Ripley's Believe It or Not!: The Riddle of Master Lu is a point and click

Graphic adventure game

A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...

 adventure game

Adventure game

An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...

 based on Robert Ripley

Robert Ripley

Robert LeRoy Ripley was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur and amateur anthropologist, who created the world famous Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, radio show, and television show which feature odd 'facts' from around the world.Subjects covered in Ripley's cartoons and text...

, the creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...

. It was developed and published by Sanctuary Woods

Sanctuary Woods

Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, Inc. was a multimedia developer and third-party game publisher. It was one of the early multimedia companies developing products for CD-ROM distribution. The founders, Brian Beninger and Toni Beninger, were both experienced technologists who saw the potential for...

 in 1995.

Story

Set in the year of 1936, the player assumes the identity of Robert Ripley. Ripley and his "constant companion", Mei Chen (a mistress of the Martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

), must find the key to the tomb of China's first emperor

Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BC...

 to prevent a relic that has the ability to destroy the world from falling into the wrong hands.

Locations

• New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
  
• Peiping
• Danzig
• Sikkim
  Sikkim
  Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
  
  
• Easter Island
  Easter Island
  Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
  
  
• A Lost city
  Lost city
  A "Lost City" is a term that is generally considered to refer to a well-populated area which fell into terminal decline, became extensively or completely uninhabited, and whose location has been forgotten. Some lost cities whose locations have been rediscovered have been studied extensively by...
  
   in the Andes
  Andes
  The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
  
  

Reception

The Riddle of Master Lu received mostly mixed reviews. Gamespot

GameSpot

GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

 gave the title a 5.7/10, lauding the amount of infotainment

Infotainment

Infotainment is "information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers." It is a neologistic portmanteau of information and entertainment, referring to a type of media which provides a combination of...

 delivered but was unable to recommend the game due to an "unforgiving interface". Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

 gave a score of B-, praising the game's visuals but lamenting the lack of humor and mystery elements. It maintains a 77% rating on Game Rankings

Game Rankings

GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...

based on 5 media outlets. Master Lu also received some good ratings, with a 91% rating from "PC Gamer" and "Coming Soon" magazine, and a 90% rating from "PC Games" and "PC Player."