Developer: Terraglyph Studios Publisher: THQ

Released: November 29, 2000 Rated: E 4/10

Fixed camera angles, tank controls, tense chase sequences featuring intimidating and indestructible enemies? There’s only one game we can be talking about: Scooby-Doo; Classic Creep Capers, of course. An item-hunting adventure title where players take control of Shaggy, accompanied by Scooby and the rest of the Mystery, Inc. gang, Classic Creep Capers adopts three beloved episodes from the original Where Are You? series, as well as a fourth episode to tie the previously unrelated stories together.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell if it would be better for Classic Creep Capers to offer a bit more content, another episode or two, perhaps. As it stands, however, players will likely finish Classic Creep Capers in spite of itself — a tedious, clumsy experience that lacks depth in any department, even if it holds some charm for fans of the license. It’s certainly a good framework for what a Scooby-Doo game should be; exploring the scenery of “What a Night for a Knight,” “That’s Snow Ghost,” and “A Tiki Scare is No Fair” through the context of searching for items that make up the clues, trap pieces, and even gags of the episode, all while avoiding the villains in the style of the show’s iconic chase sequences. 

It’s an understandably simple set of mechanics and controls that make up the gameplay, which unfortunately only makes it more frustrating when they barely work, or work in a way that makes you question if Terraglyph was looking for anything beyond just barely functioning to put their name on. With only standard adventure game button functions of “interact,” “cancel,” and “open/close inventory,” there’s only one place to really go wrong, and Classic Creep Capers goes very wrong when it comes to controlling Shaggy. Essentially, this is a game that utilizes fixed camera angles a la Resident Evil to portray its action, and two options for movement: having Shaggy move in the direction you push the control stick, or tank controls, wherein he moves forward or backward based on the direction he’s facing, and turns left or right to change that direction. These control methods need to be reviewed because neither of them work for what Classic Creep Capers wants to do, but for different reasons. 

The default scheme is the simpler one, where Shaggy moves where you point the stick relative to the camera. For about three seconds at most, that is, as the camera angle will almost always switch before that long, and you’ll continue on moving in the same direction until you move the stick again, at which point the direction once again reorients to the new camera angle. It’s fine and not unheard of for a game with this type of presentation. But try doing it when you’re being chased by one of the monsters, or trying to navigate a narrow opening in a corridor or back room. Your entire mind goes cross-eyed trying to keep up. This is why tank controls are used, except that in Classic Creep Capers, this feature is so poorly-tuned and sluggish that it makes outrunning your foes nearly impossible when you have to stop at every new perspective to change directions. And this is without factoring in how much Scooby-Doo himself manages to get in your way and block you off, because for whatever reason he is both present and clippable, along with the corners of every corridor in the game. 

I will admit, though, that most of Classic Creep Capers’ problems are mechanical, as one complaint I often see with games like it is that the game is too simplistic or easy. And much like some of the other games you find yourself playing when you’re out to chronicle every game on a system, there are a few that are still aimed at younger players. Scooby-Doo, unsurprisingly, is a property that suits this age range, even if playing the game 25 years later and/or remembering the show it’s based on over 50 years later makes it easy to lose sight of that. Explore the areas, outrun the monsters, avoid things that will scare Shaggy and Scoob, and occasionally match up a key item to a particular situation. It’s painfully simple for those versed in Shadowgate or Myst, but I think it fits the audience just fine. The real problem with the game is that it’s the younger players that are going to have less patience for the bad controls and not even want to put in the couple of hours it takes to finish.

Speaking of mechanical stuff, presentation is another big part of making a licensed cartoon title like this a pleasant experience, and while it’s not without flaws, I do think Classic Creep Capers does an okay job. It’s another area where context is pretty important, because it’s right around this early 3D era, even late in the N64’s generation, that doing polygonal graphics and keeping their particular art style to match their appearance on TV was quite difficult. Classic Creep Capers has just as many moments on the high end of the spectrum as it does on the low, I think. A few admirable efforts like the base models of the main characters and some of their animations deserve a thumbs up, although some textures and faces stand out as noticeably sub-par. If anything, it’s the cutting corners wherever possible that maintains the classic Hannah-Barbera spirit within the game’s overall presentation.

The music is also pretty mixed, though once again, technical limitations should temper your expectations going into it. The iconic late-’60s surf rock is a tall order for an N64 licensed game, and I’m not too disappointed to be missing it, nor was I expecting a lot of voice clips, nice as either of those things would be. The least you can really ask for is that the music is neither unfitting nor irritating, and I think it does qualify for that. The timbre of things like the bass and wind instruments, even in MIDI form is a decent effort that suits the environments and the tone of the show, and I never found myself getting annoyed by it, so it’s a good showing, all things considered.

Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers won’t get your motor running for another Shadowgate 64 or LucasArts-like adventure title. Though it’s got a lot of DNA in it from the point-and-click genre, it’s the deviation from the standards of the style that make it a pretty major swing and a miss, though there’s still a lot here that will be enough to satisfy kids who, like me, were getting pretty into this Boomerang classic at a young age, more so than the Quick Draw McGraws and Yogi Bears that the developers cheekily adorn the walls of the game with for cute but cheap pops. But poor controls and overall inconsistency in most other areas make for a game that a lot of folks will put down without finishing, even with so little content on offer.

Continuing Legacy

It actually makes me really sad to think that there are no great or even really good Scooby-Doo games. Sure, there are a couple that get by on nostalgia, either for the series or the games themselves, like the PS2-era trilogy. But I think, for as enduring as it is, with new movies and spinoffs still being released nowadays, this is still a license that is just big enough to keep getting products like toys and games, but not enough to put a lot of effort into and make something truly great. Developer Terraglyph Studios, unfortunately, isn’t worth much of a look. Their resume prior to Classic Creep Capers basically included children’s edutainment and middling licensed titles for franchises like Tiny Toons, and after this project, they seemed to transition to working on animated films for the next few years before folding.

Additional Information

Saves: Controller Pak

Compatible With: None

Players: 1

Print Guides: None

Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 59.33%, based on 6 reviews

Other Releases: EU, March 30, 2001

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