Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Of The Castle is a Plug It In & Play TV game system controller released by Jakks Pacific in 2005 in the GameKey-Ready controller and in 2006 in the standard controller type.
No GameKeys were released for this plug-and-play game.
The controller is themed around The Mystery Machine.
Built-In Games[]
Five games were built into the controller. They are listed below.
Race To Fontecastello[]
Chapter I:
The Race To Fontecastello
Pick up the team members in the Mystery Machine and drive to Fontecastello!
Avoid obstacles and frightening creatures in this wild journey!
Use banana peels against chasing cars, the headlights to scare some enemies, and find rocket turbo power-ups to boost your speed.
An isometric racing game against the clock.
The Mystery Inc. gang must race their way to Fontecastello, avoiding obstacles along the road and avoid being caught by pursing cars or ghosts. Several Pickups can be acquired throughout the levels, such as a wrench to improve the health of the Mystery Machine and Scooby Snacks for bonus points. Levels become increasingly harder, obstacles starting out easier to avoid. In the harder levels a Lightbulb pickup spawns, allowing the player to scare off certain enemies.
If the Mystery Machine hits or comes into contact with an obstacle or enemy, it will lose 'health'. The speed of the Mystery Machine determines the impact and damage to the van. Ghosts in particular take out a large amount of health.
There are five levels.
- Normal road, avoid cars and turned over cars. Rocket pickups, scooby snacks and the Wrench pickup all spawn. No cars spawn behind the Mystery Machine in this level. End of level shows the Mystery Machine picking up Scooby and Shaggy.
- Backroad, avoid boulders, zombies, and debris. The Knight will give chase beginning in this level, and Banana peels begin to show up as pickups. The road gets more curvy, instead of a straight line in the first level the player will be required to steer the Mystery Machine. Velma is picked up at the end of the level. This is one of two levels the Night spawns in this minigame.
- A dark forest road. Ramps begin to appear in this and each level afterwards. Zombies, boulders and the Night spawn. All pickups appear, and Lightbulb pickups begin to spawn from here on out. All members are picked up. This is the last level the Night spawns in this game.
- Night highway. Ghosts begin to spawn, and the Lightbulb pickup becomes increasingly important. If a ghost is hit it will act the same as an obstacle, making the Mystery Machine lose health. Instead of the Night, a ghost will signal its appearance with a "woo" and chase after the player. If hit, it will take out a significant value of health and dissipate. Unlike the Night, the ghost will not come into contact with the player if kept at a constant speed. Cars, stationary ghosts and ghost "dogs" will become this level's obstacles.
- A road next to a cemetery. Ghosts, coffins and crawling coffins are obstacles, and the Mystery Machine is chased by either the ghost from the last level or the Knight from the 2nd & 3rd levels.
The River Of Frights[]
Chapter II:
The River Of Frights
Use the logs, stones, and sometimes alligators to move upstream on the river.
Don't let the Knight reach you, and beware the animmals.
Scooby-Doo will help you from the riverside.
Use banana peels against the Knight and storks to confuse the frogs.
An isometric side-scroller.
Shaggy needs to get to the end of the river by jumping on logs and rocks, avoiding alligators and the Knight chasing after him. Scooby is on the river bank, throwing health items and other pickups for Shaggy to use.
As the levels increase in difficulty frogs and alligators spawn. Alligators will snap at shaggy, and frogs will lash out their tongue. Each interaction with an obstacle will make Shaggy lose health.
Scooby will throw out a random assortment of pickups, including Ice Cream and Pizza (health), banana peels, and storks. The likelyhood of getting a certain pickup is randomized, and Scooby throws out a new pickup every 3 seconds. Scooby Snacks aren't thrown out by Scooby but are picked up throughout each level.
The Night chases Shaggy throughout the minigame.
There are five levels; the color of the river is random. River colors are: Dark blue, light-patterned blue, and navy blue.
- Shaggy will immediately be pursued by the Knight in each level, so the player cannot stop without pausing the game. Only logs and rocks appear in this level. Banana peels and storks are the two pickups Scooby throws out. Ice Cream will only be thrown if Shaggy loses health.
- Alligators begin to spawn, and if they are jumped on or stood on anywhere when they snap, Shaggy will lose health.
- No frogs appear in this level, instead alligators are frequent.
- All pickups appear, as well as all obstacles. There are fewer logs to jump on and they are more spaced out.
- More alligators spawn than logs, and the Night is faster than Shaggy. Scooby will throw out less pickups.
Searching The Castle[]
Chapter III:
Searching The Castle
Search the castle for mysteries then find the way out. When a creature is nearby you can hide behind furniture, barrels and other objects. Jump into Shaggy's arms to avoid spiders and rats. Duck if a bat flies too close.
