For over 40 years, Scooby-Doo has been an icon in pop-culture. It's the story of Freddie, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy, members of the nationally known Mystery, Inc. detective agency and their talking dog Scooby-Doo. They travel the country in their Mystery Machine van solving outrageous cases one after another. Despite all the subtext in the characters and plots, children love the stories and parents buy the merchandise. Now, Scooby is back in an all-new adventure on the Nintendo Wii - Scooby Doo: And the Spooky Swamp. Typically licensed games have a bad reputation. The Spooky Swamp, however, presents an entertaining platforming experience, despite the brief and somewhat redundant gameplay. All the character voicing lives up to the 40-year legacy, while the story and puzzles add just the right touch of Scooby factor to make you feel like you're playing through one of Scooby's cartoon adventures.

The Spooky Swamp starts out in the Mystery, Inc. clubhouse. Scooby and Shaggy have a little dispute with their compatriots and decide to leave the clubhouse. Of course, it doesn't take long before Shaggy and Scooby get hungry since that's pretty much their thing. Strangely, the Mystery, Inc clubhouse is located in a swamp. Even more strangely, the game features the Scooby team as tweens. So how they got the deed to a house in the swamp is a mystery on its own. The first twenty minutes of gameplay is spent learning your moves. Gamers always have two players on the screen, whether they are playing in single player or cooperative play. You can switch between Scooby and Shaggy at any time with the C-button. Later on, you will also be able to change outfits and use other members of the Mystery team with the C-button.

In the swamp, Shaggy and Scooby are hot on the trail of the delightful smell of food. They track down the source of the smell to a stew being made by a swamp witch named Lila. Of course, the duo could care less where food is coming from as long as it smells good. They probably never heard of the warning "never take candy from strangers." They decide to do Lila's bidding in order to get a taste of the stew. Lila needs two ingredients and tells Scooby and Shaggy to get their friends and find the missing stew components. Luckily the gang ends up in a mystery case and needs little convincing from Shaggy and Scooby.

The game is broken down into two main mysteries and three featured boards. Being a detective isn't so bad when you have the help of your friends and a few trusty detective tools like a cassette recorder and camera. After a prison break sequence, you will be able to use the entire Mystery team. Shaggy attacks with a slingshot and can swing on high branches. Scooby uses a hot dog link chain for attacks and can squeeze through doggy doors. Fred uses his fists of fury and has the special ability to move around heavy objects. Velma throws out books to attack and can also use the Velma phone, which is a mini color matching game that opens up special map locations. Daphne has a kick attack and can climb up different objects. Just like in the cartoon, you get the feeling that Daphne is pretty much useless and her ability was thrown in as an afterthought. Fred on the other hand is boring to play with. Both Fred and Daphne's attacks are so close range that they will make you more susceptible to damage.

There are plenty of mysteries sprinkled throughout the game that function like mini-games. Each person you interact with will probably have a puzzle for you to solve. For example in one mini-mystery, you will have to find three missing books. In order to find the books, you will have to switch back and forth between your characters to make use of their individual talents. Mini-games include pattern matching, piecing together pictures, adding gears to pulley machines and using your magnifying glass to find clues. There's also the Guess Who mini-game where you actually pick out who committed the crime from your list of suspects. The only drawback is the amount of backtracking you have to do. You'll find yourself constantly returning to Point A after solving several mini- mysteries. It gets redundant very quickly.

It's worth mentioning that you can't simply skip a cut scene. Instead, you have to hold down the B-button and let the gauge fill in order to skip it. Also when you save your progress, you start back at your swamp shack dressed in the clothes of the location you were last in. so if you were in prison, you'll still be wearing stripes. However, you'll still have to sit through the cut scene again unless you hold down the B-button for a few seconds to skip it.

All the character voicing is great and true to the original cartoons. Each character also adds a few one-liners here and there to keep up the energy. For fun, the developers also threw in laugh tracks throughout the game, whenever Shaggy or Scooby say something funny or odd.

The game is filled with collectables, most of which don't affect gameplay. You can collect Scooby Snacks throughout the game to purchase different outfits. There are also several trophies and awards that you can earn. This will keep the younger audience entertained. Adult audiences will probably just breeze through the game without collecting all the items. Once you realize that the collectables don't affect gameplay, you will be less inclined to bash every table to get every Scooby Snack or kill 150 zombies to collect their skulls.

Scooby-Doo: And The Spooky Swamp will surely delight young audiences with its vibrant visuals and excellent voice acting. The story and platforming experience is done well enough to keep you interested in another fun-filled Scooby mystery.

Final Score: C+