Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister

Trail of the Twister is the twenty-second game in the series and it introduced a bunch of new features to the series.

Available on: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10. OS X 10.5.8 Leopard/10.6.6 Snow Leopard/10.7 Lion/10.8 Mountain Lion or higher but will not run on Mojave or Catalina.
ESRB: E for Everyone
PC/Mac Release Date: June 29, 2010
Release MSRP: $19.99 USD
Current MSRP: $19.99 USD
Number of Discs: 2
Game Acronym: TOT
Game Color Code: 9A84BC

Game Description: Apprehend a Saboteur Stirring up Turbulent Trouble!
$100,000,000 is at stake in this competition to discover a formula to predict tornado touchdowns. But when equipment starts failing and crew members are injured, you as Nancy Drew, must join the team to keep them in the competition. Is it just bad luck that’s plaguing the storm chasers or is someone sabotaging their chances of winning in the action adventure Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister?
PC System Requirements: 1 GHz or greater Pentium or equivalent class CPU. 256 MB of RAM. 1GB or more of hard drive space. 32MB DirectX 9.0 compatible graphics video card. 16-bit DirectX compatible sound card. 24x CD-ROM drive. Mouse and Speakers.
Mac System Requirements: Intel processor. 512 MB RAM. 1.1 GB or more hard drive space. Intel GMA 950, ATI X1600, NVIDIA 7300 graphics card or better. Keyboard and mouse. Internet connection the first time the game is launched. This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac). This game will not run on Mojave or Catalina.

Fun Facts:

This is the first game to be released for PC and Mac systems.
This game introduced Special Edition versions of the game if you pre-ordered.
This was the first game to release only in the regular DVD-style case and not the thicker DVD case.
This game takes place at the same time as The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks.
This is the first and only game where you get to talk to P. G. Krolmeister over the phone. Krolmeister has appeared in most of the Nancy Drew games as a manufacturer of multiple products, but this is the first time Krolmeister appears as a character you can talk to.
HeR Interactive started working with the company TransGaming to port the games to Mac systems.
If you go to play the Land Rush mini game in Ma n' Pa's shop, there's a glitch where you can earn hundreds of Pa Pennies very easily. All you need to do is begin a match, select any tile or group of tiles on the board, then back out as quickly as possible. It tricks the game into thinking you've just won, so you get a bunch of Pa Pennies. The higher the level of difficulty you enter, the more Pa Pennies you'll get.
Little Jackalope from the Amateur Sleuth Blog started working at HeR Interactive in 2010. The jackalope display in the museum inspired her nickname.
As a marketing tool, HeR Interactive created a faux blog for the intern that Nancy is replacing in the game. The blog still exists and the posts on it lead up to just before Nancy arrives. Check out the blog here: http://stormchaserpete.blogspot.com/
When you give Scott the bill for the body work that needs to be done to the destroyed car, the envelope has the logo for Mabel Rose's. That name later returns in Nancy Drew: Alibi in Ashes as a location in River Heights.

Walkthrough

You can watch the full video walkthrough for Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister on YouTube!

Canute Microsite

As a promo for the game, HeR Interactive created a microsite that acted as an advertisement website for the Canute College Meteorology Department. You can view upcoming events, news, current weather, read about the team, learn more about tornadoes, educate yourself with tornado terminology, you can discover information about the gear used to track tornadoes, and you could take a test to join the team and get a Canute ID card.
Check out the site here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100718095140/http://trailofthetwister.com/index.html

Image Gallery

Characters

Scott Varnell

Leader of the Canute Storm Chasers and professor at the University. Although he might be in charge of the team, he’s quick to blame others for all of the troubles they’re having instead of taking responsibility. Is he trying to divert attention from something he has done?

Debbie Kircum

Debbie is eager, passionate, and dedicated to her work. As Scott’s right hand, she handles the majority of the day to day operations of the team. At times it seems like she does most of the work but receives the least amount of credit, could she be sabotaging the team to show them just how important she really is?

Chase Relerford

As a meteorology undergrad student, spending his first season out in the field, Chase is a remarkably good mechanic. He is capable of fixing everything from computers to cars, and as far as he’s concerned, “there’s no saboteur, things just get broke and have to be fixed.” If he’s so good with machines, why doesn’t he notice the sabotage, or is he just covering for his own crimes?

Frosty Harlow

Toby “Frosty” Harlow is the team’s media expert who earned his nickname from a close encounter with a large and dangerous storm. The nickname unfortunately went to his head and continues to whet his appetite for fame and fortune. Would he go so far as to sellout his own team just to make his financial dreams come true?

Pa runs the Ma and Pa Convenience Store and local oddity museum (donations welcome). He’s got a lot of experience with Oklahoma weather and seems to think of the researchers as naive city-folk. But out here in ‘the sticks’, Ma and Pa’s is the only place for a team to get supplies and gas. Would Pa stoop to sabotage to keep the storm-chasing clientele coming back for more?

Awards

Parents’ Choice 2010 Silver Award, Best Software, ages 10 & Up