ic-games Review - Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: Artificial Mind & Movement, Inc (A2M)
Publisher: THQ
Reviewed: Playstation 2
Genre: Action/Adventure
UK Release: 26th Mar 2004
Article Date: 27th Mar 2004
Difficulty: Easy
Retail Price:
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 68%

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Pros

Authentic Scooby Doo

Nice animations

Actually quite funny

Cons

Very basic

Very easy

Under 15's only

Screenshots

3 of 5

Ok, stop this, its silly. Next up we have Scooby Doo (Mystery Mayhem) based on the original Cartoon Scooby Doo. But not to be confused with the game based on the new film which is loosely based on the cartoon. That’s because that one’s called Monsters Unleashed, and it’s up for review next week. I think we got that right. Either way, Scooby Doo (Mystery Mayhem) the first of the new Scooby Doo games hits IC-Games. The only real question is this Scooby Doo, or Scooby don’t?

THQ are getting very good at these licences, they certainly seem to have learnt something from the old “Ocean Software” days. Just about everything you do on screen perfectly replicates the classic cartoon. Tiptoeing past an enemy and the sound effects perfectly recreates the atmosphere of the cartoon. Get a little too scared and Scooby jumps into Shaggy’s arms and they run around in circles. There are plenty of moments that a fan will be able to point out right down to the canned laughter that comes after any bad joke. A2M and THQ’s collaboration seems to have payed off. Scooby Doo Mystery Mayhem looks, feels and sounds just like the 1970’s cartoon.

At the beginning of every episode you’ll be given a brief introduction of what the ‘mystery’ is about. Be it a haunted house or film set (or any of the five episodes on offer). Once the mystery has been explained in full Scooby Doo fashion it’s up to Shaggy and Scooby Doo to collect enough clues to unravel the plot and save the day. Mixed in for variety you’ll occasionally have to help the crew, be it finding Thelma's glasses or pushing crates out of the way. The Clues are pretty standard affairs, find a key and unlock a room to pull five levers in the correct order to unlock another room. You could find yourself having to find a fuse and a lever to operate some machinery. Basicly You’ll be spending the majority of your time finding things to progress even further into the game – normally these will be keys that unlock previously unavailable areas

Health and guns and ammo are thrown out of the mix here, being Scooby Doo after all. Shaggy and Scooby’s health are represented with a fear factor. Get too scared and you’ll run around helpless before finally succumbing to the fear (game over). Scooby snacks and general food help fight the fear and these snacks are scattered across each level. Guns and Ammo are literally replaced by a book, point the book at the monsters and press the button shown on screen to trap the fiend in the book (In pure Ghostbusters fashion). The book can only trap monsters it knows about (ghosts/poltergeists/mummies etc) so before you can trap that particular monster you’ll need to search around the level for the relevant page. A simple rule of thumb is that if you see the monster you’ll come across that monsters page soon enough.

Sadly A2M have concentrated far too much with the experience and not enough on the gameplay. In the end the whole thing feels more like shallow interactive episodes rather than a fully fledged game (almost like Dragon's Lair). This may well have been their intention but rarely are you challenged and without the challenge lack of interest soon follows. Countless times you’ll be running around in circles trying to find the last monster that you need to catch or that hidden ‘fuse’. At times it seems that this frustration was a feeble way to make the game last a little longer. If the levels were designed slightly better you’d probably have completed the game in less than six hours. Difficulty through cheapness, we’ve seen that particular enemy once too often.

What Scooby Doo! Mystery Mayhem excels in though (in every department) is how the game faithfully recreates the experience of the original cartoon. If awards were given in this catagory alone then A2M would scoop quite a few. Anyone who knows anything about the cartoon will certainly find the experience familiar and will certainly enjoy the five stories on offer. And it’s because of this that it’s certainly worth a rental to fans but in the end doesn’t deliver anywhere near enough gameplay to warrant a full price purchase. With the licence now secured by THQ, if they deliver superior gameplay for the next encounter then the Scooby Doo licence has a pretty rosy future. Only time will tell (and a review next week) if THQ can pull it off with Scooby Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed.

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