I had a terrible experience with this game, if you ignore the fact that everything I know about genres of music (or, for that matter,
Tex-Mex food) was taught to me by the various
VILE members and my
Mac SE. The Mac version of the game participated in an especially cruel brand of
crippleware as the result of an unholy tie-in with the
Fodor's Almanac; before you could catch a criminal, the game would confront you with a question like
"Before you can capture Justin Time, you must tell me... WHAT STATE APPEARS AS THE FOURTH WORD OF THE SIXTH PARAGRAPH ON PAGE 122 OF THE 1991 FODOR'S ALMANAC?"
This was really, really endearing.
Intrepid six year-old that I was (after searching four regional libraries), I made a chart and figured out these answers by the process of elimination, meaning that I had to catch, on average, 1250 criminals to the normal kid's 30. It took months just to escape the dubious rank of Gumshoe.
The ending sequence made it all worth it, though, what with those little animated prison cell bars coming down over a little motionless picture of Carmen. Damn you, Fodor's -- although you did impart to me a prodigious knowledge of state capitals and the decision to listen specifically to "Classic Rock" for the remainder of my young life.
Also, the running-with-flags portion of the TV show endgame was still on when I was young, and seemed to me to be a great way for them to keep uncharismatic fat kids off the screen. Damned discrmination.