Todd Dennis, Tommy Tallarico & Howard Uyate - Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights (2002)
Console: PS2
Game Release Date: 2002-05-22
Bootleg Release Date: 2020-10-26
Ripper: RingsOfGeonosis
Runtime: 59:18, 33 Tracks
Continuing with the spooky motif, we have Scooby-Doo! - Night of 100 Frights for the PS2. This game was made for the PS2, GameCube and Xbox OG. There are no differences between the versions. The game was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ.
I don't think the Scooby-Doo cartoon needs any introduction. I know I watched some of the series back in the day, but I don't have any memories of that. This game and the GBA sequel however, I have lots of memories with those.
Man, I really loved this game as a kid. I remember playing it in my basement nonstop. I remember one day I played the game from 10 in the morning to like 4 or sometime later. I think it may have been one of, if not the longest gaming session I have ever done.
The game is a third person platformer where you play as Scooby-Doo with occasional help from the rest of the gang. It's semi-linear in that you are given almost free reign to explore anywhere but get hindered by lack of certain key items in places. There is lots of back tracking to collect everything. Like Luigi's Mansion, there is a room dedicated to all the monsters with their own tokens.
The story follows the gang as they investigate the disappearance of one of Daphne's friend’s uncle. He was last seen in the "Mystic Manor" and the gang starts their search there. As soon as they get there most of the gang is mysteriously kidnapped and now Scooby must solve the mystery on his own as well as save his friends. I write "most" of the gang because Shaggy is barely captured, he just sorts of does his own thing, riding golf carts and appearing to help out Scooby at random points. The other members of the gang help occasionally when you do find them but for most of the game it is just Scooby and the player. When you do find them, they just leave and go do their own things. There are also a handful of NPCs in around like the Gardener who give assistance.
In typical Scooby-Doo fashion the game isn't scary, just spooky. The scariest part of the game is the difficulty in some areas. I let my sister do the "golf cart" section and she struggled with it. It doesn't help that the games controls are slippery and that there are no checkpoints for the entire sequence. As a kid I don't recall it being that hard, just really long. I enjoyed every minute of it.
Aside from the original run I did as a kid I also gave the game a replay back in I think 2014. Then my sister, seeing my run gave it a try herself. I remember playing it with Dolphin and having to do all the boss fights myself since they were too difficult for her. At the time my computer wasn't strong enough to run PS2 games, so I went with the GameCube version. My first ever run was with the PS2 and I still have both the save and game with me.
In the future I may do a 3rd/4th run of the game but if I do it will be to 100% it. I don't remember exactly but I believe my 2nd run may have been somewhere from 80-90% completed. Either way, this is a good game and I look forward to playing it more. The developers made a sequel called Mystery Mayhem which I have only played the GBA version. I tried the PS2 version 2 years ago but couldn't get into it. Night of 100 Frights is one of the best Scooby-Doo games ever made.
The composers listed for the game are Todd Dennis, Tommy Tallarico & Howard Uyate. Todd Dennis was an employee at Heavy Iron and did compositional work for Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Evil Dead: Hail to the King and Wolfenstein 3D (1995). I don't know where he is now but according to MobyGames he hasn't done much recently. Howard Uyate is even more obscure. The playlist below lists a possible AKA as Bob K. but aside from this game I can't find any other work he has done. Tommy Tallarico is the most famous of the trio known for his work on the Earthworm Jim series. He also made music for the PSX game MDK. He still seems to be active with a series of albums called Video Games Live, wherein he plays live covers of VGM.
The game soundtrack doesn't seem to be available on any websites properly tagged so I went and converted the YT playlist to mp3 and tagged and gave it cover art. Being on YouTube you can expect the quality isn't the best. If there is a demand for it, I may just rip it myself from my copy. Huge thanks to RingsOfGeonosis for ripping, uploading and sequencing it on YouTube.
Like the show the music is mostly library music with some horror synth thrown in. Some parts feel like that tongue-in-cheek horror movie music while other tracks are just muzak. For some strange reason the developers made all the boss themes pop rock songs with lyrics. It really doesn't mesh with the game’s mood, but it is what it is.
Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvdk5KVTNEREEjNHlZS3dtV3UwSi1pSzdFcGRkSWlEbTZPV2hQLWlsZkZETkZPNHFDdklxWQ==
Stream: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO4jlmGoc6uA0OQxqbQyB5auB-OKR316z
p@ss: scoobysnacks
Comments
Post a Comment