Scooby-Doo! Mystery of The Fun Park Phantom

Overview

Scooby-dooby-doo, where are you? Time to relive those Saturday morning cartoons memories as Scooby Doo comes to life on your PC. Fred, Shaggy, Daphne, Velma, and of course Scooby himself are back together to solve the mystery of "The Fun Park Phantom" and it’s up to you to help them out. George and Betty Gob are being forced to shut down their amusement park because the phantom keeps scaring away the customers, so grab your magnifying glass and let’s go find some clues and trap pieces to catch the phantom.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

The game starts off with an opening movie that sets up the game and it’s done in the 70’s cartoon style so it looks just like the show. The main object is to wander around an amusement park that is broken down into nine different sections, similar to the way that Disneyland is laid out. As you walk to various parts of the park you must look closely for clues, which are hidden all over. As you gain more clues you will start to figure out who the phantom might be among the six suspects in the game.

When you start playing the game you have a choice of who you want to be, whether it be Fred, Velma, Daphne or Shaggy. You can then set up the game to have computer opponents playing against your character or you can go up against a friend over the internet via Microsoft's Gaming Zone (a feature I never had the chance to try). Unfortunately, you can’t be Scooby -- he is there to help out all the characters but you better have some Scooby Snacks if you want his assistance, which can be found throughout the game.

Once you think you know who the phantom is you then have to wander the Amusement Park again to collect four trap pieces that will be used to trap the villain. Remember though that will you need Scooby’s help catching the phantom so you had better reserve some of those Scooby Snacks.

Graphics

Overall I found the main game screen to be way too dark. I know the designers were trying to get that spooky feeling across but it would have been nice to be able to see the amusement park better. Other than that the graphics fit nicely with the game because they look just like the classic cartoon does -- they've definitely achieved that Saturday morning feel. I also noticed the colors used in the game were consistent with the colors used in the cartoon, which also added to the overall atmosphere of the game.

Audio

I really wanted to like the audio, really I did, but can you say repetitive! After thirty minutes of gameplay I was sick to death of the same statements over and over from my character (or the computer's character for that matter). The single best part of the audio comes in the opening of the game, when they play the theme song from the show.

System Requirements

Minimum: Pentium 166 MHz, Win 95/98, 32MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM, DirectX 6.0, DirectX compatible Sound card, 45MB Hard Disk space, DirectX compatible video card with 2MB VRAM, and a 28.8kbs modem (and Internet access) for Internet play.

Bottom Line

If you’re a parent looking for a fun game for your child and want to relive your past then this game is for you. Scooby-Doo get two thumbs up for nostalgia alone, plus another big thumbs up for the music. But after that you will find yourself tiring of the game quickly, especially with the repetitive comments from the characters. The game also has a Multiplayer option, which for the life of me I can’t understand. The only people I see playing this game online are really little kids, because adults would get bored too quickly. On that note gentle reader we will give Scooby-Doo a score of 55/100, but if I had to score the game for children alone then the game gets a score of 73/100.