Genesis

Scooby-Doo Mystery

The puzzles aren't challenging, but the game makes up for that by giving you two complete adventures. My only wish is that they'd used a battery backup instead of the fifty-character passwords. No big whoop.

This was a great idea, but I think the platform they chose cost it a lot of prestige. I loved the old Scooby mysteries and the game does a very good job of emulating the style that made the cartoon famous. The problem comes in the form of weak-looking graphics, limited sounds and quite frankly, quests that are too short. Besides the token hard puzzle, each of the two mysteries are rather easy and don't have any replay value. I like the game, but I just wish it was a CD!

If you plan on getting ahold of Scooby-Doo Mystery, you should hurry. Complete copies are starting to get really expensive, and it'd be a shame to miss out on such a great game. It's not all that long and lacks decent sound, but the visuals and great gameplay more than make up for these shortcomings. I would have liked a larger cart with more quests, and I simply cannot fathom how a 1995 release still uses mammoth passwords for continuing (seriously, Scooby's is a good fifty characters long!), but what can you do? Unless you want to tackle the collect-a-thon platformers of the current generation, Mystery remains a refreshing use of a classic license. Not to be missed.

If you have the patience to wade through the slow interface, there are puzzle elements, humor and surprise endings that reward you, but the amount you get isn't worth the amount of pain this game causes.

If you're a fan of the series, this is a nice rental down memory lane. If not, this is a "Scooby Don't".