THQ to bring Mystery Machine and the gang to multiple formats

THQ and Warner Bros today announced an agreement that gives THQ licensing rights to Scooby Doo, everyone's favourite oversized pooch. For the next four years, the company will be licensed to produce various Scooby Doo videogames spanning all the popular consoles, including Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Game Boy and Dreamcast.

"Through the Scooby Doo cartoon series that has spanned over 30 years and recent home video releases, Scooby Doo has established itself as a worldwide household name for several generations," said Germaine Gioia, Vice President of Licensing, THQ. "We are very excited to be working with Warner Bros on a product that lends itself so naturally to a 3D interactive adventure."

Sources have informed us that Digital Eclipse are currently working on the first Scooby Doo title for Game Boy Color, reported to be a point-and-click adventure similar to Maniac Mansion and Secret of Monkey Island. Because it's coming from Digital Eclipse, expect all the bells and whistles, including silky smooth animation, similar to their Disney's Tarzan product, as well as rich digitised speech like that found in games such as Klax. THQ will release Scooby Doo for the Game Boy Color in autumn this year.

When asked if Scooby and friends would be coming to Nintendo's next-generation console, THQ refused to comment but would confirm a Nintendo 64 release for autumn this year. "As the platform matures and the price decreases, the user base becomes a lot younger and Scooby Doo for Nintendo 64 - at its core - will appeal to those users," explained the firm's Vice President of Product Development Michael Rubinelli. "With that said, the game will also appeal to an older audience that perhaps grew up with Scooby."

Scooby's Nintendo 64 debut will mimic the cartoon series that made the dog famous as closely as possible. Expect lots of campy humour intermixed with haunted environments and mysteries to be solved. The game is likely to unfold via a third-person view in a style similar to the Resident Evil franchise.

More details as we get them.


Courtesy of IGN.com