More monsters, puzzles, costumes, suspects and friends await Mystery Inc. on this all new adventure! Join Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, Velma, and Fred as they journey through a spooky swamp and other haunted locales to uncover the mystery of a strange swamp girl and her cauldron of brew.
and Mini-Games
Synopsis
Scooby doobie, do, where are you? For this adventure, he is on the Wii! Scooby and his friends at Mystery, Inc put their heads together to solve another puzzler in Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Swamp. The crew is called in to investigate the appearance of a bizarre swamp girl and her caldron of mysterious brew. Help the gang solve the mystery by playing as Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Velma, or Daphne in drop-in/drop-out play that a friend can join at any time. Search for clues in three gigantic haunted open worlds. Solve puzzles, outwit enemy monsters, battle spooky bosses, and don’t forget to save time for a couple Scooby Snacks.
Key Features:
- Modes: Full Mission Co-Op, Full Mission Single-Player, Mini-Games
- Controllers: Nunchuk Controller
- Full Mission Co-Op, Full Mission Single-Player, Mini-Games
- Nunchuk controller play
- New brain-teasing puzzles test your mystery solving skills and new monster enemies and epic boss battles!
- Use cool gadgets and tools to help solve mysteries, uncover treasure and help in your investigations
- Create your own custom look and enhance your abilities using unique accessories and clothing items
List Price: $ 19.99
Price: $ 15.49
Changes from the original that you may or may not like (reading skills required),
For starters, we were HUGE fans of last year’s Scooby Doo First Frights for Wii. I personally thought that it was one of (if not THE) best games of the year on the Wii for the under 10 crowd. One of last year’s break-out hits, for sure.
So it was with great excitement that we purchased Scooby Doo and the Spooky Swamp for Wii. I must say that I am not as overwhelmingly excited about the sequel as I was with the original. The main reason is that the game developers chose to change some of the fundamental game play structure for this sequel. Some may like these changes, others may not.
Chief among them is the fact that the game play is entirely objective driven this time around. You must complete an objective (or task) to proceed forward in the game. To that end, READING SKILLS ARE A MUST. The objectives are sometimes obvious, but other times the objective must be read (or re-read) from the objectives log to be certain that you understand the task that you need to perform. So even if your child can pick up the very easy game play mechanics on their own, a lack of reading skills will leave them constantly asking “What do I do next?” Where the original game allowed a non-reader to play on their own and still advance through the game without a problem, this new game requires someone to sit with a non-reader to guide them through the objectives.
The objective-driven game play does allow for the story telling and story progression to be enhanced well above and beyond the original game’s high standards. This is a definite plus!
Voice acting is solid, as was the case with the previous game. Although, Shaggy’s voice acting is decidedly a notch or two below the previous game.
This game is definitely more of a challenge for the younger set this time around. It appears that the game developers were pushing the game to be more along the lines of the “Lego” games for Wii. My suggestion would be for fans of the original game to try it for themselves and decide how they feel about the original vs. the sequel, and for parents to be aware of the reading requirement before making a purchase. While it is an excellent game, I feel that the fundamental changes will prevent it from becoming a classic like the original.
My 7 year-old son quickly lost interest after about 30 minutes, where the original game was one of his favorites for Wii.
UPDATE 9/19/2010 – My son has regained his interest in the game, but only when I am close by to help out on a regular basis. On his own, he quickly gets frustrated.
UPDATE 9/26/2010 – Finished the game in about 8-10 hours. Only 2 episodes in this game, as opposed to 4 episodes in the last. It was great while it lasted, but seemed like it was over a bit too soon.
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|Not as good as the first title, but still worthwhile,
I’ve read the other three (3) reviews that were posted at the time I created this one. I agree that it is more of a problem for a non-reading child to be able to play this game. Fortunately, my daughter and I played this one together, so it was just fine. I liked the upgrades in the game, you get to use whatever character you want most of the time (before you solve the whole thing). The story line is a bit more complex and you have suspect files, pictures to take, a magnifying glass to use, mini-games you can play, and some pretty neat tasks to complete (like using a catapult for snowballs or watermellons), making food, washing laundry, putting together scraps of paper to complete a map or note, etc. There was a lot more creative development put into this game and it targets a broader skill set and probably older audience. My five (almost six year old) absolutely needed my help to get through it.
I really like that there are more things to do: collect medallions, collect costume parts, beat up a certain number of bad guys. You can see your statistics by pressing plus (+), and a variety of objectives. You can recall objectives or sometimes get clearer instructions about objectives by pressing minus (-).
I think it would have been nicer to have one more level (Episode). The First Frights (first Scooby game) had four, but this new one only has three. I think it would be better if we were able to get full coordinated costumes that actually allowed you to perform different actions. Like Scooby Ninja from the first game or playing one of the bad guys from the first game. That stuff is fun and I don’t see any way to do that in the second one.
Overall, I am pleased with the purchase and glad that I was able to play it with my daughter. Although we solved both mysteries, we are not yet done. We have more trophies and Scooby Medallions to get in the first game and in the second game we have more trophies, ghost pictures, Scooby letters, and Scooby Medallions to get. Overall we are still having fun, even though the second game is light on one episode.
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|Kids Love It,
Kids loved the first one so we had to get the second. My kids are 5 and 7. The 5 year old just likes to watch. The 7 year old likes to play. We both play so I can help out and guide through when needed. Graphics are good as well as game play. Kids like the ability to change the looks of the characters. I like the fact that if the characters run out of energy, they simply reappear and action continues. This is a good choice if you have young kids and they are into Scooby-Doo. Action i easy and keeps them entertained. If they are advanced gamers, they might get easily bored. But for my 7 year old, I think it is just about right. Good game and looking forward to the next one.
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