Scooby Doo on Zombie Island

Scooby-Doo has had an…interesting lifespan. It started out strong in 1969 with Scooby Doo, Where are you? and continued with through the 80s with a string of shows that got progressively worse as it went along. Then, in 1998, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island came along. And thanks to it being absolutely awesome, the Scooby Doo franchise was revived. The movie takes place several years after the Mystery Inc. gang have gone their separate ways. Now a popular TV show host, Daphne, and her cameraman, Fred, are suddenly feeling nostalgic. They gather their scattered pals, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo, and set forth on a roadtrip for a new segment in Daphne’s show. They’re out to find real ghosts. Their journey eventually leads them to New Orleans, where they learn of a mysterious haunted house on secluded Moon Scar Island. The gang investigates the island and discover many strange happenings. Then zombies burst out of the ground...

The movie takes the franchise in a noticeably darker direction than previous Scooby cartoons. Indeed, this movie seems to have aged with the audience, if you can believe that. The zombies are gruesome and, well, actually kind of scary for something supposedly aimed at little kids. The origin behind the zombies is particularly dark and violent, involving lots of brutal deaths (all shown off-screen, of course). Future Scooby Doo animated movies would “lighten up”, and as such, this remains the darkest and most violent story in Scooby Doo history and, in my personal opinion, the greatest thing the series has ever produced. Even if you never liked Scooby Doo, I think you’d be pretty pleased with this movie. It’s very different from most Scooby material before and after it and it's worth a look.

Scooby Doo: Night Of 100 Frights (Review)

This game was released back in 2002 as part of Warner Bros' huge promotion for the live action Scooby Doo film that was coming at the time. Like most licenced games, Night of 100 Frights is a fairly mediocre game. The one thing I think is really noteworthy about the game is the presentation. The game flawlessly recreates the look and feel of the original Scooby Doo cartoon, right down to the somewhat annoying laugh track, and the chase songs played during boss battles. The storyline of the game could actually pass as an extended episode of the show. The Mastermind (voiced by Tim Curry) is easily one of my favorite Scooby villains, which isn't saying much since most Scooby villains aren't that memorable.

The gameplay features the usual moving platforms, bottomless pits, thin ledges and predictable boss battles that are well worn conventions in the platform genre. But if you are a platformer fan you can put up with these things. Night Of 100 Frights is not a frustrating game. Considering you have absolutely no control over the camera, it deals remarkably well with the tight corridors and winding roads that you must traverse, and the controls are excellent. The content may be average but it is suitably polished and although it has it's challenging sections it never gets frustrating.


Finishing the game will only take about 5-7 hours if you're only want to get pass the final boss, but trying to find all the extra Scooby snacks and the pretty cool monster tokens (an item that makes a fully polygonal figure of one of the show's classic enemies appear in the museum, along with a capsule detailing the episode it appeared in) will add a few more hours. The game's less than 20 bucks now so if you're a Scooby Doo fan, it's well worth the purchase.