GameCube

Scooby Doo!: Mystery Mayhem

If you're a huge Scooby fan, you'll want this in your collection. Otherwise, if you've got kidlets at home, give this one a rental before shelling out 40 bones. You've always got the option of the 20 dollar, slightly superior Night of 100 Frights.

Aside from a few personal problems with the style of this game, I really have very few complaints about it. Any Scooby-Doo fan would do well to at least rent this game, as would all the fans of Luigi's Mansion who are clamoring for a sequel.

It's a quirky twist and makes for an okay, if lightweight, action game. It doesn't look all that spectacular and the action does get samey, but it's by far the coolest Scooby game yet. That's not saying a lot though...

I enjoyed playing Scooby-Doo: Mystery Mayhem for the first thirty minutes or so, but my enjoyment quickly turned into boredom as I restarted at a certain save point over and over again, due to my "scare" power meter running out every time a ghost ran over me after escaping from my attempted Tome catching. The mini-games were fun enough, but in and of themselves weren't enough to raise this game from the crowd.

From the opening of the game with the original theme song to the voices, the mood and humor of Scooby-Doo is captured pretty well here. It is, however, a game that doesn’t know its audience. It is too hard for kids, but too slow and repetitive for adults. Still, it’s gotta be better than seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze try to look and sound like Fred and Daphne on the big screen.

There are all of five levels in Mystery Mayhem, which can be breezed through in an afternoon, and it's hard to imagine wanting to play through the game multiple times. Ardent adult Scooby-Doo fans would probably have their nostalgia best served by some Scooby-Doo DVDs, which are prominently advertised in the back of the game's manual, along with Scooby-Doo action figures and Scooby-Doo cereal. Parents whose kids have Scooby-Doo hot on the brain from the movie can safely rent this one, or not, without worry of missing much.

Mystery Mayhem offers little reward and challenge is non-existent. Scooby-Doo is another victim of dumbing down games for kids. Just because it's for a younger audience doesn't mean you have to take away all control and make the game incredibly boring, easy, and repetitive. Scooby-Doo Mystery Mayhem is suitable as a rental for young kids or avid fans of the series, but will offer little enjoyment to anyone else.

The problem with this game isn't the same one that most cartoon-licensed product struggle with. Instead of stripping away all that is witty and/or interesting about the source material, this Scooby Doo game is everything that an episode is: by the numbers mystery solving, wacky locations, and even a laugh track. The big problem is that the license just isn't great source material for a game too bland from most players' tastes.

Avec un gameplay d'une fadeur extrême (oui je sais que ça peut sembler paradoxal comme idée mais je fais ce que je veux) et un humour qui non seulement tombe à plat mais finit même par exaspérer, ce nouveau Scooby-Doo n'a pas grand-chose pour lui. Vu son petit prix, on y pensera éventuellement pour de jeunes joueurs pas trop difficiles. Mais bon, c'est pas parce qu'on est petit qu'on peut jouer comme les grands.

Un jeu grand public très classique, assez répétitif mais visuellement pas trop mal fichu, qui fera certainement mouche auprès des très jeunes joueurs auxquels il est destiné.

Scooby-Doobie-Doo, where are you? In a crappy video game, that's where. Honestly, I just don't know where to start with this title, as it lacks of any compelling features make it a bit difficult to write about.