| Posted: May 30th, 2005 By: Webmaster-Josh |
| Nintendo Reviews Rating: Age 7+ |
| Scooby-Doo: Mystery Mayhem continues the line of games based on everyone's favorite mystery-solving dog, Scooby-Doo. The game now takes a traditional adventure approach. Is the game worth exploring? |
| Sound If the thought of hearing Scooby and Shaggy say the same lines over and over is appealing, then you might actually like the sound in this game. Well, we also get plenty of the other characters. Fred, Velma and Daphne have many lines that tie into the game's plot mostly. Since you never as play as them, they don't get annoying. There are also many other voice samples from minor characters. Some the voice acting feels a bit forced. It's not so much the actual actor being bad; it's the script. That one western guy on the third level is so annoying. The voice acting does fit the characters appropriately, though. There are usually a few tunes per level that you visit. The music is pretty lame, repeating basically the same notes over and over with only minor variations. There is some effort, but the good work gets lost in a lot of repetition. The sound effects have the same feel to them. The same simple effects that you hear in the first level is basically what you hear in all the other levels. The Tome of Doom gets very annoying. There's so many spots where they could have put many different effects in. They use what works, but that doesn't cut it in the end. There's some attention to detail, although it's nowhere near what other games have achieved. Overall, the sound isn't something you'll want to hear for long. |
| Control The camera is something that usually doesn't interfere with gameplay in newer games these days. Usually the control problems in games, if any, lie in the way things are done. Well this game unfortunately suffers from both cases. The camera shows a limited view of the action, and panning it with the C Stick seems pointless, because when you start moving it reverts back to the original position. This problem is very similar to Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. In this case, it's worse because you'll be going backwards a lot more in this game. It's also impossible to see above you. That's usually not an issue, but it can lead to confusion in some parts. The game has one action button, and that's A. The other button you'll use is the X button for the Tome of Doom. This will allow you to suck ghosts close to you, but the way it works is awkward. You simply press one button repeatedly. It requires energy to use, and the energy goes down way too fast. This is basically a weak attempt at a combat system. The worst that the enemy can do is run into you. If you don't lock onto the enemy immediately, then you will have to close the book and try again, because when you open it you remain stationary. What a stupid way to attack! There's also points where the characters stop because they get hit, and then it's hard to escape. If you have no energy left you'll run like crazy. Why don't they just die? It's rather stupid. You the go back to the last save point. In the first level the save points are everywhere, but as you progress there are less and less. They are poorly placed. You sometimes have to play the same thing over and over to progress or even save and quit. Metroid Prime didn't have a hard time with this, because in that game the pacing was good. Overall, the game has many flaws in the control that it actually brings the game down more than it could have. |
| Graphics The game is probably the best looking of the Scooby-Doo games that I've played, and it definitely has a lot of cool lighting effects. The game has a lack of depth in the graphics, though. Yes there is detail, but it all seems thrown together sloppily. Yes, I am going to call this game's graphics sloppily. It's just not enough to have detail and effects. Some of the character models are a bit blotchy, and it seems that the best pars are when CG cutscenes are playing. The game's backgrounds are also very bland, and there's nothing here's that realistic, fantastic or even interesting anywhere. It's not that it's terrible, but there could have been so much more to these levels. |
| Replay The first level takes about 30 minutes to beat, and there are five levels in the game. Okay, well the other levels get progressively longer to the point where a level takes an average of an hour to beat. So five hours of gameplay, wow! There's some collectibles that add maybe a couple more hours and might keep some people interested for a few more go-arounds. But when I say some people, that really only means like 10% of who play this. This game is so boring, I don't even care to see what the extra mini-games are like. From what they are titled it seems that it is renditions of what some levels have, which are obstacle courses. These are annoying and seem more like filler than anything. The game feel like one big marketing heap, and that's usually what licensed games are like. However, in the midst of publishers marketing their real franchises through video games are some really fine games. This is not one of them, and the replay really reflects that. Only Scooby-Doo fans would really want to play this again. Playing this again is like watching Scooby-Doo the movie more than once. It's not worth it the first time, and even worse the second time. |
| Design The puzzles this game throws at you are so easy that you will have completed some of them not even realizing that it was supposed to make you think. This game's audience is unrealized; I can't even see anyone older than eight finding this game engaging. It involves very simple tasks and placed in small levels that only lead you one direction. You'll almost never get lost because the game has a very limited amount of ways to go. It's basically a couple minutes in one room and then move onto the next one. A couple of cutscenes are thrown in here and there, but the game's plot is so weak and uninteresting that you'll almost feel inclined to skip them. There's also random background laughing that gets so tedious. I did not laugh once, and in this case I can't see anyone of any age finding the jokes humorous. If a game has to laugh for you to laugh, then it's not funny. Banjo-Kazooie had a subtle way of making you laugh, but this game is just sad. It's also sad to see anyone wanting to finish this game. I have never been so bored in my life. This game only kept me going because I had a little hope that it would get better. There are some creative parts to the game, but it is all short-lived. This game hits no marks anywhere. The game gets old, and very fast. The good thing is that it's over before you even think it is. It just keep going on and on until you are so frustrated. Overall, the design has major holes and is quite uninspiring. |
| Scores |
| Sound 4.9 |
| Control 5.5 |
| Graphics 6.3 |
| Replay 5.8 |
| Design 4.2 |
| 5.3 |
| Final Words This is easily the worst Gamecube game that I have ever played. This game scored much lower than I expected. I mean there really isn't anything redeeming about this game, except that when you beat it, you will realize you never have to play it again. And I will admit that this game has some moments, which means it's not in the poor or terrible zone. This game is definitely mediocre at best. |
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