GENRE
	Action-Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	A2M
	PUBLISHER
	THQ
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
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How THQ compiles the resources we'll never know, because when they make a licensed title, they really go all out to make sure that it's the best damn representation available. Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem is certainly no exception. Once the game loads, you know that this will be a faithful recreation of the series, even though it resembles the recently released straight-to-video films. As soon as you recognize the usual facts such as Fred and Daphne hanging out by themselves while Shaggy and Scooby do all the work while Velma heads off to lose her glasses, it's certain that this is a Scooby-Doo game.

With the change from developers Heavy Iron (Night of 100 Frights) and A2M (Scaler), there also comes a change in genre. Whereas the last incarnation was mostly a platformer collect-a-thon, this title is more of an adventure with bits of action thrown in. While fans may not enjoy the fact that it's based more on the newest incarnation of Scooby, at least it isn't based on the live-action sequel, recently released in theaters. If you're looking for that, check out the GBA title. However, Mystery Mayhem is a title that is meant to be in any Scooby-Doo fans' library. It isn't necessarily as fun as Night of 100 Frights, but it's definitely more focused on the content at hand.

visuals

Once the game starts up, you'll immediately recognize that the character models look about the same except for Scooby himself, who looks a little too bug-eyed for anyone's taste. These models look like they were formed from plastic, but they do look cleaner overall, just like in the latest cartoon films.

Most of the environments are taken straight out of the old series, especially the haunted house and the film studio. Others include the Wild West, the Bayou, and a Sci-Fi setting. They're all great and draw their influence straight out of the series. It's great to venture into these areas on your own.

The groovy interface is excellent and conceived well enough to get the job done. There are some flashy visual effects which is mostly due to A2M's experience with the eye-popping visuals found in their unknown platformer Scaler. The shadowing effects are impressive, especially the shadow creatures themselves.

There isn't really anything to complain about here unless you count being less impressive than Crystal Chronicles a complaint.

audio

The audio, much like in the previous installment, is possibly the best thing about the entire game. The campy background music is here which is heavily inspired by the series. Not only that, but the voices sound straight out of the 60's. It definitely helps with the likes of voice acting veterans like Frank Welker and Jennifer Hale (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes).

The sound effects are plucked out of the soundtrack to the series. When Scooby and Shaggy skid to a halt or the laugh track kicks in, you'll be taken back to a point in your childhood you thought you'd never experience again.

gameplay

Mystery Mayhem is almost the way that a Scooby-Doo game should be played -- It's more of an adventure and less of a platformer. However, there are a lot of drawbacks that prevent it from being a better game than Night of 100 Frights. Controlling the characters is a little too loose, making it a little too hard to gather your bearings or suddenly stop when you need to. You can use costumes to get around enemies and other obstacles, but that's been done before. Here it is still used cleverly with a twist of wit. Sneaking around opens up a wide array of gameplay options, but could have been used in more appropariate ways, especially if the AI were defined better. The option of sneaking isn't meaningful at all to the overall gameplay.

Speaking of pressing buttons, there's really only a few that you'll need to use, most notably the "A" button. Since Scooby and Shaggy don't jump unless they really, really need to, you'll have to push that button to make sure they can climb a wall, duck through a narrow passage, climb a ladder, etc. That button is the all-mighty commander of all. This is annoying for two obvious reasons: The continuous animations of them working on what you've just told them to do and the stupidity of not being able to jump. Hey, check out those power-ups on the other side of this wall! Sure wish it weren't two feet tall. Too bad we don't know how to raise our feet off the ground for anything but a four foot tall box.

The game mechanics were going just fine. Sneaking past ghosts and secretly gathering clues is what a good adventure game is all about. The one-button push resolves almost anything, that's perfectly fine. However, once you receive the Tomb of Doom, it all goes downhill from there. After you defeat your first ghost, you'll want to stop the madness right then and there. Unfortunately, it plays an integral part in the gameplay afterwards. Fighting the ghosts is an aspect that certainly might be needed, but could have been used a bit more efficiently. It's great that you can only capture certain ghosts so long as you have their specific pages within the book. There has to be a better way to capture them than by mashing buttons, though. After all, I'm sure that's how the Ghostbusters did it. That's probably why they cancelled the third film. Button mashing has been around for more than twenty years and it's just now starting to get old. It's nice if it's every once and a while, but if it's a basis for any sort of combat system, it just drains what little depth a game has. Button mashing belongs in mini-games, otherwise it's just plain annoying.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

This is definitely a game for Scooby-Doo fans. There's much less action or platforming and it's all about solving the puzzles on your own time. It doesn't necessarily lead you by the nose, so you at least have a chance to solve the mystery by yourself. If it weren't for the mindless button-mashing combat system, it could have very well been an excellent adventure title. Unfortunately, it's only a moderately average action-adventure.

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.

7.5/10