I had no idea that there were so many games for kids at the end of the N64’s life. It makes some sense, the consoles were cheaper or handed down to younger children. What’s more baffling is why a publisher and developer would choose to make a game just for the Nintendo 64, due to how successful (and at this point, cheap) the PS1 was. This was also the only finished N64 game from Terraglyph, who had previously made Tiny Toon Adventures games for the PS1. A PlayStation version of Classic Creep Capers was supposedly in development, but was for some reason cancelled to focus on the Nintendo 64.

Classic Creep Capers takes half of a point and click adventure and mixes with half of Resident Evil, but the end result doesn’t make a complete game. Like Resident Evil, the game used fixed camera angles. But the enemies in this are humorous – spiders, bats, moving dinosaur museum exhibits, wood, and people in costumes (you also can’t fight them). The fixed cameras in Resident Evil were used for the horror aspect, as well as being able to use pre-rendered backgrounds. The areas in Classic Creep Capers are fully modelled, and widescreen hacks not only work, but reveal doors that should be obvious, but are just off-screen.

You can also choose between two terrible control schemes. The first is Resident Evil-style tank controls, the other is for more analogue movement. However, the fixed camera angles make it annoying to use. As you move from one screen to another, Shaggy will keep walking based on your starting movement. Let go, and the directions will reset based on where the camera is now. It’s particularly frustrating when you have to run away from enemies, especially as the camera can snap to other positions many times.

You play the game as Shaggy, with Scooby following you along most of the time – although he doesn’t do anything at all, he’s just set dressing. You have to explore the areas to find clues, and parts that can be used for traps. However, the game sticks a bit too close to the show, as you hand over all these parts to Fred, and he works everything out and comes up with a plan, all you get to do is backtrack through the level to get the ghost to follow you to the capture spot. You don’t get to solve the mystery.

As a result, this has the “finding items” part of the point and click adventure, but none of the resolution of using the items. Across the four campaigns, there are a couple of moments where you actually get to use items, but they’re extremely obvious. What makes matters worse, is that finding the items themselves is annoying. There’s plenty of nonsense that you can’t interact with, and what you can interact with is often difficult to see, and can be hidden by other objects due to the bad camera angles. There’s a slight sheen on objects that you can barely make out, but it’s not enough. It means you go through the game tapping A until something works. Why not have Scooby point out objects, with his famous point pose?

Even though there isn’t much to the game, and it contains some tedious stuff, there’s still some charm here. The visuals are nice and capture the show well, as does the music (with a few good renditions of the classic theme). There’s only a few small snippets of voice from Shaggy and Scooby, but the tropes in the dialogue (like Fred and the girls checking somewhere safe) are part of the charm of the show. There’s even a corridor full of doors that you can use to escape one of the villains in a cutscene, and you can play with them yourself.

At the end, we have a game that is entirely full of awful ideas, but manages to be somewhat enjoyable due to capturing some of the charm of the original cartoon. A point and click style game is perfect for Scooby-Doo, it just needs to have more of the puzzle solving elements, and a camera that works with exploring the levels. There was even a decent LucasArts-inspired point and click game on the Genesis (it was exclusive to North America) called Scooby-Doo Mystery – not to be confused with Scooby-Doo Mystery on SNES, a 2D platformer.

Fine

Don’t fall for the excuse that Creep Capers is aimed at younger gamers- we’ve seen four-year-olds finish Perfect Dark, and they’d find this as much of an insult to their intelligence as the last hastily knocked-out cartoon tie-in. With no fewer than nine adverts in Creep Capers’ manual hyping everything from videos to cuddly toys, it’s evident that this travesty of a game is just one cog in the Cartoon Network’s cynical pocket-money-pilfering machine. And that’s the most frightening thing on offer here.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #51. Review Score: 23%

Remake or remaster?

There’s not much to the game, but a good Scooby-Doo game should be possible.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to play Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers