Platform: PlayStation

Developer: Art Co., Ltd

Publisher: THQ

Release Date: October 4th, 2001

Genre: Action / Adventure

Nerd Rating: 4 out of 10!

In celebration of October and upcoming Halloween, I decided to re-visit one of my favorite childhood “horror” franchises, Scooby-Doo, specifically, the PlayStation title Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase! I remember playing this a little as a child and enjoying it, but I haven’t played this game nor thought about it for quite a few years until now.

I immediately noticed the extremely sub-par graphics, even for its time. I’m a firm believer that graphics do not make or break a game, but in this case, the graphics are so terrible that they actually affect gameplay due to pixel breakup and the clunky camera angles. During the opening cutscene with the entire Scooby gang, the NPC’s mouths are in no way connected to their dialogue and it makes for extremely awkward visuals. I can’t even say any part of the graphics are decent as even the character movement looks unnatural. Performance wise, the game is slow at times (for no apparent reason, either), and while easy to learn, the controls are frustrating at best.

Personally, I do not find the gameplay of Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase very fun. The game is extremely linear, and almost feels on-rails at times due to the fact that you are always going down a narrow corridor.  The entirety of the game consists of jumping over holes, avoiding enemy attacks, and throwing pie at enemies which, needless to say, gets repetitive after the first few levels. You are sure to never get stuck in the game because the NPCs call you every few steps to give you another tip, and yes, it is as annoying as it sounds (luckily you can ignore them).

One of the biggest downfalls of Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is the level of difficulty. When games are difficult it’s not generally a bad thing, but in this case, it doesn’t seem intentional thus making it an issue. As I previously stated, the graphics do slight harm to the gameplay, but even worse than that is the unforgiving precise platforming that has no business being in this title. Even the first boss feels slightly overpowered as he can easily kill you with no warning if you aren’t prepared for his next attack.

The story of Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is a spin-off from the movie of the same name, and it is very basic much like other gameplay-focused titles (Super Mario Bros.). However, the one decent part is that the game doesn’t take itself seriously and is self-aware, leaving the cast to crack some decent jokes towards the player or at themselves even.

While nothing special, the audio is perhaps the game’s biggest redeeming quality due to having the original voice cast of Scooby-Doo, at least the cast from when I watched the show as a child. The music is decent, though simple. The best song in the entire game is probably the Scooby-Doo theme song.

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase was marketed towards children who enjoy the series, but I wouldn’t recommend it to even the most seasoned of Scooby-Doo fans. The repetitive gameplay and unfair platforming leaves very little to enjoy and will most likely have you extremely pissed off (possibly in front of the kid you probably bought this for). Besides having some comic relief and the original voice acting from the television series, this title truly has no redeeming factors to make it worth picking up. If you feel the urge to play this game, I would suggest finding it at a relatively cheap price or finding a collector friend to rent it from. It would take a whole box of scooby snacks for the mystery machine gang to solve the mystery of why this game is so terrible.