Product Description

Cartoon Network has combined an age-old classic with the modern technology of PC games and come up with your chance to solve a Scooby-Doo mystery. Scooby-Doo Phantom of the Knight is a standard mystery as you try to get the clues to find out who would have succeeded if it "hadn't been for those meddling kids". The disc comes with minimal instructions and once the game is up and running the instructions do not become much clearer. The first game can take hours as you try to work out what to do and where to go. Once you know the rules the game is easier, but unfortunately it is extremely repetitive. Doors cannot be opened until you have got the right clues or you get glimpses of what is to come and then no way of working things out without first exiting the game to re-read the rules. Even then it is not always clear. The pictures and voices are all familiar, but the movements are minimal and there is not much of a cartoon feel to it. If you had better instructions with this it would go down better, but it is not particularly appealing for continuous play. --Lucinda Austin

Uncover a medieval castle buried deep in the forest of Nova Scotia and solve the mystery of the black knight with Scooby-Doo and the rest of the Mystery Inc gang. The black knight, ghost of the original castle owner, kidnapped Princess Bernice, or did he? Help unveil the illusive black knight.

This is a point-and-click adventure game--travel around various rooms and find clues and suspects. Once enough clues have been found you have to decide who is to blame. There are 25-plus fully interactive areas to explore, and three levels of difficulty: the harder the level the more red herrings are included. There are up to 35 different clues and a different outcome each time you play. Scrappy-Doo provides help during the adventure. Scarier areas need you to feed Scooby and Shaggy snacks to coax them in--these can be obtained by doing tests along the way.

The graphics are original, just like watching the cartoon show of the 70s. There is also a downloadable colour poster, Scooby-Doo message mate for your desktop and a interactive demo of another adventure included on the disc.

The screens are easy to navigate but we didn't find the help was any good. After playing for a while my son had one clue and one suspect and he couldn't get any further--neither could my husband and I! Overall we didn't like this game at all, but fans of the show would probably love it and maybe get further then we did! --Hayley Pink

This CD takes its adventurers on an exciting escapade through a medieval castle. Scooby Doo and his friends have to find their way around the castle, and solve the mystery. How they achieve this is up to the player. There are more than 25 fully interactive areas to explore; each time you play, the mystery changes, with new clues and a different villain. There are several clues per suspect, and some red herrings thrown in, with three levels of difficulty. A Smart Helper assists if you get a bit lost. There is a downloadable colour poster, and a Scooby-Doo Message Mate for your desktop. The box suggests age three and above, but the younger the player, the more necessary it is for them to play with an adult to help them along. Made for Windows 95/98 with very good graphics, this is an excellent CD; one which will challenge and enthral any fan of Scooby-Doo. --Charmaine Brown

.co.uk Review

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