A New Scooby-Doo Game Should Return To Spooky Island

Scooby-Doo has been a beloved property for decades, beginning as a Saturday morning cartoon in the late 1960s and branching into film, games, and other popular TV shows that are both animated and live-action. The franchise is on the minds of fans in 2023 as the Mindy Kaling-fronted spin-off series Velma is attracting attention from more mature audiences. However, despite a legacy spanning over 50 years, fans of the video game medium aren’t getting enough of Fred, Velma, Daphne, Scooby, and Shaggy, aside from a few mediocre titles in the past. Now is the best time to make something happen.

Warner Bros. has a substantial market in the video game space, with Batman Arkham, MultiVersus, and the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy all doing well to showcase the properties that all fall under its banner. Many of them are very well received, so it’s puzzling that the company hasn’t used the Scooby-Doo license to greater effect in gaming over the years. This needs to change, and while there are decades of source material that it could use for inspiration or adaptation, the 2002 film could offer something that feels familiar in the franchise, but does something different in the gaming space.

RELATED: A LEGO Scooby-Doo Game Seems Long Overdue

Spooky Island Could Be a Diverse Playground

Spooky Island is the setting for 2002’s Scooby-Doo: The Movie, and it immediately feels fresh, giving well-known (and wonderfully cast and performed) characters a new mystery in a place that is truly out of their comfort zone. The theme park’s owner, Emile Mondavarious is instantly interesting, being eccentric to the point of caricature but also genuinely fearful of the state of the island as a larger threat presents itself. The story of Scooby-Doo: The Movie is positively ridiculous, but with locations like Spooky Island Castle, Dead Mike’s Bar, and Voodoo Maestro’s beach shack, a game that’s set on the island could give the player plenty of things to do.

Instead of meandering from case to case in the Mystery Machine, a more open-ended game that has players use the skill set of each member of Mystery Incorporated to explore and uncover the secrets of the island could be a lot of fun. Gotham Knights gets a lot wrong, but the fundamental design formula of having different playable characters in an engaging open-world was effective, and while its take on Gotham was lacking in some key ways, the same format could fit Scooby-Doo and Spooky Island like a glove. The setting has a lot of potential for more secrets, as the 2002 film leaves room for more tales to be told.

Scooby-Doo is Itching for a New Game

Warner Bros. is no stranger to gaming, with plenty of its properties hitting shelves and digital storefronts to much critical and commercial success. Velma has Scooby-Doo on the minds of adults, as do other versions of the IP for younger audiences, but Scoob and the gang have been largely absent in the gaming sphere, aside from appearing in MultiVersus. Open-worlds are all the rage in this console generation, and going back to Spooky Island — a beach-heavy resort setting that isn’t overly used in games — could ensure the franchise’s break-out on the medium is as seamless as possible.

Hogwarts Legacy’s huge pre-order sales imply that Warner Bros’ film franchises can provoke interesting fictional worlds that transfer well into gaming. While Spooky Island is not as popular as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it has plenty of interesting locations and a compelling tone that could easily carry a big-budget Scooby-Doo game. The film was a good time in its day, but its legacy can be more than that, forging the perfect setting for a Scooby-Doo experience that is long overdue.

MORE: MultiVersus Needs to Lift the Stage Builder From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate