safety, we've compiled a list. 1. "I Have Nothing to Hide." Oh, do you? Do you really? Because ...

  Life is Strange Remastered Review A mystery about a missing girl becomes something much bigger—and then completely breaks your brain Platform: Nintendo Switch Genre: Narrative Adventure / Mystery / Supernatural Developer: Dontnod Entertainment Publisher: Square Enix Players: 1 Case Type: Bradley & Amanda Category: 🏆 ESSENTIAL PLAY Mannequin Warning: None 🗂 The Mystery Cartridge Verdict 🏆 ESSENTIAL PLAY — HIGHLY RECOMMENDED There are games you play. There are games you finish. And then there are games that stay with you . Life is Strange is one of those games. We went into it because, at its most basic level, it sounded like exactly the sort of thing we would enjoy: a mystery involving the disappearance of a teenage girl, a small town full of secrets, a cast of characters with complicated relationships, and a protagonist who can rewind time (okay, that last one isn't required, but makes this story a bit unique, and makes us rethink what superpower we'd really l...

  Shadowrun (SNES) Review A 33-year-old cyberpunk mystery that still understands what investigation actually means Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System Genre: Cyberpunk RPG / Action RPG / Mystery Developer: Beam Software Publisher:  DataEast Players: 1 Case Type: Bradley — Solo Case Category: 🏆 ESSENTIAL PLAY Mannequin Warning: None 🗂 The Mystery Cartridge Verdict 🏆 ESSENTIAL PLAY Every once in a while, a game comes along that makes us reconsider what we mean when we talk about "mystery games." And then there is Shadowrun . Not the modern Shadowrun games. Not a remaster. Not a remake. The 1993 Super Nintendo game. A game that is now more than three decades old. A game that Bradley comes back to every few years. A game that, despite its age, does something that a surprising number of modern mystery games still struggle to do: It makes talking to people matter. That's really the secret to Shadowrun . Yes, there are guns. Yes, there are cyberpunk gangs, m...

The Unwritten Rules of Playing a Mystery Game as a Couple There are two ways to play a mystery game. You can play it alone, sitting quietly with your controller, carefully examining evidence, taking notes, and methodically piecing together the clues. Or you can play it with your partner. In that case, you can forget everything you thought you knew about detective work. Because when two people play a mystery game together, the investigation becomes a completely different experience. Suddenly, you're not just trying to figure out who committed the murder. You're trying to figure out whether your partner is completely insane, why they are convinced that the least suspicious person in the game is the killer, and whether you should point out that they literally walked past the most important clue six times, or haven't read a specific piece of evidence you have been hoarding that pokes holes in their theory. Over the course of playing mystery, thriller, horror, and story-driven g...

  Room 05 Review An escape-room game for roughly the price of a gumball—and about as much commitment Platform: Nintendo Switch Genre: Escape Room / Puzzle Developer: Alignment Sharp Publisher: Alignment Sharp Players: 1 Approximate Playtime:  Less than five hours Category: 🔎 Mystery / Escape Room Mannequin Warning: None 🗂 The Mystery Cartridge Verdict 📁 WAIT FOR MORE EVIDENCE There are games that leave you thinking about them for days. There are games that make you want to immediately play the sequel. And then there is Room 05 , a game that costs approximately one dollar and makes you wonder if you've accidentally wandered into the bargain bin of the Nintendo eShop. And honestly? We're not entirely sure that's a bad thing. Room 05 is an extremely inexpensive little escape-room puzzle game that begins, appropriately enough, in Room 05, a classroom. Solve the puzzles in that room, and you gradually gain access to more of the school. Solve those puzzles, and more o...

  Heart of the Woods Review A quiet change of pace that proves a mystery doesn't always need a murder Platform: Nintendo Switch Genre: Visual Novel / Fantasy / Romance Developer:  Studio Elan Publisher:  Sekai Games (I played the physical cartridge release by Limited Run Games) Approximate Playtime: 8 hours Players: Bradley — Solo Case Category: 🛋 Palette Cleanser 🗂 The Mystery Cartridge Verdict OPEN THE FILE — RECOMMENDED Sometimes, after spending hours investigating murders, uncovering conspiracies, surviving haunted hotels, or trying to determine why everyone in a town is acting suspiciously, you need something a little different. That was where Heart of the Woods came in. This was very much a palette cleanser for me. Amanda was visiting family in Florida, and I had just finished Xenoblade Chronicles X , so I was looking for something considerably less demanding to play on my own. I found myself playing a visual novel about friendship, romance, magic, and the ...