Nancy Drew was a teenager in 1930 and remains young and hip today. Well, she's not Miss Popular, but she has friends who love to text her and talk about boys, clothes, and all kinds of girly things, but Nancy is often too busy for those things, because she's too busy solving mysteries. Now on Leapfrog's new Didj handheld, Nancy has appeared again to solve her latest case and accessorize it along the way!

Mystery in the Hollywood Hills is a spelling game specifically aimed at 2nd-4th grade. My 2nd grader, who didn't know anything about the series or character before, was reluctant to try the game. She spells well, but it's not her favorite subject, but once she started the game, she didn't want to put it down.

In the game, Nancy moves around her environment in a style that will be familiar to those who have played point-and-click adventures. Move toward different objects, and press the "A" button to interact with it. Follow the clues to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, solve spelling puzzles in order to open locks, check your cell phone for messages, or earn money to spend at the fashion boutique. Some items can be purchased in-game, but some must be purchased using the Leapfrog Connect software, encouraging kids to connect, which also gets performance updates to parents. Note that Leapfrog hasn't yet enabled Micromods, so these items (new outfits and colors for her phone, laptop, etc.) are not yet available. They don't change the gameplay in any way, though.

The game speaks the instructions as an in-game tutorial, but this can become a bit repetitive. I heard certain instructions over and over, and there's no way to skip past this part.

My 2nd grade daughter enjoys the mystery aspect of the game, but she got frustrated with the frequency of the spelling puzzles, maybe a few too many. I got the same feeling when playing. That said, she didn't mind the puzzles themelves, since she found them to be easy enough. "In a lot of them, all you have to do is find the vowel!"

If your daughter (yes, it's girl-centric) enjoys a good casual mystery, she'll enjoy this game.