Scooby-Doo! Unmasked has launched as part of THQ’s Christmas campaign and while the GameCube, PlayStation2 and Xbox versions are identical, the NintendoDS has received a game made entirely up from the ground to make use of the its’ hardware and the innovative features it presents. While the Scooby-Doo! Gaming franchise is clearly aimed at children, that’s not to say it can’t be entertaining and innovative in one fell swoop.

            Taking its influence from the NintendoDS launch title, Spider-Man 2, Scooby-Doo! Unmasked follows the Platform genre in a 2D Scrolling title with a 3D presentation. The usual jump-on-heads and scaling moving platforms rules apply whilst progressing through the titles film-based Level Structure. In order to progress, Scooby-Doo has to collect Mubber – an ingredient made by the studio for the production a of lifelike costumes – Clues and, of course, Scooby Snacks. Once a clue has been discovered, you must return to the HUB in order to allow Thelma to examine the object; and this is where the Touch Screen comes into play.

            In order to examine Clues the player must choose either the Brush, Hammer or Magnifying Glass and drag the utility over the object until a result is discovered – however, there are also many Fake Clues. In an attempt to be inventive – much like both Spider-Man 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare – Scooby-Doo! Unmasked requires further simple tasks to be completed on the Touch Screen. A feature worked into the title’s movie-theme is Scooby-Doo’s ability to don costumes by pressing both L and R simultaneously – each giving him a different array of moves. When dressed as the scientist, Scooby-Doo may melt blocks of Mubber by chasing red, green and blue particles around the Touch Screen with a nucleus, whilst avoiding the viruses – a clever attempt at invention without distancing the title’s core market; however, due to a horrible delay in response, even the slight distraction from the mediocre Platforming is disappointing at best.

            Whilst the Touch Screen features may benefit from a degree of thought before their poor execution, the same can’t be said for the majority of the Platform structure. The collision detection is poor meaning that you’ll soon learn not to jump on your enemies in an attempt to vanquish them, and instead will rely on charging at them and repeatedly bashing the A Button until both yours and your opponents animation cycles end with their defeat or, as a much less common occurrence, yours. The Level design is reliable at first but soon plunges into a mess of nigh-on-impossible platform capering and leaps-of-faith, neither of which are helped by the title’s seemingly unruly double jump.

            The presentation of the title is reliable at least, if never confident. As stated above the world is presented in 3D and probably better for it – however, many of the textures used resemble the jumpy, grainy effects of the PlayStation’s latter titles and the enemy animation is poor to say the least. Not every title needs to break the mould, but presentation like this on a system as powerful as the NintendoDS is simply lazy. The sound quality is respectable, with a few humorous quips and retorts amongst all the roaring and moaning from the usual array of Scooby-Doo! enemies.

            Scooby-Doo! Unmasked for the NintendoDS is certainly a mixed bag-of-fish. On the one hand, for children akin to the Scooby-Doo! crew, the title could no doubt hold their attention for months – so long as they’ve never played Super Mario Bros.. However, for anyone who’s played a 2D Platform title of any quality, on any system, even the title’s attempt at innovation on the Touch Screen is clearly a short-cry from the likes of Super Mario64 DS, Spider-Man 2 and the forthcoming New Super Mario Bros..