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Good for the Scooby loving little-gamers

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 35 / 35
Date: April 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My son is 4 years old - and I had bought him the first Scooby Doo game (Night of 100 Frights) thinking that it would be great to start him off. That game is, frankly, way too hard for kids his age (some of the levels were nearly impossible for me to get past). I wasn't sure when I bought this one, if I was just going to be subjecting us to more frustration- but he saw the commercials and desperately wanted it.
My first impressions are that it is MUCH easier to navigate- as there are actually some hints as you go along helping you accomplish tasks to move forward. In this game, Scooby and Shaggy travel around together- and you can switch between whether you want Scooby leading the way or Shaggy. And, this time around, the goal isn't to eat all the Scooby Snacks along the way- you have to find clues and accomplish tasks to move through each location. There are helpful little animated scenes that play at certain points- and if you walk away from the game for more than a few minutes, Shaggy droops over and starts snoring loudly. It's cute.
We are still just beginning to learn how to play this game- and are not hardcore gamers by any stretch- so I can't give technical features of the game. I would say the graphics are good- pretty true to the cartoon, and the music is not terribly thrilling, but definitely in keeping with creeping along in spooky places.
I would reccomend Mystery Mayhem for game players in the 4-10 age range - or so.
Hope this helps!

Only for Die Hard Scooby Fans - a Mom's Review

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay, put in the disc; watch the re-vamped 3-D classic Scooby intro while your kids dance around. Now turn your x-box back off -- nothing good will come of actually *playing* this game.

Really. If your kids are good enough gamers to successfully play this game, they're going to find it repetitive, confusing, and stupid. If they're too young or unskilled to successfully navigate a mine cart through about ten successive rounds of 'turn left!', 'turn right!', 'jump that boulder you can't actually see!', 'ooh, you missed -- start over again at the beginning!' you're either going to find yourself playing the blasted thing for them or hiding it when they're not looking. As a not-so-hot-gamer, it took me about an hour to get through the aforementioned mine cart level -- I vote for hiding the game.

Which is really my biggest complaint: this game is just too hard for young kids. Had they included an actual 'easy' level your average five year old was capable of finishing, it wouldn't be so awful. As it is, with the lack of save points, even fewer save slots (why!?), and scooby-snacks (necessary for restoring health) that don't regenerate, you're going to find yourself playing certain pointless and frustrating sections of the game over, and over, and OVER again, until you finally get it perfect.

And as I can vouch, my 10, 8, and 5 year old Scooby-Doo lovin' gamers handed me the controls over and over again. (Did I mention the importance of hiding the game *well*?) And by the time I finished whatever stupid thing they were stuck on, *none* of us cared anymore. Total target market failure, imho.

But what about the plot, you wonder? While you *can* collect clues and take them to Velma (good luck on finding all of them, btw) your characters are so busy being pushed on fetch quests, monster hunts, or mini-games that the mysteries serve only to begin and end each level. Controls? Mushy. Sound and picture are the only things I can even *begin* to recommend.

Sadly, this is yet another francise game that *could* have been fun -- the concept is okay. Too bad they couldn't actually build a game worth playing.

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