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The cast, in the GBA game.
November 16, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Nate Gleaves
Scooby dooby Doo, where are you? “I’m in this GBA game from THQ!” In this game titled just “Scooby Doo”, you will find the digitized versions of the cast from the hit(?) movie. Yes, that’s right! A grainy Sarah Michelle Geller is in the game! We have all been waiting for this day for so long! (Or something like that.)
As the game starts out, you are treated to a nifty Voodoo inspired title screen. Little explosions ignite as you navigate the menu. WHEEEEEE! The premise of the game is that you, Mystery Inc, are sent to investigate ghost sightings at a spooky theme park. The “Mystery” thus unfolds from there.
Once you start the game, you will notice the already mentioned grainy pictures of the movie cast while their character is talking. While they are grainy, you can at least tell who they are. Then you will notice the relatively nice looking backgrounds. Once you start moving however, something seems out of place. Then you realize it’s the character models. While the backgrounds look fine, the characters are made from a primitive 3D polygon engine that looks like it was taken from a game like Out of This World on the Genesis. It’s that bad. I mean yes, lets ohh and ahh at how the GBA can do 3D graphics, but if they look terrible it ruins the point. Give me pretty hand drawn sprites over this any day. And we know the GBA can do that very well. Also, if there are more than 2 moving objects on the screen at once, the frame rate drops noticeably. This day and age I find that unacceptable.
Scooby Doo is presented in a ¾ perspective. This makes sense in a game where you are trying to solve a mystery. It allows for large areas to explore. I feel they made the right decision when choosing to go in this direction with the game. However, there are unnecessary problems. It is easy to get caught on things going around corners, and you can’t fit between things that look like you should be able to. The characters also move very slowly. Only a couple of them have the ability to run, and it takes awhile to switch characters, long enough that it is a pain. Unfortunately, switching characters is what the game is about. Velma solves puzzles, Fred moves things, Daphne knows karate . . . lots of switching characters.
The puzzles are a mixed bag. They range from ridiculously easy and tedious, to quite hard. The game is pretty easy, which is good for the age group it is aimed at, but the hard puzzles really make me wonder what they are thinking. Especially because you can’t progress until you solve the puzzle. A kid won’t have trouble with the game at all until they get to one of the frustratingly hard puzzles. Basically all you have to do is run around the game and talk to people and look for “clues” (big yellow boxes with question marks on them) and then run around and do the next think it asks of you. Most of the time you are required to move your slow character from one side of the map to the complete other side, and that gets tedious. Once you get to your destination, there is usually a mini-game/puzzle you have to win. You also spend most of the game traveling between the same few areas over and over again, and we all know how boring that gets.
The best part of the game is the sound. Well, the music is anyway. The few sounds effects that the game actually has are pretty lame. The music is my favorite part, especially the music in the hotel. I think it’s some of the best I’ve heard on the GameBoy Advance! If only they spent as much time with the game itself as they did with the music. Or was the music aspect just luck?
The game’s replayability is non-existant. Once you finish the game you will know where all the clues are, so the whole point of the game of searching is lost. The mini-games aren’t fun enough to warrant another go either. Once you are done, you are done.
When it comes down to it, the best way to describe Scooby Doo is “Meh”. It’s not that much fun, but it isn’t terrible. A Scooby fan will probably enjoy it more than the general masses, but I bet even they will probably come away disappointed. The lack of depth and endless running around loses its fun pretty quick. The best parts of the game are the music and title screen. I’m telling you, that title screen is cool!
As the game starts out, you are treated to a nifty Voodoo inspired title screen. Little explosions ignite as you navigate the menu. WHEEEEEE! The premise of the game is that you, Mystery Inc, are sent to investigate ghost sightings at a spooky theme park. The “Mystery” thus unfolds from there.
Once you start the game, you will notice the already mentioned grainy pictures of the movie cast while their character is talking. While they are grainy, you can at least tell who they are. Then you will notice the relatively nice looking backgrounds. Once you start moving however, something seems out of place. Then you realize it’s the character models. While the backgrounds look fine, the characters are made from a primitive 3D polygon engine that looks like it was taken from a game like Out of This World on the Genesis. It’s that bad. I mean yes, lets ohh and ahh at how the GBA can do 3D graphics, but if they look terrible it ruins the point. Give me pretty hand drawn sprites over this any day. And we know the GBA can do that very well. Also, if there are more than 2 moving objects on the screen at once, the frame rate drops noticeably. This day and age I find that unacceptable.
Scooby Doo is presented in a ¾ perspective. This makes sense in a game where you are trying to solve a mystery. It allows for large areas to explore. I feel they made the right decision when choosing to go in this direction with the game. However, there are unnecessary problems. It is easy to get caught on things going around corners, and you can’t fit between things that look like you should be able to. The characters also move very slowly. Only a couple of them have the ability to run, and it takes awhile to switch characters, long enough that it is a pain. Unfortunately, switching characters is what the game is about. Velma solves puzzles, Fred moves things, Daphne knows karate . . . lots of switching characters.
The puzzles are a mixed bag. They range from ridiculously easy and tedious, to quite hard. The game is pretty easy, which is good for the age group it is aimed at, but the hard puzzles really make me wonder what they are thinking. Especially because you can’t progress until you solve the puzzle. A kid won’t have trouble with the game at all until they get to one of the frustratingly hard puzzles. Basically all you have to do is run around the game and talk to people and look for “clues” (big yellow boxes with question marks on them) and then run around and do the next think it asks of you. Most of the time you are required to move your slow character from one side of the map to the complete other side, and that gets tedious. Once you get to your destination, there is usually a mini-game/puzzle you have to win. You also spend most of the game traveling between the same few areas over and over again, and we all know how boring that gets.
The best part of the game is the sound. Well, the music is anyway. The few sounds effects that the game actually has are pretty lame. The music is my favorite part, especially the music in the hotel. I think it’s some of the best I’ve heard on the GameBoy Advance! If only they spent as much time with the game itself as they did with the music. Or was the music aspect just luck?
The game’s replayability is non-existant. Once you finish the game you will know where all the clues are, so the whole point of the game of searching is lost. The mini-games aren’t fun enough to warrant another go either. Once you are done, you are done.
When it comes down to it, the best way to describe Scooby Doo is “Meh”. It’s not that much fun, but it isn’t terrible. A Scooby fan will probably enjoy it more than the general masses, but I bet even they will probably come away disappointed. The lack of depth and endless running around loses its fun pretty quick. The best parts of the game are the music and title screen. I’m telling you, that title screen is cool!
November 20, 2009
