Scooby Doo! - Classic Creep Capers was one of the first ever N64 games I have played. I haven't got far enough in the game back then due to frustration, but 10+ years later, I have beaten the game and suppose now is time for a detailed review:
Scooby Doo! CCC is a game starring one of Hanna Barbera's top icons Scooby Doo, developed by Terraglyph Interactive Studios, and published byScooby Doo! - Classic Creep Capers was one of the first ever N64 games I have played. I haven't got far enough in the game back then due to frustration, but 10+ years later, I have beaten the game and suppose now is time for a detailed review:
Scooby Doo! CCC is a game starring one of Hanna Barbera's top icons Scooby Doo, developed by Terraglyph Interactive Studios, and published by THQ. The game has several episodes featuring monsters and foes from classic Scooby Doo! episodes, such as the Black Knight, Snow Ghost, and the Witch Doctor. The game is quick and requires you to solve puzzles and gather enough items for the gang as clues and trap elements to halt the monster and unmask him.
So let's move on to Gameplay: You control Shaggy who is followed by Scooby Doo and must find items within the area while avoiding suspicious entities that can scare Shaggy and Scooby. But gameplay is actually pretty blurry. The whole time, a static camera is pointed somewhere within the map, and when you move out of its sight, the camera jumps to another position in your new area at a new angle. This can be VERY problematic at many points of the game...
First off, when the camera changes position, you still move but every turn you make on the control stick is RELATIVE to Shaggy's current angle he's moving at. It resets whenever you stand still. And this can be really annoying when being chased against monsters or dodging obstacles.
Secondly, having a camera pointed in random areas of maze sections of the map is incredibly confusing. The game has simple mazes, but the camera makes it 20 times harder. I even missed a few crucial items which I spent a half hour searching for, only to look up a walkthrough to know where they are, and they were in maze segments. The camera is pretty much the main reason why this game has mixed reviews.
Moving on, when you are trying to avoid obstacles that are dangerous and horrifying, shaggy loses a chunk of a meter below a picture of his head, which is displayed on the top-left corner. I like to call this the "Amnesia Sanity Meter" because it reminds me of Amnesia The Dark Descent how you need to take care of your sanity. When the meter runs out, you reset at a specific point of the episode. But there are Scooby Snacks lying around the map and you can pick them up to restore the meter, as well as a "Kitchen" room in each level where you can get food.
However, there are many ridiculous moments when trying to negotiate obstacle zones. Firstly, there are a few things that don't even look scary, yet Shaggy is a **** to them. Like moving sawmill logs and clockwork gears. But perhaps my most WTF moment in the game is at the start of the third episode with the Witch Doctor where you enter a lounge and there are moving wooden cutouts with a door on the other side. With my sanity meter dangerously low, thinking that area was harmless, Shaggy got scared and I started over. OK REALLY? Not to mention the hitboxes on many hazards are pretty bad. And combining this with the camera, the moment it switches or if I can't see it, I would get scared out of nowhere. It's almost impossible to get past certain areas without getting scared once.
So let's cut the crap and explain a few admirable points to the game. First off, I like it a slight bit mainly because it was part of my Childhood which came with a whole N64 during one Christmas day. I was pretty excited, and I was happy to be playing again long later. The story and themes emulate the actual TV show to a T, and I love the nostalgia coming from that.
To conclude, the game is really choppy with gameplay and the main reason is the camera that ruins it for many of us. I only played it again recently just to see what the rest of the game was like. Oh and by the way, if I remember correctly, the game is controller pak powered and requires saving on there. But you probably won't need it as the game is quick. I'm really wishing the game was longer as I cleared it all in one afternoon. I don't really recommend this game, just another poor N64 title in the vast bunch.
STORY - 6/10
PRESENTATION - 7/10
GAMEPLAY - 4/10
AMAZON.COM VALUE - 4/10
OVERALL - 5/10… Expand
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