I like Scooby Doo — it’s one of the repetitive shows that still manages to stay funny, entertaining, and memorable. That’s why when I got to try out the Scooby Doo world in LEGO Dimensions at PAX Prime 2015, I was pretty excited.
LEGO Dimensions, as you probably read about in Chandler’s E3 2015 preview of it, has players using real-life LEGO pieces with an interactive toy pad, which supports up to seven LEGO pieces on it at a time, whether it be vehicles or characters. Each thing placed on the toy pad comes to life in the game, and the toy pad can be used to solve puzzles and complete certain tasks, as Chandler’s preview also pointed out.
So, in particular, I want to focus on the Scooby Doo world, and just how great it is. Unlike other worlds, everything in this world features cel-shading, giving it the look, one of the developers explained to me, of an old cartoon. And it really did look like a cartoon, or at least as close to a cartoon that a 3D LEGO game can get.
Besides the visuals, the voice acting also was a throwback to the cartoons, which is probably because some of the voice actors are the same. During cut-scenes, the characters all behave like classic Scooby Doo characters, with Daphne being courageous, Velma being brainy, Scooby and Shaggy being goofs, and Fred being a tool. Outside of the cut-scenes, the characters actually still manage to behave like they do in the cartoons, partly because of their goofy side-comments, and partly because of their actions.
For example, Scooby has the power to sneak by certain things, like cameras. Instead of crouching low or slinking along the floor, he does what he always does in the cartoon — dress up as something ridiculous so that bad guys will just walk right one by. In the game, he dresses up as a woman with a big, pink parasol. It’s goofy and it’s great.
In the level I played, the various characters (Scooby, Gandalf, Batman, and Wyldstyle) had to go into a haunted house. It was interesting to see the vastly different characters from vastly different places interact. Of course, that’s probably the main appeal of the game — melding a number of different worlds into one.
And if all of the worlds are as cleverly created and as entertaining as the Scooby Doo one, then I think LEGO Dimensions will absolutely be worth getting when it releases in September.
