Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights

Help Scooby-Doo solve the mystery of who kidnapped the Mystery, Inc. Gang!

NA release: 12th September 2002
EU release: 22nd November 2002
JP release: N/A
Developer: Heavy Iron Studios
Publisher: THQ
NGC Magazine Score: 36%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

From the NGC review and how most licensed tie-in games were at the game, I really wasn’t expecting much from Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, presuming it was going to just be a run-of-the mill 3D platformer with little care or attention put to it. However, Heavy Iron clearly put a lot of effort into this and I had a genuinely good time with it. It starts out with an inventor going missing and the gang investigating. The gang gets separated and Scooby encounters The Mastermind (played by Tim Curry), who has brought back classic villains. The voice work is spot-on, with the gang being voiced by the voice actors from the current show.

The game is a 3D platformer, but built like a 2D platformer with off-shooting paths. While some games of this type have issues with positioning with this style of gameplay, I never had any issues with this one, the camera always moved to useful positions so I never unfairly fell to my death. To start with, Scooby has a poor jump and an ineffective attack, and you’ll shortly notice barriers like spider webs, black goo and objects too far away to jump to. This isn’t just a platformer, it’s a metroidvania.

This means you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled and take note of anything you can’t do the first time through a portion of the map. You’ll unlock multiple kinds of jumps and attacks as you progress, making movement more fluid as well as unlocking areas. You’ll also need to scour the areas to find thousands and thousands of Scooby Snacks to get past locked doors, which isn’t as daunting as it sounds as the game has an inviting sense of getting everything you can – see a shiny object to pick up and you want to get it.

My biggest complaint is that the world could have done with a little bit more colour, everything is rather grey, and it all needed to be a bit more vibrant. It’s still a joy to navigate the levels, and there’s some great music and sound effects to lighten the mood slightly. This was a big surprise for me, as I really enjoyed my time with this game.

Fun

This ‘platforming’ business had already been done better a hundred times over in about a hundred different ways. Apparently, there are some that will hold your interest for more than a few days, while being what some people call ‘enjoyable’.
NGC Magazine #75

Remake or remaster?

A remaster with a splash of colour and a more cel-shaded look would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights.