Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (PlayStation)

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Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (PlayStation)

"I'm Super Shag!"

— Shaggy
Genre(s): Action-adventure
Platform(s): PlayStation
Release Date: NA: October 4, 2001
EU: December 7, 2001
Developer(s): Art Co., Ltd
Publisher(s): THQ
Country: Japan
Series: Scooby-Doo

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is an action-adventure video game based on the animated direct-to-video film of the same name. The game was released for the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance in October 2001 in North America, and December 2001 in Europe.

This page covers only the PlayStation version.

Plot

Scooby-Doo and the gang find themselves in cyberspace. A new villain called the Phantom Virus must be stopped. Scooby and Shaggy must go through 21 levels to defeat him and his evil monsters. Along the way they collect Scooby snacks for points, Scooby/Shaggy tags for extra lives, hamburgers for health, and pies for weapons. Fred and Daphne are not present until the end of the game and Velma helps Scooby and Shaggy to overcome obstacles.

Why It SUPER Sucks

  1. Poor grasp of the source material. The only things the movie and the game have in common are the Mystery Gang, The Phantom Virus, and the cyber world that they are in.
  2. Scooby and Shaggy are the only 2 playable characters. Not helping is the fact that both play identically to each other.
  3. At the beginning of level 1, you are given a tutorial for the game every few steps (though this can be avoided if you don't keep pressing the triangle button when the walkie-talkie icon appears on screen).
  4. Poorly intermediated intro cutscene.
  5. During cutscenes, the characters will awkwardly pause for no particular reason (similar to the original Resident Evil; but that at least has the excuse of bad translation from Japanese voice work, this game doesn't have that excuse).
  6. Bad lip-syncing (Remember, this came out 4 years after Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back).
  7. Poor enemy AI with predictable patterns and the enemies themselves are easy to defeat since you can kill them at a distance with pies.
  8. Sound recycling.
  9. The controls are sluggish as Shaggy and Scooby feel slow. This slowness is especially bad when trying to butt slam on the enemies, which can lead to you getting cheaply hit. The same thing with pie throwing; aiming itself is sluggish and you can't move while aiming, which, again, leads to cheap hits.
  10. If that wasn't enough, getting hit by an enemy causes knockback, which, of course, can lead to cheap deaths.
  11. Both the gameplay and the level design are a rip-off of Crash Bandicoot (especially Warped). And a rather poor one at that:
    • Both games' hubs are a circular area with themed levels around and a pad to stand on to access said levels with a female character next to the save/load data machine.
    • Both games have a linear stage-by-stage level design.
    • Both feature a level where you have to run away from a monster.
    • Both have on rails levels which you cannot stop on a vehicle of some kind.
    • Both have a boss fight against a big beast creature in a Roman Colosseum which sends its minions after you after taking a hit.
    • Both have a bridge-like area.
  12. Very broken game design, which can sometimes cause you to cheat death.
  13. Bland and uncreative level design. For example, in level 2 of The Arctic Circle, there is an area in the sled section where you go through a linear bridge with a bunch of penguins going by you which can be rather difficult for first-time players, once again, due to the poor controls.
  14. The levels go on for way too long, which is abhorrent since nothing interesting or unique happens in the majority of the levels.
  15. While there are things to collect in each stage, there is no 100% completion bonus to speak of.
  16. No in-game or hub world secrets.
  17. Boring, bland, and forgettable music (with the exception of the Scooby-Doo theme song).
  18. Poorly designed boss battles, all of them take three hits to defeat and have poorly designed AI and fights:
    • The Samurai boss is rather easy for first-time players, and the game does tell you when to attack him, but the second and third time it doesn't, which can confuse the player, and due to the sluggish controls, it will often lead to him getting free hits.
    • The Lion boss is a rip-off of the Tiny Tiger boss from Crash Bandicoot: Warped, and it even has a cheap attack where the enemies will throw their spears at you after defeating it.
    • The boss fight with the Phantom Virus on a Polar Bear in The Arctic Circle boss, has obnoxious ice physics.
    • The T-Rex boss is too easy, as all you have to do is stand still and the falling rocks will not hit you.
    • The Funland Robot is alright, but it can be disorienting with the floor moving all the time.
    • Egypt's boss, the Phantom Virus on a Camel, is the second-worst boss in the game, as all you do is knock the mummies that he sends at you off the arena before getting a chance to hit him, rinse and repeat.
    • The final boss against the Phantom Virus himself is, hands-down, the worst boss in the entire game, as he moves way too fast to dodge, especially with the sluggish controls.
    • Every time when Scooby or Shaggy fail during the battles, all boss enemies will have their health restored, forcing you to redo the whole boss all over again!
  19. Shaggy says "I'm Super Shag!", which is inappropriate in Britain since 'shag' is British slang for 'sex'.
  20. Depending on your view, the game doesn't feature all the levels from the movie (moon level, ocean level, backyard level, and medieval level).
  21. Poor collision detection, as either Scooby or Shaggy can easily clip through surfaces in some levels at a few points in the game, and the way the characters move doesn't match up with the pacing of each level you proceed, which can lead to some occasional bugs happening here or there at times throughout the game and they can even cause some cheap deaths to happen at times too for that matter, making some of the levels frustrating to traverse thanks to the bad level programming.
  22. Bad 3D polygonal graphics that look worse than the original Crash Bandicoot from 1996, with bland textures, awful character models, washed-out colours and environments, awful sprite work and a terrible art style that looks worse than the movie's animation as a whole.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. As always, the Scooby-Doo theme song is fun and catchy to listen to.
  2. The voice acting is well done (mainly it's the original cast from the movie).
  3. The Phantom Virus is actually more of a legitimate threat here than he was in the movie (best of all, he doesn't make any baseball puns anywhere in the game).
  4. The Funland Robot is the only boss fight that's actually decent.
  5. Although its inappropriate "I'm Super Shag" is unintentionally hilarious.

Videos

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