Scooby-Doo! First Frights is a 3D linear platformer with light puzzle elements, and it contains 22 levels separated in 4 episodes. You can play as Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne or Fred. Scooby has a sausage string to hit with, blocking capability, and the ability to crawl into vents. Shaggy shoots with a slingshot, has blocking capability, and carries a yo-yo to grapple with. Velma throws books, has blocking capability, and can activate machines. Daphne has hand-to-hand combat, flying kick, and can climb up poles. Fred has hand-to-hand combat, stun bombs, and super strength to push crates. Each character has 2 costumes unique to each episode, and one obtainable with a code, with different powers and weapons. Each level has a clue, and at the end of each episode you choose who you think the villain is, based on the evidence you have gathered. You can get trophies for doing certain tasks. You can unlock costumes for each of the 4 villains. You can also play with a friend in a multiplayer co-op. The gameplay and interface are highly reminiscent of TT Games Lego game series.
Plot
The game begins with the Mystery, Inc. gang at their clubhouse located in a swamp. Velma arrives with a newspaper, announcing to the gang that there will be a food festival at Keystone Castle. Scooby and Shaggy like the idea of going, but Daphne reminds them that they promised to help her cousin Anna at the St. Louis High School Musical. Scooby and Shaggy want to help her, but they plan to get it done quickly so they can go to the food festival. The game divides into four episodes from here. Episode 1 takes the gang to St. Louis High school, where they are informed by Anna that a phantom has been haunting the school with an army of skeletons and scaring everybody out. The gang investigates and soon confronts the phantom and stops his plot to ruin the musical, which conflicts with a sports carnival. You are then presented with the whodunit minigame, where you can get monster mask trophies. In Episode 2, the gang heads out to a local amusement park so Scooby-Doo and Shaggy can practice their eating for the food festival, only to find out upon their arrival that the place is closed. After deciding to investigate, they also find out the place is overrun with evil toys that are attacking the park. They search a nearby toy factory while avoiding the toys there, and soon manage to defeat their leader, a giant robot. In Episode 3, the group goes to a local seaside town named Rocky Bay, which is being terrorized by a sea monster. After investigating throughout the town and on a mysterious ghostly cruise shipat sea, they encounter the "sea monster", a giant mechanical lobster, in the ship’s flooded bowels and stop its pilot's plot to steal valuable pearls from a nearby reef. Episode 4 has the gang finally arriving at Keystone Castle, only to find the baron paranoid about an evil enchantress who has begun sending scary monsters to attack the castle and get him. They learn from the baron's sister, Lady Azarni, that the enchantress put a spell on the family years ago that causes the castle barons to suffer terrible fates. They soon confront and manage to defeat the enchantress and the castle collapses. The baron reveals he doesn't have a sister and that Lady Azarni was never really there, to which Velma declares it is a mystery that will have to remain unsolved. Shaggy and Scooby then finally get to go to the food festival.
Reception
First Frights was met with very mixed reception upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 58.83% and 56 out of 100 for the Wii version; 53.67% and 54 out of 100 for the DS version; and 53.33% and 53 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version.