A 2D platformer.
Scooby and Shaggy need to explore the castle, avoiding skeletons, bats, rats, spiders and ghosts. The player can hide behind cabinets, whiskey barrels, paintings, tapestries, and chairs. It takes about 2 seconds for both Shaggy and Scooby to fully hide themselves.
Each level increases in difficulty by giving a larger amount of enemies and floors to progress through, floors maxing out at three.
Interaction with any large enemy (ghosts and skeletons) results in losing a life. Bats, rats and spiders make the player lose health. If a rat is encountered the player will lose health twice-- once for Shaggy and once for Scooby.
Health pickups are ice cream and pizza.
- The first level is relatively flat to give the player a feel for the castle. Only skeletons spawn as large enemies.
- Two floors, and more skeletons appear. Bats and rats make an appearance. Bats will spawn more than rats.
- Ghosts begin to spawn, being faster than skeletons. Spiders also appear. More hiding places appear, but each floor is broken up into more rooms making it more difficult to find the exit.
- All hazards spawn, and sometimes the castle's floors will be broken through all but the last floor to reveal a giant spider descending from the ceiling,
- Giant spiders spawn more frequently, and ghosts appear every few rooms.
The Mysterious Doors[]
Chapter IV:
The Mysterious Doors
Find a way through the doors and avoid the scary creatures. The skeleton key will lock any door for a while and the crystal ball will show you any door's destination. Use the mini-map to help find the exit.
A 2D Arcade Platformer.
Scooby explores various doors, some of them leading up to 1-3 adjacent rooms away or others simply lead nowhere. Find the correct path of doors to reach the exit (the bottom most room) while avoiding enemies like mummies and ghost dogs.
Each level increases in difficulty by giving the player more rooms and floors to traverse through and enemies to avoid.
Interaction with any enemy (mummy and ghost dog) results in losing a life.
Pickups are skeleton keys, crystal balls and Scooby Snacks which similar to the other games offers Scooby-Doo another life after collecting 25 of them.
- The first level is relatively simply giving the player a feel for the mechanics. Around 1-2 mummies spawn.
- Ghost dogs (appearing level 2 and onwards) move faster than Mummies and unlike them don't stop when taking a step. Ghost dogs appear less than mummies.
The Dungeons Of Fontecastello[]
Chapter V:
The Dungeons Of Fontecastello
Find the way back to Scooby-Doo through the dungeons. Locate keys to open the exit gates. Use traps against ghosts, but watch your step or Shaggy may get trapped. Warning! The Knight may be very close! The electromagnet can be turned on by the 4 levers nearby. It will turn off automatically after 3 seconds.
A side-scrolling dungeon crawler.
Shaggy needs to explore and find 1-3 keys within the dungeon to open the dungeon's exit gate. Ghosts, roam the dungeon and can block the player. Haunted suit's of armor can walk around if Shaggy walks near them. Traps are also scattered about which Shaggy can use to trap Ghosts. The Knight makes an appearance in the 5th level/dungeon and pulling the 4 nearby levers while the Knight is under the electromagnet will trap him letting the player unmask him. After 3 seconds, the levers will turn off resulting in them all needing to be pulled again.
Each level increases in difficulty by giving the player more keys to find and hallways to explore with more dead ends. More enemies also spawn.
Interaction with any enemy (a suit of armor or ghost) results in losing a life.
The only pickups (besides keys) are Scooby Snacks which similar to the previous games offer Shaggy another life after collecting 25 of them.
- Dead ends are common so try to avoid entering them with a ghost nearby.
- The wooden floor traps will open and close on there own and can be walked across while open. Pulling the lever nearby will cause the trap to stay open for a limited amount of time.
Colored Keys:
- Each level as a certain amount of colored keys you must collect before you can open the exit gate. Level 1 requires a brown key, levels 2 and 3 require a brown and white key, level 4 requires the past 2 keys and a yellow key. Level 5 requires no keys.
- Colored keys don't move to other locations if you lose a life.
- The brown key (in the first 2 levels) blends in with the floor. Be sure to keep an eye out for it.
Trivia[]
- No GameKeys were released for this controller despite being first released as a GameKey-Ready controller in 2005, later to be re-released as a standard controller in 2006.
- In The River of Frights minigame, although frogs don't appear until the second level, Scooby will throw out several stork pickups in the first level.
- In the River of Frights, an EXIT sign will appear at the end of each level, despite the riverbank continuing.
- in Search The Castle, there is no surround sound for ghost spawns, making it impossible to know which floor they are on until they appear on-screen.