Scooby-Doo: Mystery Mayhem review

Last time I talked about a Scooby-Doo game that helped breath new life into Scooby-Doo video games. Now I'm going to set out and talk about a game I intended to discuss prior, and to put my new list to good use.

History

A lot of you may have played numerous licensed games as a kid. Some of you may have noticed a recurring element to each, well, other than mediocrity and moderate satisfaction. A dot with two swooshes, and the ambiguous name "A2M", who if you didn't know is the developer behind this game. Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M's full name) was a prominent developer of licensed titles in the early to mid 2000s. They covered everything from consoles to handheld systems. If you needed a tie-in game to go with your show, you could count on these guys. They also did Scaler and Jersey Devil, games for all intents and purposes that're better than a bulk of their licensed games.

But on those, you may recognize them as the developer of Ed, Edd n' Eddy: The Mis-Edventures, a game many enjoy mainly for the novelty of it being Ed, Edd n' Eddy-related. Okay it was a pretty good game, real pity that I'm no longer a fan of the show. So, have they gone belly up? Well, you could find plenty of new titles from them under the Behaviour Interactive moniker, ironically their original identity. Did you know that they changed their name because A2M was a sexual euphemism?  Ass to mouth.

As Behaviour Interactive, they're best known for fucking up Spongebob Squarepants video games. Ironically, while Behaviour fucked up what Heavy Iron Studios helped to create, Behaviour actually continued Heavy Iron's spirit in the next Scooby-Doo game. This may be proof of alternate universes.

It's important to note that this originally came out on Game Boy Advance in 2003, with the home console versions coming out the following year. I want to focus on the latter because obviously that's what I played.

Premise (preface)

Rather than go with a single premise with the entire game built around that, we have five different scenarios that ultimately mend together for one single plot line. They're fairly subtle about the connections here, so each feels fairly independent from one another. As a result, I plan on discussing the plots for all five scenarios after I talk about the gameplay, because by then it'll all come together.

Gameplay

You'd think A2M would go for a rehash of the previous Scooby-Doo game, and you'd be wrong. This time, they go for a team dynamic where you get to play as Scooby and Shaggy simultaneously. The team dynamic is a little half-assed though. While there are obstacles that only Scooby could cross, like crawlspaces, there isn't anything Shaggy can't do that Scooby could also do. On the other hand, you sometimes need both guys to progress to new areas, this is usually done so you can't go to places you're not supposed to go to yet.

This game takes away your ability to jump, but fear not, you could hike up certain areas and activate switches to open up platforms, move platforms to certain areas or give yourself access to ladders, through switch activation of course. There's a problem solving element here, but once you get the basics down, plus you take note of the various clues littered around the levels, it'll be less about figuring stuff out for the sake of doing it, and more for figuring it out to get the game done faster.

Okay, where are we for enemies? Well, unlike Night of 100 Frights where we got to see many familiar faces, we get some new ones in the form of three variations of ghosts, zombies, shadows (another ghost variant), mummies, poltergeists, demonic twisters (seriously) and ghosts that are on fire. Oh how could we curb these enemies? Ladies and gentlemen, our gimmick.

In the first episode (what the game refers to as levels), Shaggy and Scooby come across the Tome of Doom, a book that captures ghosts. How does this work? After powering up the book, you open it near a ghost and you have to tap a designated button until the ghosts' health is depleted. This could usually take two rounds, the highest being three on standard enemies. There's a catch to this, for a while, there're some enemies you can't capture because you don't have the right page for them. These either come after a certain point or the pages appear somewhere into the level. If you fail to find the right page, you won't be able to capture this enemy. Luckily, these pages are easy to find, and they wouldn't make it so you'd get stuck. I think I only ran into one page that's essentially optional, and only exists so you could get a bonus item.

And now the bonuses. For each level, you could find five clues and five sandwich ingredients. The first five actually attempt to have some kind of connection to the level, with each cluing you in on what's happening. Sometimes the fifth clue comes automatically during a cutscene. These are typically easy to find if you're willing to explore the levels, though at least two are tricky, one in getting, the other in finding. You could run these by Velma so you could get more info, but other than that you just need to collect them all. Your reward is unlocking concept art. Call it a bummer, but at least you don't have to grind for hours to get every Scooby-Snack just to get a "You did it!" screen.

