"The three hour game"

I have played quite a few Scooby Doo games, but I've never seen one this horrible. I've never seen ANY game this horrible. How long do your games normally last? 20 hours? 30 hours? Personally, I've never seen a game that takes less than ten hours for an average player... Until now that is. Scooby Doo: Unmasked is the shortest game ever. Of course, you probably want reasons, right? Well, allow me to break the game up into some basic categories that all DS games should be rated on.

Use of the touch screen
The use of the touch screen in this game is not at all creative. The only thing you do is drag around a big dot, collecting other smaller dots, while avoiding the malevolent dots. The only other use is looking at the clues and evaluating them. It's in no way at all creative or challenging. I'd have to give it a 1/10 for use of the touch screen.

Gameplay
It's a pretty easy game, sometimes the final bosses are hard, but you don't really fight them. I don't really want to give away anything, so I won't talk about that part...Anyway, it's not that good, so I would have to give it a 3/10 for gameplay.

Graphics
Yeah...There are a few things different in the GBA and the DS. One of them is the touch screen, the next one is the graphics, and there are a few others. For now, lets focus on that "graphics" part, since this is the graphics section. Hmm... How can I put this? Well, let me just leave it at the fact that I have seen better graphics on a GBA game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the box not say something about 3D environment? The only 3D part is the area where Scooby can talk to everybody else, and that's not really 3D. It's really just Scooby walking on a curved pathway. It's kind of like a 2.25D game, if that. I'd have to give this game a 3/10 for graphics.

Storyline
I'll try not to give too much away here, but I'll say one thing, it was dull. The plot was basic, the classic "someone goes missing, use Scooby to track down clues" type of game. I won't say anything about the ending except that it was pretty obvious. I'd have to give this game a 3/10 for it's storyline.

Replay Value
None at all. That's it, enough said, worst replay value I've EVER seen in a DS game. Perhaps if the game had a bit of variance to it, but no, you can't really make any choices in this game. All it is is, go here, now go here, now talk to Velma, now catch the bad guy, now move to the next area. I wish I could give it a 0/10 in replay value, but no, the minimum HAS to be 1!

So, go ahead, waste your money buying or renting this game... I would not recommend this game to ANYBODY, even a little kid obsessed with Scooby Doo. If you want a good game for your child, try Nintendogs. If you want to waste money, try this game. Enjoy your three hours!

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/06