N-Philes

Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights

Posted by Archived.

Handling a license is one of those things that hardly ever goes right in the video game world. A quick, boring game is usually thrown together, the license is thrown in as an afterthought and the game goes on to sell because of its license. Fortunately, Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights bucks the trend and is a fun, clever platformer.

The first sign that THQ and Heavy Iron studios have taken this license seriously is the story. It fits the whole Scooby Doo universe. Daphne's friend, Holly calls up Mystery Inc. because strange happenings have been going on around her uncle's village and home. Her uncle has mysteriously disappeared and the whole village has been taken over by monsters. So, naturally, it's up to Scooby and the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma to search in and around Mystic Manor, a haunted house, and solve the mystery. The whole gang sets off immediately, but everyone disappears and that leaves Scooby to search the house on his own.

There are three main areas for Scooby to explore: Mystic Manor, the mansion itself, Haunted Grounds, which is the area around the mansion, and Smuggler's Cove, the village around the mansion. Each of these areas is further split up into specific areas. For example, in the mansion there is the lobby, an attic, etc. These are split up into separate parts, sometimes which can be very small. This can get annoying at first, but it's done so that load times are short and quick. Compared to an alternative where the loading times are extremely long this is much better, with the flow of the game kept quick and intact.

The levels are populated with monsters from Scooby's past. Monsters such as The Headless Specter, and Creepers are all over. Other monsters, like the Black Knight, are mini-bosses Scooby has to fight against. It's great to see care taken to incorporate the whole Scooby theme all over the game. The monsters, unfortunately, are fairly generic. They walk around the levels mindlessly in their area looking for you. If they see you, they will go crazy and chase you. Defeating them is easy and simple, usually requiring a single head butt or two. Smaller enemies, like rats and crabs, can be crushed by jumping on their head. Scooby can take up to five hits, though he starts with only three health pieces. More can be gained by eating food, such as sandwiches, which are triple deckers, just like in the cartoons.

The layout of each area is made to take advantage of Scooby's abilities, both those he starts with and those later gained. This makes for some interesting gaming because you can see an area or something else which you can't get to, which you know you can get to later. It also makes for one of the biggest frustrations in the game. In the levels themselves you collect Scooby Snacks, Monster Tokens and other stuff. Scooby Snacks are used to unlock snack gates. You need a certain amount of snacks, depending on which gate. These tend not to be a problem, though, as having enough is very simple. You do not collect an extra live for every 100 snacks, but that is because there are unlimited lives. They also unlock pictures in the picture viewer when you collect all the snacks in an area. The Monster Tokens unlock viewable monsters from Scooby's past. The frustrating part is the collision detection system. It seems to be set up that you can only collect things, or get to places if you do it the way the game wants you to. There were times I'd reach a part of the level I wasn't supposed to yet, and an invisible wall blocked me. Other times I would go through Scooby Snacks and not collect them even though I clearly should have.

The controls in the game are usually on, and get more complex as the game progresses and you gain different abilities. Walking around is a bit weird, because Scooby will walk for an extra millisecond after releasing the control stick. The only other things Scooby can do to begin with are run by holding R, jump by pressing A, and talk or enter new areas by pressing X. The talking can be difficult when you have to properly align yourself. Strangely, the only other time this is true is when you gain the ability to dig, also with the X button, alignment is also tricky. Everything else works great. Other abilities gained include a double jump, along with an umbrella even later to help you float farther distances. All attacks are handled with the B button. Scooby gains a football helmet to head-butt, and more power-ups to do butt stomps. He also gets galoshes and plungers for walking on sticky or sloped surfaces. There are also other things to slow down enemies. He can blow bubbles to trap enemies in or spit gum for them to get stuck in. This is done with L & Z or just L. The most true upgrade to the Scooby theme, though, are the sneaking outfits. He gets, originally, a lampshade and bunny slippers ,but later can get a black knight uniform. This is worn with the R & Z button held simultaneously.

Though this is a platform game, there is more than just walk around and jumping to the levels, however, not that much. One of the most fun additions is swinging. Scooby can grab onto something hanging down and swing off of it. This includes chandeliers and tire swings. Other areas involve you and Shaggy teaming up, though these cases are rare and usually just involve one person throwing the other upward. There is some key collecting and switch hitting, but the bulk of the game is platforming. When it's all over there isn't much to come back to, either, unless you want to play some levels over, or completely collect everything. This may be worth it though, with the unlocked things including information and trivia from Scooby Doo cartoons, and from game development.

The way the game looks is the worst aspect of the game. A lot of the textures are very boring and washed out. The enemies and Scooby Doo are not made out of a lot of polygons and they look boring, even if they do look true to the series. Similarly the backgrounds and worlds look cold and dark, with nothing special really being there. This is most likely due to the universe. Some of the areas actually look like they could have come out of the cartoon, so the coldness and darkness are most likely due to that. The animations are all adequate, though sometimes annoying. Seeing the same head-butt over and over is nothing special. Since when did Scooby have a football helmet? The camera, fortunately, does a good job following. Usually it's right where you want it to be, though sometimes it falls behind for a second. It never affects gameplay, so it's not really an issue.

The cutscenes are a bit strange. When I first thought about it, I thought cel-shading would be perfect. It would fit the cartoon history and would look excellent. The first time I saw the 3D models in the cutscenes I didn't like them. I thought they were too big and didn't look good. Over time, though, it made sense to do it like this, and to be fair it didn't look as bad as I originally thought. Though it's nothing great, it's not horrible.

The music in the game is mostly taken out of the cartoons. In the opening movie there is the Scooby Doo: Where Are You? theme music, and it will also play in the background. There are other bits of music too, though nothing great. Sound effects work well enough, though nothing specific sticks in my mind as mind blowing. The voices in the cutscenes are well done, mostly. Scooby and Shaggy are the best, sounding just like they should. Daphne and Holly are all adequate. There are even guest appearances by the voices of Tim Curry, Tim Conway, and Don Knotts. The worst voice is undoubtedly Velma's. It's flat and uninspired. The one great addition to the audio is the laugh track. Just like in the cartoon there is a laugh track. It is very good during the cutscenes, but can get annoying when it laughs in the middle of play. It will do it when you head-butt sometimes and it would be better without it.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B+.

In the end the Scooby Doo license is well served. Scooby has a great platformer, set in his world, with a great little mystery to be solved. It may not be the best platformer ever compiled but it is good enough to be picked up, definitely as a rental. It can be beaten in that time period and is worth the time. It also does well for newcomers as it is very easy to get into. Scooby Doo fans should be pleased.

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