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The Creature of Kapu Cave Spoilers

Welcome to the new Computer Game Spoilers section of my gaming website. I added this section because I recently received questions about the plots of two different games which, to my surprise and embarrassment, I had totally forgotten the answers to. Then, to my further surprise, I was unable to find any existing website that would refresh my memory about the plots of computer games... lots of puzzle solutions, but no basic plot summaries.

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So I figured I'd better write some of them down while they're still fresh in my mind, just in case I or anybody else wants to refer to them at some point in the future (or in case anybody suffers a major game glitch and just wants to know what was supposed to happen in the end-- I get letters like this from time to time.) If you haven't finished The Creature of Kapu Cave yet and you don't want the plot of this game to be revealed to you, then you don't want to read this page. Please go back to my main The Creature of Kapu Cave page, where I give tips and reviews without giving away any of its plot.

But if you are looking for plot spoilers, just scroll further down the page to find them!

Plot Summary

Fans of the series seem to believe this game was based on the 1998 Nancy Drew book Mystery on Maui, but other than a setting in Hawaii and a female villain who runs a surf shop, the two plots don't really have anything in common at all (Mystery in Maui involves the villain trying to sabotage a surfing contest to keep a friend of Nancy's from winning the prize money.) In my opinion, Creature of Kapu Cave wasn't based on a Nancy Drew story at all and its plot is original to the game (particularly since none of the suspects' names come from Nancy Drew canon, unlike the 13 previous games.)

In any event, like The Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, this game is a crossover and the player has the ability to control not just Nancy but also the Hardy Boys during the course of this adventure. The story begins with Nancy arriving on Hawaii for an internship with an entomologist, while Joe and Frank Hardy arrive there separately on an assignment to do a background check on a surfer named Pua Mapu. Nancy finds that the scientist's research camp has been destroyed by an unknown attacker and huge numbers of fritillated flag beetles are infesting the area, while Joe Hardy is knocked out by an assailant his brother identifies as a criminal associate of Pua's father Mike. Eventually the two plots converge as Nancy and Frank learn that Pua and her father have been intentionally breeding the beetles in order to destroy the region's pineapple crop, as part of a plot that will end up with the Mapus inheriting land they need to pay off their underworld debts. (Mike Mapu is second in line for the ownership of some land currently being used by the Hilihili Research Center, so if he could run them off the land, he would get it for himself.) Nancy and Frank foil their plans and save the pineapple crop.

Character Subplots and Secrets

Big Island Mike Mapu: Native Hawaiian who runs a tour company. He is deeply in debt to a local criminal named Johnny Kuto, which is why he and Pua have hatched the scheme to drive the Hilihili Research Center off their land and sell it.

Pua Mapu: Big Mike's daughter, a surfing instructor. Her mother died when she was young. She and her father devised the scheme to ruin the pineapple crop, which makes this the first Nancy Drew game to have two villains working together.

Malachi Craven: Head scientist at the Hilihili Research Center, he is loud, rude, and lacks social skills. He takes a liking to Nancy though, and confides to her that she reminds him of a niece he is no longer allowed to talk to because of a quarrel with his brother (this was pretty much his one sympathetic moment of the game.) He is the one who trashed Quigley's camp in a rage, after learning that she has been spying on him. Nancy can also get him to tell her what his secret research is-- developing a new plant-based sunblock.

Quigley Kim: The insect researcher Nancy is there to work for. She doesn't have much in the way of social skills either (I was disappointed Nancy wasn't able to set these two up on a date or something! Especially since Quigley seemed to really not mind that he trashed her camp.) She had been spying on Dr. Craven for a rival biotech company, though she apparently never learned anything useful from it; the mysterious unnamed woman Nancy can reach by calling the number she finds in Quigley's things is presumably her contact in the biotech company.

Frank and Joe Hardy: Unlike most Nancy Drew games, in Creature of Kapu Cave, the player gets to use the Hardy Boys to solve some puzzles and can even switch freely back and forth between Nancy and Frank or Joe. They also get one plot twist, though glitches in the gameplay will keep you from discovering it unless you happen to complete tasks in exactly the order the game was expecting: their employer, Richard Aikens, did not really hire them to investigate Pua for endorsement contract as he claimed-- he did it because he is actually the owner of Hilihili Research Center and suspects Mike of trying to drive the research center out of business.

Minor Characters

Johnny Kuto: It's never actually explained why this criminal assaulted Joe-- Johnny just says Joe was "in the wrong place at the wrong time." You can only talk to him by telephone and you never actually see him on-screen (just part of a wooden mask he swings at Joe as a weapon.)

Richard Aikens, the pawnbroker: You need to call these characters on the telephone to learn plot information, but they are never seen on screen and are not suspects.

Ned: As usual in Nancy Drew games, Ned has no subplots and exists only to chat with Nancy on the telephone and deliver hints if the player needs them.