Scooby-Doo! Unmasked is a 2005 Platform Game based on the Scooby-Doo franchise. It was developed by Behaviour Interactive (then known as Artificial Mind and Movement) and published by THQ.
One day, Fred takes the Mystery Inc. members to a special effects company called Monstrous Fright and Magic to introduce them to his cousin Jed, who works there. But when they get there, they discover that Jed is missing, so, after talking to the manager, Winslow Stanton, and his partner Marcy, they go to various places that use MFM-branded special effects to look for clues regarding Jed's whereabouts and solve the mystery of the malfunctioning animatronics.
The game was released for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and Game Boy Advance on September 12, 2005, and was also later released for the Nintendo DS on September October 18, 2005.
This game provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: While in Chinatown, Shaggy gets trapped in the sewers, and Scooby has to travel through several large areas down there to get Shaggy back.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The giant Pterodactyl animatronic that serves as the game's final boss in the console and GBA versions.
- Adaptation Deviation: The DS version's final level is the museum with Marcy disguised as the Caveman.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Marcy and Winslow Stanton.
- Book Ends: The game starts and ends with the gang at MFM.
- Call-Back: Many of the animatronics are reused character designs of villains from the original series, though Velma explicitly mentions that the sea monster model at Monstrous Fright and Magic looks like the Beast of Bottomless Lake.
- Cel Shading: The game is stylized this way to give it the feel of the classic 1960s cartoon.
- Checkpoint: TVs with paw prints on them serve this function.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Different costumes found in the game give Scooby abilities.
- Crappy Carnival: The second level is set at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Land, which has rides gone wrong and animatronics following people.
- Crate Expectations: Scooby will often come across crates containing either Scooby Snacks or (in the case of specially marked MFM crates) mubber.
- Damsel in Distress: Daphne gets kidnapped by the main monster in each area the gang visits while they look for Jed.
- Distressed Dude: Fred gets kidnapped by the caveman along with Daphne when he and Daphne visit the Undersea Exhibit at the museum.
- Deflector Shields: The Black Knight animatronics inexplicably gain this ability in the final level.
- Dramatic Unmask: Happens to the first three villains encountered in the game.
- Easily Forgiven: Marcy and Winslow's apology to one another at the end. Had they been more open to communication from the beginning, the game's events wouldn't have transpired.
- Electrified Bathtub: Every level includes at least one large locale drowning in water that has been electrified.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Velma makes a pun about a light snack and the Mystery Inc. crew laughed together.
- Fast as Lightning: The 10,000-volt ghost is capable of moving at super speeds—faster than Scooby can get out of the way.
- Final-Exam Boss: The fight against the Godzilla-sized Pterodactyl in the Console and GBA versions is set up this way, as it has Scooby use the abilities of each of the costumes he unlocked to defeat the giant.
- Follow the Money: Scooby Snacks serve this purpose in the game, with a trail of them guiding Scooby to where he needs to go in each level.
- Foreshadowing: During the first visit to MFM, if you walk up to a costume of a sea creature, it will suddenly move. Said costume is later revealed to actually be Jed trapped inside.
- Frame-Up: It's revealed that Marcy tried to frame Stanton for the malfunctioning animatronics to destroy his career, because she never got any credit for helping him create Mubber.
- Friendly Local Chinatown: The first level after the prologue is set in Chinatown.
- Ground Pound: Scooby's smash attack serves as this. It crushes smaller monsters like rats and spiders flat, and it works against bigger monsters who block off Scooby's sliding, rolling, and spin attacks.
- When Scooby upgrades his kung-fu costume to the ninja costume, he can do a thunder punch while he is wearing the ninja costume.
- Heart Container: Scooby gets one after he makes a dish for Shaggy.
- Hostile Animatronics: The enemies are "mubber" movie monster animatronics created by Monstrous Fright and Magic which someone is using to commit crimes.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: The Japanese ninjas look fairly out of place next to the dragon ladies and zombies.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Scooby can pull these off with his martial arts costume. Instead of calling his attacks, however, he calls out his own name.
- Killer Robot: The malfunctioning animatronics.
- Laugh Track: The game uses a laugh track to keep the humor intact.
- Law of 100: Scooby gains an extra dog tag whenever he eats 100 Scooby Snacks.
- Life Meter: Featured in the form of how many dog tags Scooby currently has. Giving food ingredients to Shaggy increases the number of dog tags Scooby can have, with the largest possible number of dog tags being 13.
- Monster Clown: The circus tent at the theme park has these as enemies.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: Each new animatronic monster is introduced this way.
- Permanently Missable Content: If Scooby doesn't collect all of the clues and food items before he helps Velma solve the mystery in one area, the Mystery gang will move on to the next area after the previous area's boss fight, rendering all of the uncollected items unobtainable.
- The Power of Rock: The Guitar Ghoul (AKA Alvin Wiener) uses this to attack during his boss fight.
- Scare Chord: In every level (sans MFM), one danger will appear that Scooby is incapable of hurting or stopping: a Jump Scare zombie, Jack-in-the-Box, and Man-Eating Plant. Their attacks are always preceded by "Psycho" Strings, and a Scare Chord if the attack connects.
- Rolling Attack: Scooby can do this if certain monsters block him from being able to do his smash attack on them.
- Samus Is a Girl: The Guitar Ghoul's true identity is Nikki Starlight, rather than the vindictive Alvin Wiener.
- Skewed Priorities: "Shaggy! ...The drumstick!!!"
- Spin Attack: Scooby uses this as his basic attack while not wearing costumes.
- Springs, Springs Everywhere: Almost every level has objects that function as springboards, including:
- Actual springboards in the MFM levels.
- Awnings in the cookie factory, the temple, and the Medieval Exhibit.
- Large drums in the water park and circus tent.
- Large clown head balloons in the circus tent (although they pop after you bounce on them once).
- Turtles in the Dinosaur and Undersea Exhibits.
- Starter Villain: Zen Tuo, actually Maggie Xi.
- Troll: At the end of the game, when Shaggy tries to eat a "mubber-wich" (a sandwich made entirely out of mubber), Scooby uses a UV light to melt it for no reason other than to just mess with Shaggy.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Happens at a couple points:
- The first instance is when you're looking for Shaggy in the Chinatown sewers, and at one point, a dock Scooby stands on collapses, and Scooby then uses some of the broken boards as water skis to ride across the sewer waters while avoiding large pillars.
- The second one happens when you're traveling through the Undersea Exhibit to rescue Fred and Daphne. Scooby finds an old airplane and flies it through a tunnel full of blimps and other airplanes.