As for the sandwich ingredients, they're a bit harder to find. You have to do some problem solving to get to most of these, though you may find yourself going to more obscure areas to find them as well. To give you an idea on the more ridiculous ones.

• One is located in a mine cart ride in the third episode. When you enter it the first time the cart section immediately begins and you believe that you'd set it off again if you come in the same way. But no, it just leads you to the entrance where a piece of ham awaits you.
• There's one where you need a certain amount of nuggets to get a piece of cheese from a vending machine.
• You have to hit a certain number of switches in one section of the fifth level, but not all of them so you could retrieve a piece of bacon from behind a force field.
• You have to capture a certain number of ghosts in the final boss to get an onion.
• You have to get every single enemy in the first episode to get a piece of lettuce.
• You have to remember to backtrack to an early part of one section of the second episode to find another piece of cheese.

Talk about problem solving. Anyway, a much grander reward exists if you find five ingredients in each level, and that's a mini game. Already this game has much better rewards for doing everything 100% than Night of 100 Frights.

There's also a costume dynamic which is rendered null since you could easily run past spooks. I only found one level where they were useful, and that was for sneaking past guards, and one instance where you need to get a key card from an enemy.

Scooby snacks constitute as health here, individual snacks giving you moderate recovery, while boxes give you a full heal, lose enough health and you actually have an opportunity to avoid losing the level. You begin running, just keep them away from other spooks long enough and you have a chance to recover some health. Where are we on checkpoints? Well, they exist in save zones. You actually have to go through the trouble of saving your game just to get a checkpoint. Damn.

Plot

We have five episodes that seem to hold no connection until the end, where our enemies are in line with the main antagonist.

Episode One: The Haunting of Hambridge

The Scooby-Doo gang go to investigate what seems like a classic mystery at the library of Velma's alma matter, but are bombarded by the aforementioned spooks. We get used to the character dynamic between Shaggy and Scooby and are ultimately acquainted with the kind of gameplay we'll encounter soon on. You tackle your first boss, Walter Peabody who has donned a hokey sheet ghost costume. To beat him you need to find Shaggy after both he and Scooby get separated and you need to capture the other ghosts. Don't ask, this is how it works.

Episode 2: Mayhem at the Movies

Next you go to the Milton Brothers studio, where the Red Knight is causing trouble for the staff, and ultimately the aforementioned brothers. The first level was kinda lacking, just the library and the lower cellars, then again, that's what all libraries are like. Here, they actually follow the movie studio aesthetic quite well. We get to go backstage and venture through sets, including space, a graveyard with an ensuing crypt, ancient Egypt, a ship for a little bit but you get to encounter the suspended bridges for the stage lighting and ancient Rome. However, these are usually done within one stage and exist for aesthetics. But it could be worse. One interesting aspect is that they throw in a George Meiles reference.

Do you know your movies?

One interesting aspect is that there're pseudo-booby traps, namely in the space and graveyard levels. If you get close to certain things, they can scare you and make you lose your health.

When you get to the right knight, it's just a matter of avoiding him until a trap is fully set up. Remember, guy in a mask.

Episode III: Weird Wild West

At a dude ranch, it's just a matter of making it around. Shaggy and Scooby have an eat-off, a playable one at that. This one is inconsequential, just complete it, doesn't matter who wins or loses no matter who you play as. The added baggage makes Shaggy fall through the floor and you have to... go upstairs and in a half-hearted node to the door gag in Scooby-Doo cartoons, you have to pick the right door several times to progress to the other side, just so you could get into the basement. In the basement, you get a lantern and an obligation to collect jack-lanterns, that's what they look like, to preserve light, all while finding Shaggy. Once you do, you venture out through a different door and wind up in the saloon.

There's a puzzle section involving a piano, and later on you have to deal with a safe. For the piano, you need to set the right notes on three screens, with three clues littered throughout the area. You need this to get a key. Meanwhile, you find Fred locked in jail and you need to get soap to push a barricade blocking a hole. Once inside you need a saw to get to the other side and claim a key. By the way, Fred possesses a key as well. These are needed to get into the bank, where you need to get a shovel to dig out the entry way to a mine cart ride. Oh yeah, the mine cart.

Shaggy and Scooby wind up on the ride and you have to traverse through the entire thing while getting as many gold nuggets as you can. If you're a completionist, this will become especially daunting because you need a certain amount to get a piece of cheese from a vending machine so you could unlock a mini game. Not to mention, you need to go a certain way to find a clue to complete that section, all while avoiding obstacles. With a lot of these, it takes one hit to kill your progress.

It was after that that I became stuck on this game. I missed a clue for opening the safe and I became stuck. This is on the chalkboard in the school for the record. You need to open the safe to get the page to attack the set of monsters present in the town. After that you get to your first true boss fight. You go after numerous dust devils while avoiding flying debris from a carousel. Do it enough times and you get to face the major dust devil, catch him, bada bing bada boom, next episode.

Episode 4: Bad Juju in the Bayou

It starts off with Scooby and Shaggy attempting to get to a pot of gumbo, and the intense methods used to do so. To get to it, they attempt to activate a fountain, but the water isn't activated yet. You traverse through an open pipe in the pump house to get the flow going, where you get the gimmick for this level, swimming gear. Of this portion, you encounter alligators, more relentless than you think, and later boaters with ray guns, more on that later. After you get the water going, you need to connect the pipes, and this is easier said than done. You need to do a meter puzzle where you have to get the water level to be a certain height, push certain pipes to certain areas and make sure you completed it all before you head out because you'll find yourself cornered and need to undo some progress just to get back out.

After getting to the gumbo, Shaggy falls from a balcony and due to getting covered in mud, is mistaken for a zombie, our enemies of the hour. Scooby teams up with Billy Bob to help find him. Scooby traverses through the woods, avoiding army guys with ray guns, and these guys you can't attack, sometimes you have to take a hit. Soon you get to the base and you need to keep these guys away from Billy Bob until he frees Shaggy. This leads to a new variation on the mine cart level. Motorcycle.

Like the mine cart, you avoid obstacles, but now there's the need to manually accelerate. Adding to this is collectibles you need to get that could only be collected with precise jumps. It'd feel very satisfying once you get them. It then goes to the boss, where you have to capture zombies, later facing a much bigger one, and this fucker won't stay still, so just go back to Velma if you're running low on health and fight the big zombie until it's all over.

Episode five: Hi-Tech Terror

The final stretch. Here, the game gives you its attempt at stealth. You try to avoid guards while venturing through unauthorized territories. This is where the disguise gimmick works the best. Just go through the areas until you reach the elevator, and the stealth mechanic becomes nothing more than a footnote. They switch to more ray gun wielding enemies, along with some feeble attempts at variety, i.e., getting to control a robot just to turn valves and activate a switch to shut off steam and get access to doors.

Things get a bit interesting again when Shaggy and Scooby find their friends have been brainwashed by our ultimate antagonist, Selena Drake. Apparently the people the gang faced that turned out to have bad intentions are aligned to her. In this part, you just have to shut off the machine controlling them, while avoiding their blasts.

After this, you have to capture more ghosts, but you won't get the page to capture these kind, the fire ghosts. Here, you have to lure them to active sprinklers and then capture them. Do this until you make it to the end, where you face off against the grand final fire ghost. You just need to activate four sprinklers to usurp power from the ghost. But one more phase occurs and it's just a general capture, not impressed.

The mini games, if you're curious, go like this.

• A mini game where you trap the first boss you encounter in a certain area.
• One where you have to capture every ghost present.
• Variations on the mine cart and the mini bike sections.
• Another trapping game.

A for effort, a NUS for the overall execution.

Music

The music is standard, nothing special. It does fit the theme of the levels nicely, and trust me, that's the best compliment I could give.

Graphics

It's no surprise that the graphics look better than the ones in Night of 100 Frights. But buy and large, the graphics aren't that impressive here. They fit the Scooby-Doo series well, I'll give it that, but it doesn't pop out like Night of 100 Frights did, referring to the backgrounds mainly.

Overall

It's just a standard licensed game. It's not terrible by any means, especially when compared to A2M's SpongeBob efforts. I'll give them this, they tried to do something new, and for the most part they did it well. I'm willing to call it a worthy Scooby-Doo game, I think you'd definitely find more enjoyment out of this than Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase. Both the game and the movie. Bite me.