The two games are essentially identical with one difference. The console version has one additional dimension. The story is the same, the controls are basically the same, both game are essentially platform jumpers and Scooby-Doo gets the same costumes and abilities. The funny thing is, for the capabilities of the system, the GBA version is the better game.

The story breaks down like this. The gang for some undisclosed reason is visiting Fred’s cousin Jed at his special effects company Monstrous Fright & Magic (not like anything mysterious is going on there). When they get there, however, Jed is nowhere to be found. His partner is pissed because he thinks Jed ran off with the formula to the company’s trade secret Mubber. It’s now your job to clear his name and unravel the mystery. It couldn’t possibly get more Scooby-Doo than that.

You may be wondering what exactly Mubber is. It’s three things really. First, it’s the amazing invention that lets Monstrous Fright & Magic create the most realistic monsters ever created. Second, it’s a way to let Scooby-Doo run through a level punching, kicking and slamming his way through droves of enemies without upsetting any parents. After all, they’re just animatronics covered in hyper-realistic goop. Third, it’s what Scooby uses to make his various costumes giving abilities far beyond that of a scared-y dog. Well, he doesn’t make them so much as he uses Mubber machines and picks one of the three available costumes (he is just a dog after all).

Scooby gets three different costumes that give him different abilities. There’s a Kung Fu Master suit that you can use to kick obstacles that are otherwise immovable or perform quick combos. There’s a bat costume you can use to glide for periods of time and float up over fans aimed upward. Last is a Robin Hood costume that comes with a bow and toilet plunger arrows.

The concept of the game is simple. Follow a trail of Scooby snacks through different zones looking for clues. The clues are obvious objects that make a magnifying glass pop up on the screen when you get close to it. You collect these and bring them to Velma for interpretation. On the way, you’ll encounter the kinds of scary monster you might remember from the cartoon. You slide into, jump on, or otherwise dispatch these baddies and puzzle your way through the various levels. It’s actually a pretty standard platformer with the fascia of Scooby-Doo.

The Xbox version of the game is implemented in three dimensions, but it’s not a great implementation. The characters do look like their cartoon counterparts, but the polygons look shoddily crafted in most cases. Shaggy, for example, instead of stubble has what looks like a black spaghetti server sticking out of his chin. It looks like six or seven black triangles were just pasted onto his chin. The other characters don’t have similar deformities, but they all suffer from a lack of antialiasing and in many cases the polygon edges are not closed and you can see tearing in the geometry. The level layouts are low detail yet colorful and cartoony, sometimes to a fault. Several times while playing the game, I felt like it had too much vibrancy and could feel a headache forming.

On the Game Boy Advance, the graphics are two-dimensional and quite a bit better quality. I know this seems backwards, but the fact that there is no translation from two-dimensions to three means the GBA has a truer representation of the original cartoon. There’s no polygon tearing or full screen garish textures. It also felt more “in place” on the Advance’s screen, almost a throwback to the 16-bit consoles. When you add the portability to the equation, the handheld version of the game seems to have much more staying power than the version on the console.

When it comes to the sound though, the Advance version takes second seat to the Xbox for obvious reasons. The sound in the Xbox version is expertly done with voiceovers from the various actors that have replaced the cast from the original television series. It goes far to add to the representation of the cartoon to have voice actors that sound so much like the original cartoon, so no problems here. The Game Boy Advance version obviously limited by storage capacity does not have full dialog in its version. There are sound effects and the occasional “Scooby-dooby-dooo!” but that’s about it. The story is told using text blurbs you have to scroll through and read. Not as nice as full voiceovers, but it’s something we’re all used to on the GBA.

The controls are loose and easy to in both versions. The single exception occurs on the Xbox and can be quite frustrating. The game lacks a setting for inverting the camera rotation. People have different preferences, and for some reason this Xbox title implemented backwards camera control with no way to correct it. Other than that though the games control smoothly.

The one thing I didn’t like about the handheld version was the password system. I understand why they do this, but I hate writing down passwords. Other games for the handheld allow save games so I feel it’s not too much to ask to have the ability to save my game.

There’s incidentally nothing wrong with either game’s implementation, they’re just not very interesting. The story lacks depth, the same way the cartoon did, and when you have such a run-of-the-mill platform game you really need an engaging story. Part of the problem may be the anachronism inherent in the cartoon. It’s a cartoon that was interesting way back in the early eighties and is not as relevant today. It may be that there is a demographic that is appropriate for this game but I can’t think who it would be. Kids today are all over Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon and show little real interest in Scooby-Doo. On the other end of the age scale are the kids (adults now) who grew up with the cartoon. These folks now in their twenties or even thirties have surely developed a more refined taste in their video games that Scooby-Doo just can’t fill.

I hate to conclude on such a sour note, but I just don’t see how this game will have anything to offer any particular audience. Neither game in horrible in any one aspect, but they’re just not games you should feel compelled to own or even rent. If you do happen to be a major fan then you’ll want it because it has the name, but not because that’s about it.