N-Philes

Wii REVIEW – Scooby-Doo! First Frights

Posted November 11th 2009 by Jacob Barnes.

Do you remember watching the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series, if you grew up in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s?  Maybe you've seen the reruns they used to show on Cartoon Network?  Don't you love the scenes where Scooby and Shaggy, dressed up as Italian maître d's in an attempt to fool a clumsy villain as Danny Janssen sang a groovy background song?  And wasn't it clever how Velma connected all the clues to the bad guy before wrapping up the half-hour show?  Almost none of these references are present in Scooby-Doo! First Frights, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad game for all audiences.

The first thing players will notice as they are introduced to one of the many cutscenes is the look of the characters.  This rendition of the gang has a simpler, younger look to them, an image aimed more at the tween crowd.  It reminds me of what happened to Madden 10 on the Wii.  The characters are cuter, but it feels like an excuse for what could be a more realistic look with better graphics.  It's not the style an older player such as myself would prefer, but considering this is identical to its PS2 counterpart, the blocky graphics and style shouldn't deter most kids.  The spooky but cartoonish locales set a good tone to match with an eerie, light soundtrack.

Almost tangential to this new look is the voice acting.  All of the current voice actors from the series lend their talent to the game but it seems strange hearing those older voices with smaller bodies.  It's not much of a help that the voice actors get stuck with a mundane script during cutscenes, which appear frequently throughout the game.  There's an added laugh track that usually plays when Shaggy says something funny referencing his love of food or something similar, but I laughed at the awkward timing of the added laughs themselves rather than the jokes.

The four main stages are neatly arranged into episodes, with a main villain being unmasked at the end like in the original show.  It's getting through the level itself that I think gamers will find offsetting.  It's not exactly challenging but more tedious than anything to reach your destination.  Ghosts and witches appear out of nowhere along the way to your checkpoints.  These instances turn the game into more of a beat-em-‘up, and a boring one at that.  I never died once in the game and all I did was press the attack button and jump, which is about all you can do until they die.  Most enemies don't even show reaction to punches when they are hit.

There are some platforming and simple puzzle solving skills involved too.  First Frights has you paired with two different characters on each level for added co-op play.  All five characters control similarly but have different special abilities used for puzzle solving.  Fred can move heavy objects, Scooby can go through smaller dog doors and Daphne is good at...climbing poles?  I'm not going to comment on that one.  The puzzles are almost always in plain site and require no skill other than switching between characters.  The most difficult parts actually come from navigating certain obstacles due to a questionable moving camera.  If your AI partner falls off a ledge, the camera will sometimes turn back around causing you to also jump in the same direction.

I'd like to see a mature version of Scooby-Doo in the near-future with some real mystery solving elements.  Kids under ten should find some enjoyment out of this being a very basic platformer, despite the E10+ rating for "cartoon violence."  For anyone older, or wanting more of a challenge, there's not much to be found.

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