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Mrs. Pepper's Nasty Secret

by Jim Aikin profile and Eric Eve profile

Children's
2008

(based on 38 ratings)
9 reviews

About the Story

Walking home from school is mostly okay, except for one big problem: Every day you have to pass right by Mrs. Pepper's house. She may not actually be a witch, but she sure acts like one. And now she's stolen your skateboard!

Winner of both the Interactive Short Fiction Competition (2008) and the IFBeginnersComp (2008).


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Member Reviews

5 star:
(2)
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Number of Reviews: 9
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Most Helpful Member Reviews


18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
10 year olds review Mrs. Pepper's Nasty Secret, October 19, 2008
by Mike Sousa (Massachusetts)

Mrs. Pepper's Nasty Secret had very challenging puzzles that made us think. It took us 2 days to finish. The puzzle of getting in the house was very difficult and took us a lot of time to figure out what to do.

The garden elf was really cool. We liked that instead of feet he had roots. We really liked that you had to put on (Spoiler - click to show)different colored wigs to do different things.

The elevator was a creative idea even though we had trouble using it at the end of the game.

We never figured out what Mrs. Pepper's Nasty Secret was, it never told us. We didn't like that. (Spoiler - click to show)We were really hoping that she wouldn't come back and catch us in her house and we were glad she didn't!

The water puzzle was really cool, we were stuck for a while and had to use the hints.

This was a very interesting and challenging game.

Raquel & Liza
Age 10

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Ideal beginner's game, September 21, 2012
by NiMuSi (London, UK)

This is an ideal game for beginners, serving as a gentle introduction to IF. It has examples of most of the standard puzzles found in IF (using magical items, repairing machinery etc).

I thought all the puzzles were fairly straightforward for a beginner, apart from the very first one - how to get into the house. This may possibly deter newcomers from persevering with the game, which would be a great shame.

The player has a definite goal at each stage of the game, which means that they have something to concentrate on without any distractions following up red herrings (although the game also has those!)

The only minor niggle I have is the ending, (Spoiler - click to show)I was hoping for the eponymous Mrs Pepper to get her come-uppance.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Not just for beginners..., January 4, 2012

Initially I was put off by the fact that this game was labeled as a children's game. Seeing that the reviews emphasized it's appropriateness for beginners, I wasn't all that interested in playing it. However, the title had intrigued me enough that one day I decided to give it a try anyway. I'm glad I did! I liked this game. It was fun to play and very well implemented. The descriptions of rooms & objects and outdoor scenery made me feel like I was right there in the story. (It's actually been a few months since I played the game & I can still picture every room. This is also helped by the fact that, in it's entirety, the area to explore was limited to a house and yard... a fact which I thoroughly enjoyed. No getting lost in this game!) Playing & experimenting with objects was fun... it's clear that the authors paid much attention to detail when implementing the game. I also enjoyed the fantasy/magic aspect. While, in an actual fantasy game, the events in Mrs. Pepper's Nasty Secret would be quite commonplace & possibly even blasé, when placed within a modern-day neighborhood setting, the odd magical elements are mysterious & rather exciting. I recommend this game to beginners & advanced players alike. It may not be challenging for everyone, but it's worth a play anyway, if simply for the sake of the story and the fun interactions within it's setting.

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Mrs. Pepper's Nasty Secret on IFDB

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Games suitable for children by Mike Sousa
My 10 year old twins recently "discovered" IF. They fell in love with Grunk and are asking for more games to play. I've searched BAF and have some ideas, but figured I would give this poll a shot since there are hundreds and hundreds of...

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Sometimes, when I'm playing a game, I spend more time juggling my save files than I do reading the text. I don't want to have to restart because I picked up the green rod instead of the clay jug (with apologies to Zarf). So I'm looking...

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This is version 12 of this page, edited by David Welbourn on 29 November 2022 at 4:31am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page