Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights

For the first time, Mystery Inc. and Warner's most loved talking dog are coming to PlayStation 2 to solve their greatest mystery yet. When a devious mastermind kidnaps Daphne, Velma and Fred, Shaggy and Scooby are the only members of Mystery Inc. left who can save them. Zoinks!
 
Humorous animation and corny dialogue aside, Night of 100 Frights is very much a linear platform game, a la Crash Bandicoot. The game's structure is very similar to Nintendo's Super Mario 64, featuring a castle which acts as hub to other areas of the game. There are twelve main levels in all, each divided into several substages, bustling with hundreds of Scooby Snacks and other canine collectibles.
 
Scooby Snacks are often the key to unlocking further stages in the game and gaining new abilities. With your new-found skills intact, players must then revisit previously inaccessible areas of older stages to collect extra bonuses. After many visits to the game over screen, you will eventually learn to predict where your evil nemesis has planted booby traps, helping you to avoid them in future. Scooby must also enlist the help of Shaggy on occasion to avoid unwanted attention from familiar monsters such as werewolves, zombies, ghosts and witches.
 
The Night of 100 Frights also boasts authentic voiceovers from the cast of the TV series, making some of the game's lengthier cut scenes far more enjoyable and entertaining. As a footnote,one of the best features of Scooby's PlayStation 2 debut is the absence of Scrappy Doo. You hate him, we hate him, even Warner Brothers hate him.
 
So the creators of the game have done the decent thing and left him out of it. Ultimately, The Night of 100 Frights is a great big platforming collectathon that excludes the world's most detested cartoon puppy, and instead gives the majority of its screentime to the bedraggled dope that is Shaggy and the hound with a constant case of the munchies. Yay!