SCOOBY-DOO AND THE CYBER CHASE (PS)
Any gamer worth their salt knows that movie tie-ins usually suck. They’re rushed products made to make a quick buck, usually by capitalising on a big-budget film release, and don’t tend to equate to much fun. But what’s worse than a movie tie-in? A game created to tie-in with a straight-to-DVD release, which is the sad fate of Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase. But even taking into account these undesirable circumstances, Art has created a game which isn’t worth anyone’s time or money.
The player assumes the role of Shaggy and Scooby, with the rest of the gang appearing in the story, but not in playable roles. Warped into Cyberspace, the menacing Phantom Virus is causing havoc, and it’s up to Scooby and the gang to stop him by traversing the game’s levels and finding the Scooby Snax. It features some of the locations from the animated feature, but the plot doesn’t really tie in with the movie at all, and it’s pretty bare, containing just two major cut-scenes.
Cyber Chase takes place over seven key levels, from ‘classic’ Japan to a Prehistoric Jungle. The game dictates which character you play as, but that doesn’t really matter because they’re both basically identical, but for visual differences. The first two areas in a Level are bog-standard platforming sections, where you travel through jumps all while dealing with enemies along the way. It contains a static camera, and is a basic copycat of Crash Bandicoot. Even the hub world is strikingly similar to the ones contained in Naughty Dog’s series. Through these levels, you can collect Scooby Snax to generate lives, Hamburgers to regenerate health and Pies to throw at enemies. The last area contains a boss fight. The game has a very linear structure, meaning there’s little in terms of diversity and the game starts to become stale fairly quickly. The game tries to shake things up with a couple of vehicle sections, but these are clunky and breezy.
Crash Bandicoot-inspired levels see Shaggy and Scooby battling through some torrid platforming
It isn’t obvious how bad Cyber Chase is judging from the first level, but flaws already start to creep up. The game is a complete cake-walk, as enemies stand static until you approach them. You collect pies to throw at them, or you can do a jump and bash move if you lack pies, but more often than not you can simply run past without them even attempting to pursue. The game throws lives at you like candy, either in the form of Coins or as you collect Scooby treats, 100 of which add a life. The more you collect quickly, a high multiplier builds meaning the player is given even more assistance. The game just loves to hand-hold you, as frequent radio messages pop up when new enemies or obstacles appear. Every time you listen, however, the game pauses, which slows the pace of the game to a crawl.
Things go even more downhill once you enter Level 2 however. The introduction of moving platforms and more enemies reveals the game’s lacklustre controls and spotty jumping. Sometimes it just will not respond to your commands, meaning you walk off the edge instead of jumping, or an enemy gets a cheap shot at you because your pie throw doesn’t work. And even when the game decides to register your actions, characters will constantly slip off the edges of a platforms, causing frustrating deaths. Another of the game’s many low points is its terrible boss fights. Literally, every single encounter comes down to dodging attacks and waiting until the game gives a window of opportunity to throw a pie. You can tell it’s repetitive, as Velma repeatedly tells you “three pies should do the trick!”, and by the third boss you can tell this is a constant fixture.
Cyber Chase also has zero replay value. Levels usually take 10 minutes apiece, and the whole game should be easy to breeze through in around two hours, which is just plain awful. Not to mention, there is no reason whatsoever to replay it. The game contains a scoring system that ranks you on how many of the items you pick up, as well as a bonus if you complete the level without losing a life, but with no rewards for gaining high scores and the lack of an overall ranking, this hardly encourages replay value. The lack of difficulty, as well as the lack of co-op considering the two playable characters, is also pretty odd, but hardly surprising considering how rushed this game is.
Things go even more downhill once you enter Level 2 however. The introduction of moving platforms and more enemies reveals the game’s lacklustre controls and spotty jumping. Sometimes it just will not respond to your commands, meaning you walk off the edge instead of jumping, or an enemy gets a cheap shot at you because your pie throw doesn’t work. And even when the game decides to register your actions, characters will constantly slip off the edges of a platforms, causing frustrating deaths. Another of the game’s many low points is its terrible boss fights. Literally, every single encounter comes down to dodging attacks and waiting until the game gives a window of opportunity to throw a pie. You can tell it’s repetitive, as Velma repeatedly tells you “three pies should do the trick!”, and by the third boss you can tell this is a constant fixture.
Cyber Chase also has zero replay value. Levels usually take 10 minutes apiece, and the whole game should be easy to breeze through in around two hours, which is just plain awful. Not to mention, there is no reason whatsoever to replay it. The game contains a scoring system that ranks you on how many of the items you pick up, as well as a bonus if you complete the level without losing a life, but with no rewards for gaining high scores and the lack of an overall ranking, this hardly encourages replay value. The lack of difficulty, as well as the lack of co-op considering the two playable characters, is also pretty odd, but hardly surprising considering how rushed this game is.
Cyber Chase isn’t exactly pleasing to the senses, either. Considering its release towards the end of the system’s life, the graphics are pretty lacklustre. There’s a noticeable lack of draw distance, with a black cloud covering much of the level ahead, and with stiff animations and rough texturing on both levels and characters, most will feel the Scooby-Doo style fails to translate. The audio isn’t quite as terrible, but pretty forgettable in its own right. Fitting, but repetitive, music plays while you drag yourself through the game. At least Cyber Chase features the cast of the programme, and they mostly translate well into the game. However, repetitive one-liners every time you pick up items, for example, cause a lot of irritation.
So let it be known, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase does nothing to break the dreaded movie tie-in curse. Like most games made to coincide with a movie release, Cyber Chase is a rushed experience with severely flawed gameplay that zaps the fun out and offers almost no value for money. It doesn’t convey a decent Scooby-Doo experience, with poor graphics neutering the style of the cartoon and repetitive voice-overs that become more annoying than engaging. Even die-hard Scooby fans will find this experience to be a pointless exercise in boredom.
So let it be known, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase does nothing to break the dreaded movie tie-in curse. Like most games made to coincide with a movie release, Cyber Chase is a rushed experience with severely flawed gameplay that zaps the fun out and offers almost no value for money. It doesn’t convey a decent Scooby-Doo experience, with poor graphics neutering the style of the cartoon and repetitive voice-overs that become more annoying than engaging. Even die-hard Scooby fans will find this experience to be a pointless exercise in boredom.