Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights
Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you, we’ve got some work to do now
Tags: Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 16th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Modeled after the classic cartoon (right down to the laugh track) this game already made an appearance on the GameCube and PlayStation 2 over a year ago, making one wonder why THQ decided to bring this game to the Xbox.
The plot follows what could have been one of the classic cartoon episodes – Scooby Doo needs to rescue his friends from the clutches of the evil Mastermind. Along the way, he’ll gather up Scooby Snacks and confront villains that appeared in the cartoon – such as the haunted suit of armor and ghostly scuba diver.
The controls are simple enough (jump, run, use item, etc.) all standard fare, nothing out of the ordinary – if you’ve played one character based adventure game then you know how it works.
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There are power ups along the way, springs for jumping, a helmet for bashing, keys to unlock doors, disguises, and more. These will all be necessary to progress. The only problem is that there will be a lot of backtracking in order to get everything in a level, as certain power ups are required to reach certain areas.
This adds to the gameplay time, but after a while I feels artificial, and maybe even a little forced. Rather than actually solve the mystery, Scooby Doo is running around trying to find the rubber galoshes to be able to walk over sticky surfaces, then going back to every place that was sticky to collect everything that couldn’t be obtained before, then progressing to the next area (where you don’t need the galoshes).
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Also, watch for hidden areas with extra power up items and secret passages.
Visually, Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights attempts to recreate a cartoon look, without cel shading, and for the most part succeeds. The biggest problem with the visuals are the 2D sidescrolling jumps, which at times don’t line up correctly. The game is a weird combination of 3D exploration and 2.5D sidescrolling.
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Younger gamers familiar with the character only through the recent film and latest incarnation of the cartoon may find themselves at a bit of a loss. In a great nod to the original series which this game is based upon, many of the old voice actors were brought in for the game.
Aurally, the game is a hit. The voice acting by the old pros combine with the cartoon sound effects and laugh track to immerse the player into the world of Scooby Doo.
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The sound effects, voice acting, and cartoon visuals all combine to make a fun game. Fans of the original show should definitely pick this up (though why you wouldn’t have done so for the PS2 or GameCube is beyond comprehension).
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
It's just like the cartoon Visuals Audio |
8.7 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
2.5D sidescroll jumping It's over a year old |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Fans should already have this - if not, pick it up. | |
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Tags: Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 16th, 2003 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
