Admittedly, the master detective has always been a great attraction to me and the reviews of this game have sounded extremely positive throughout. The previous part was quite recommendable and I already reviewed it. In the end, curiosity triumphed over my commitments and I spent the good 10 hours of playing time in order not to miss the latest developments in crime fighting of the master detective. For connoisseurs of the series, it should be mentioned that even more recent developments have already been realized in a successor to this 6-year-old title. My judgement will not be objective, like someone who didn't grow up with the books of Arthur Canon Doyle, and perhaps thinks more of Pikachu in terms of a Master Detective.
Anyone who has done some serious maths will tell you that it can be quite magical. Even with the most basic of operations you can do some impressive tricks with astonishing results. It is that feeling of wonder you get, when you finish a long set of calculations that end up with surprising – simple but true – answers which makes people love mathematics. Just think of the flow of solving a problem, that single moment when everything fits together and you see all the connections, and you might know what I mean. And this magic moments is exactly what Junior Arithmancer is all about.
In retrospect, Scott Adams' star had begun to sink by the early 1980s. At the time, his company Adventure International could still call itself the market leader in text adventures, having amazing past sales figures to show for. This enabled Adams to land a couple of licencing deals, one for an upcoming blockbuster movie (which turned into a fatal flop), one for a TV series (which nobody watched) and finally, he struck a seemingly lucrative deal with Marvel comics – which turned into the final nail in Adventure International's coffin when payments were not made a promptly as expected.