Scooby-Doo Gets a Cube | Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights

It seems like whenever spooky season rolls around, you see the same kinds of games get talked about: Castlevania, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and sometimes Luigi’s Mansion. While these are all fantastic series worth delving into, it feels a bit rote sometimes. So I decided to go with something new: Scooby-Doo!

Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights is not the first licensed game starring the misshapen Great Dane and his stoner friends, nor would it be the last, but it is arguably one of the better licensed games ever made. Certainly one of the best of the 6th generation.

The game itself takes place as a self contained story, but it's vaguely set in the “What’s New Scooby-Doo” era that saw a major return to form for the franchise. Despite being a nearly constant presence on Saturday morning TV, Scooby-Doo had fallen from its heyday in the late 60s and 70s. The introduction of Scrappy Doo, which is poked fun of in the live action movie, saw a dramatic decline in the show’s ratings.

This led to the outright cancellation of Scooby-Doo in the 1990s, before a series of direct to video movies in the late 90s reignited popularity in the series. Crucially, the movies brought back the main cast and were a bit more adult themed than even the original run (the monsters were all real for example). This newfound popularity produced a new TV show, two live action movies, and several video games in the 2000s.

Which brings us to the topic at hand: Night of 100 Frights fits in very well with this Mystery Inc. renaissance. The game’s plot is classic Scooby-Doo: the gang gets invited to stay at a friend’s uncle’s mansion. Only it turns out the uncle has gone missing. What’s worse, the mansion is haunted with the ghosts of the gang’s past (mainly villains from the first few seasons of the show). Everyone is quickly split up, and it’s up to our cowardly friend Scooby to save the day.

What sets this title apart is two things: it is a straight up 3D Metroidvania made when developers were struggling to transition the genre into the next dimension, and Don Knotts’ voice as the spooky groundskeeper. I have no idea how they landed him for this role but he is a recurring character in the show too!

The game contains 3 large overworlds: the mansion, a fishing village, and a hedge maze. Scooby can only go so far in exploring each area before he is hard-locked until he can find a Rube Goldberg-type weapon or item to advance. The worlds are also littered with Easter eggs like “monster tokens” which you can collect in a gallery that gives you information on each villain. This requires quite a bit of backtracking, so you will find yourself exploring every nook and cranny for that last collectible. The world is not truly open in the sense that the overworlds are divided into pretty linear levels, but for 2001 these guys were onto something. I found a lot of joy as a kid finally unlocking that one area that had eluded me for hours or even days. The soundtrack is also bangin’, with several remixes of famous songs from the series.

If you’re looking for a game that strikes the right balance of comedy, scares, and solid platforming, this is your game for Halloween. I highly recommend everyone emulate it at some point in their life. It’s an extremely solid title that has fallen under the radar over time due to being a licensed game. For my money it’s one of the best Metroidvanias of the generation. Plus, you learn a thing or two about life, like splitting up from your cock-blocking friends for some alone time with your girl. Good job, Fred!