Publisher: THQ
Developer: Savage Entertainment
Category: Adventure
Release Dates
N Amer - 10/11/2006
- Also available on:
- NDS
Scooby Doo! Who's Watching Who? Review
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It's time for a showdown! After Mystery Inc. is
invited on to a reality show about ghost hunting, the rival ghost hunting team
GSI (Ghost Scene Investigators) that the show features begins challenging
Scooby and the gangs lack of scientific equipment and throws down the
challenge to which team can bust the most ghosts. Sure it's a rating gimmick
that was thought up by the show's producer after seeing Mystery Inc.'s
popularity increase after solving several high profile cases. But what happens
when there are other factors introduced that weren't explained in the
challenge?
The PSP is slowly gaining some popularity by
providing action titles that are 3rd person perspective driven. The first
person shooter on the PSP is simply not an option when it comes to the
controls, so developers are thinking backwards and that means action titles
that only require one thumbstick. Scooby Doo is a pretty good example of this
thinking, with the exploration factor and driving scenarios, the action comes
at a surprisingly fast pace, even if the game becomes somewhat formulaic.
As the game goes, you start each mission like an
episode of the TV show. Scooby runs around the level sniffing out clues and
eating Scooby snacks to keep his bravery up and once all the clues are found
Scoob gives them to Velma who begins analyzing said clues (this is more for
gimmick value). Then Scooby gets to ride with Fred in the Mystery Machine as
you chase around an escaping villain, finally ending with Shaggy and Scooby
being chased by the ghost.
Now I can tell you that the gameplay is pretty
spot-on, running around the first part of the episode, Scooby must walk up to
characters and speak with them all while avoiding lesser ghouls and ghosts and
dodging the kitschy traps that are featured in the TV show. Yes I know this
does seem to get repetitive, but the levels do vary and there are things to
find (especially those short cuts while driving the van). Lastly the chase
sequence should provide some smiles as each episode (level) features one of
the ghosts from the TV show.
The graphics in Scooby Doo, are actually really
good, there is almost a cell shaded quality that gives the game a strong
cartoon feel (as it should), lines are clearly distinguished on the characters
and while snippets of blocky graphics can occasionally be seen, the characters
all look like their television counterparts. Levels can seem a bit plain at
times and I know they had to use more then one bad guy per level to give you a
reason to keep running around, but sometimes I felt it wasn't all that
necessary.
Even better - there are some of the original voice
actors from the TV show featured on the game. Most notably missing though, is
Casey Kasem as the voice of Shaggy, and for some reason Frank Welker, the
voice actor who does Fred and Scooby on the TV show, only does Fred's and
another original voice, Scooby is voiced by Scott Innes who coincidently does
Shaggy's voice. Regardless, the voice acting is pretty good and it was nice to
see that they managed decent Scooby-ish dialogue as well. Jinkies! Yoinks!
My hat is off to THQ for coming up with a decent
game for this license, other Scooby titles have been met with much less
fanfare and stories/gameplay that weren't worth the price of admission.
| Review Scoring Details Scooby Doo! Who's Watching Who? |
Gameplay: 7.4
Each level has you doing three separate types of
gameplay, exploration/driving/chase and while it can start to seem repetitive,
the wrap around mystery (oops, did I say that) will keep you going.
Graphics: 8.0
It's really a nice treat when you get a license as
popular as the Scooby franchise, and the developers take the time to make it
look good. Each level has lesser monsters then the main one, it all works well
from a visual standpoint. I would have liked to have seen more of Daphne.
Sound: 8.0
Voice actors from the show like Mr. Welker
mentioned above and Mindy Cohn make for an enjoyable and authentic Scooby
experience.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
It takes a short time to figure out what to do and
when to do it, but each episode plays out the same way, enjoyable, but easy.
Concept: 7.0
Finally a Scooby game that is developed correctly
so the user feels more like a part of Mystery Inc.
Overall: 7.4
I like this game, my wife likes this game and my
kids like watching us play this game. Is it perfect? No. But it does a good
job of capturing the magic of one of Saturday morning cartoons most beloved
characters.
