The gang is back with all the Scooby goodness included. It is not the first Scooby Doo video game, and probably not the last, but it is perhaps the best available to date. Right from the first moment of pushing the power button, you are immediately absorbed in by the great familiarity to the cartoon series. Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights doesn't set new standards, but it really gives an excellent feeling of familiarity to fans of the cartoon series, plus it is fun to boot.

Developed by Heavy Iron and published by THQ, it is safe to say that Night of 100 Frights is one of their better published titles. You take the role of Scooby Doo himself as you platform through a mixture of side scrolling and 360-degree 3D levels. Night of 100 Frights is pretty much explained as your classic platform title. Jump from point to point, run and avoid ghouls, unlock doors, find missing items, and then eventually complete the level. Along the way, Scooby must collect the ever so popular "Scooby snacks" to unlock different areas of the game, including new levels. I was very pleased with how Heavy Iron turned Scooby Doo in to a platform character. Scooby interacts comically with his surrounding environments, such as slipping on ice or swinging on ropes. Scooby is also able to do other things if need be, such as run frantically, or cling onto objects Spiderman style. Most of these actions and more will be presented to you in the playable beginning tutorial.

The story is one that you could have easily predicted: the gang is called up to solve a mystery of a haunted mansion. Upon arrival, the gang will go through their usual routine of Shaggy and Scooby chickening out, and then getting bribed with food to cooperate with the mission. Many of the classic signature character sayings and phrases are also present. You can expect Shaggy to whip out his "zoiks" and "Scooby doo, where are you" while there is also the "gienkees," "lets go gang," and of course "Scooby Scooby dooo!" You will even notice that Heavy Iron included those cheesy, yet welcomed audience laugh tracks. While playing, Scooby will face off against a variety of over 20 or so enemies, which non are actually scary, but rather add to the whole Scooby Doo atmosphere that we all love or even hate.

The graphic department is a mixed bag. No part of the game looks extraordinary, but it is certain that Heavy Iron did a good job of re-creating the cartoon. The character models are low polygon count, but the real detail went into Scooby's surroundings. Spider webs, cracked and broken floorboards, haunted paintings and semi decent particle effects are abound through out the game. The textures are bland and levels are on the smaller side, but it luckily all nicely fits together.

All the original voice actors are back for the voice-overs, and it is a really cool aspect of the game. The sound effects are also very authentic to the cartoon series. Even the games intro movie is recreated 3d incarnation of the cartoon intro movie.

Overall, while Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights does not look spooktacular or even set new boundaries for the genre, it sets a near perfect compilation of the popular cartoon series, and everything Scooby.