Scooby Doo

Copyright : Elite Systems Ltd | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

The Mystery Machine arrives at the ruined castle, and the gang climb out, ready to explore. Suddenly, Velma, Shaggy. Daphne and Fred are seized by large hands and a chorus of voices cry out "Our experiments are almost complete. Nothing can stop us now!" Though frightened Scooby decides to look for his friends but soon has the feeling he is not alone. Ghosts and demons of the strangest kind gather on all sides and appear out of doorways, intent to stop him freeing the rest of the gang.

Can you, as Scooby Doo fight your way through the mad scientists henchman to rescue your friends, then seek out their captors? perhaps the trail of Scooby Snax may help you in your search.

Developed by Elite in 1989 and released at the budget price of £2.99 by Encore the Scooby Doo that was so popular to children and adults alike had finally been converted to the home computer, released on the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 it was a hit - but how good is it, I mean - really!?

Graphics

This was the first of many Scooby Doo titles to come out on the Amstrad CPC, even that little puppy thing Scrappy had his own game but it was developed by a totally different software house under the supervision of Hannah Barbera.

The graphics in this game look very much the same on all conversions, the ZX Spectrum was almost identical to the CPC version with only one major difference - the colour of Scooby Doo and the fact that he didn?t blend in with the background. The colours are far from great in this game because very few of them have been used, games from 1984 were more colourful than this one - no lie. Though the colours and comparisons between each version was far from impressive the quality of the characters in the game are very well drawn indeed.

Sound

Sound is pretty good though, you get to hear Scooby punch the ghosts full wack in the face, doors open and shut and you die with some of the strangest sounds possible. Though it could have been made better if Elite had added some music to the game, but it never happened.

Gameplay

Gameplay is pretty naff and only those that like turning things on and off again should have bothered to load this game. All you can do is try not to get hit by the ghosts (not possible, trust me) and punch any you can at every oppurtunity while trying to find your friends. Controls are easy enough but the game is far from being addictive and playable, try it and see. Oh and one last thiing, notice that on the main screen it says "Press Enter To Start" well you can press it for as long as you want and it won?t start, hit the fire button and you might get somewere though.