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Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights (PS2/GC, 2002/XB, 2003)

Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights (PS2/GC, 2002/XB, 2003)

Subgenre: 3D Platformer w/ various 2.5D segments, Collectathon (not a problem until the mid-late game (see below); have to collect 3 keys in some rooms to progress), One cart/lawnmower segment (kinda slow but decent variation and it's forgiving), Basic optional stealth


Perspective: TP view w/ automatic camera


Other: Hub area outside the mansion (some partial hub areas inside areas), Light horror theme, You'll sometimes meet Shaggy who helps you progress after being rescued (at one point he'll toss you upwards and can be controlled - you also make him press down a switch for you in the same room, some of these ideas feel underdeveloped however), Can keep playing after the ending, No shop, No HP or AP upgrades

  • Mostly linear structure (manor (first key)->cove (double jump)->haunted hedge maze (helmet)->back to manor etc., can enter mystic playground from the get go (just a short tutorial area though) and the mystic manor almost as quickly (collect some snacks in the hub area), can go to skull cliff or creepy crawlies sub areas after getting the stomp move however the former doesn't lead to finding another traversal ability, need the umbrella to get to the bubble gum shot (get it from the pirate boss) and the bubble gum shot to get to the soap bubbles (cellar part 4))

  • Gain new movement abilities and tools for exploration and progression (springs - double jump (Dragon Buster), helmet - charge through things and into enemies+break boxes and press certain buttons (similar to Sonic or Zelda 3+LA), umbrella - glide jump (Pac-Land, Wonder Boy in Monster Land)+climb upwards winds, smash/stomp - pound enemies and press certain buttons+break through weak floors (Hammerin' Harry), shovel - dig up items at certain spots, soap bubble - encases enemies and lets you use them as temporary platforms (Bubble Bobble/Metroid; bubble gum is used in a similar manner); some just let you move where you couldn't before)

  • Pretty frequent save points and health drops from enemies at first - gets kinda rare after a while

  • Respawn at the beginning of the current sub area if you die with no collection progress lost

  • Basic 2D TD view map (shows which room you're in and the overall world layout but*), No mini-map

  • Warps/teleporters (several per area/level - accessed via the hub area outside the manor from the get go as well as found warp gates in later areas)

  • Puzzle element to some boss fights, Some basic timing and switch puzzles

  • Named rooms/sub areas on the map

  • Some shortcuts back to the hub and between certain sub areas

  • One minor sequence break (high path in hedge maze part 2 by double jumping then using the stomp to reach a little further however you don't gain anything important here, more?). Can do a partial skip in the one way trip area but you'll quickly run into an ability gate (soap?)

  • Some pits and instant death hazards however the game is pretty forgiving in that you just lose additional HP picked up and restart at the beginning of current room

  • One large scale environmental change (lower the water level in on sub area) and some smaller ones (bringing down the giant icicles/stalactites to use as platforms)

  • The game outright tells you what ability or tool you need to reach gated items or paths early on

  • Can't kill larger enemies/monsters until you get the helmet - sadly it trivializes most enemies

Some notable cons:

  • Can get stuck if you enter the lighthouse area via the secret passage under the docks and then use snacks to go back. At the final area (lab) you suddenly hit an 850 snacks gate which leads to some backtracking and collecting of snacks unless you were thorough up until that point

  • Some control/interface issues (no camera control - not great at picking the optimal angle outside of the 2.5D segments and sometimes doesn't keep up when running, jumps are very vertical focused like in Contra, some hit detection issues, etc)

  • *map doesn't show room layouts and you can't place map markers+doesn't mark found points of interest like keys (you'll run into many temporary dead ends that you'll have to memorize or write down and backtrack to later),

  • Various gated paths just lead to monster tokens (some info on monsters from the cartoon in the gallery room) or snacks

  • Sub areas are mostly linear winding "corridors" with some side paths here and there. There are also many arbitrary invisible walls, making exploration often feel limited and discouraging sequence breaking

  • Some tedious elements (some boring backtracking, the manor is a bit drawn out without focusing on exploration or giving you new abilities, kinda tedious platforming in the factory at the docks and parts of the wreck on the deck area, one-way path at the shipwreck - don't jump down at the snack gate, several shortcuts between being one-way seems pointless, etc)

  • Some trial & error

  • Some items are just placed out in the open without a challenge leading up to them or having to explore to find them

  • Pretty repetitive


Video review - Mini-Review (GC)



Influenced by: Probably Spyro series or Banjo 1-2, Mario 64, possibly Jet Force Gemini, SMW, Ape Escape


Influenced: 

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