Scooby Doo Double Pack (Phantom of the Knight & Showdown in Ghost Town)

Scooby-Doo Phantom of the Knight
Can you help Fred, Velma, and the gang solve the mystery behind the Phantom Knight and his dragon? Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight offers laughs, pretty good animation, and a series of challenging puzzles to entertain young children for hours. Since the villain and clues change with each new adventure, replay is just as much fun as the very first game. Set up much like an episode of the classic television series, the program puts players in an old, castle-themed amusement park to explore for clues to its haunting. Some of the scarier areas will require feeding Scooby or Shaggy to coax them in; snacks can be obtained by several tests of skill along the way.

Once enough clues have been collected, players decide who's to blame, then check to see if the guess is right in an action sequence that closes play. Three levels of difficulty are available, and each offers increasing pressure in the form of red-herring clues and harder challenges to acquire Scooby Snacks. Installation is very simple, and the CD-ROM comes with several Scooby-related goodies like a printable poster and online previews of upcoming movies. (Ages 5 to 10) --Rob Lightner

Scooby Doo: Showdown in Ghost Town
Scooby Doo: Showdown in Ghost Town pits Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Greatest-of-all-Danes Scooby against the Faceless Rider, a mysterious spirit (or is it?) haunting the town of Los Burritos. Thankfully, they're all back with the same groovy clothes, lingo and music--plus the goofy humour--that made their 70s TV show so much fun to watch.

To get to the bottom of what's spooking Los Burritos, the group must explore the town and talk to everyone who crosses their path, all the while looking out for clues to help them solve the mystery at hand. To uncover the right information, players must perform semi-educational activities such as setting a clock to the proper time, putting a puzzle together and recalling details from the game itself. There are also fun challenges throughout (Scooby takes on the Faceless Rider in a pie fight to the finish, and later plays a mean game of horseshoes) to earn Scooby Snacks. These prove important when you want Shaggy and Scooby to enter an especially scary area--you'll have to bribe them with Scooby Snacks to get them to cooperate. The fun activities and puzzles, paired with all the crime solving, push children to use problem-solving skills and deductive reasoning. Who knew Scooby could make you smarter?

In addition to being just plain retro fun, the game offers some help in solving each mystery (we found several in our gameplay): click on the Mystery, Inc. van to review the clues you've collected, check your Scooby Snack count or ask Scrappy for help. And to keep the games challenging as kids grow (or perhaps for adults to enjoy), players can select from three "spookiness" levels that increase in difficulty (Ages 5 and up) --Leah Ball