Video Game / VS Shaggy

Okay, like, get ready now and stuff.

Vs Shaggy is a Friday Night Funkin' Game Mod made by srPerez, starring the aforementioned Scooby-Doo character (specifically his Memetic Badass "Ultra Instinct" incarnation). While potrayed normally as an easily frightened man who loves food, meme canon depicts him as one of the strongest beings in all of the universe's existence, possibly even the entire multiverse. Searching for Scooby inside a mansion, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers stumbles across the Boyfriend and the Girlfriend, who challenge Shaggy to a rap battle.

While a bit reluctant to do so at first, Shaggy eventually accepts to do a few songs with the Boyfriend, hoping Scooby will be fine. However, what may seem like an easy groove session with the Mystery Gang's most laid back member quickly turns into something a little more fast-paced. Will the Boyfriend be able to match Shaggy's levels, or will he quickly come to regret pushing Shaggy to unleash more of his power?

An official crossover with Sulayre's Wii Funkin mod was released in July 4th 2021 called Shaggy X Matt, which combines Shaggy's special gameplay mechanic with Matt's frenetic singing.

Unmarked spoilers for Week 2, 3 and 5 ahead.

Song List:

Chapter 1: First Encounter

1. Where are you?
2. Eruption
3. Kaio-ken

Chapter 2: The Rematch

1. What's new (Copyright free version)
2. Blast
3. Super Saiyan

Chapter 3: Ultimate Destruction (Finale)

1. GOD EATER

Chapter 4: Shaggy x Matt

See Shaggy X Matt

Chapter 5: Bonus Match (ft. Red Shaggy)

1. Soothing Power
2. Thunderstorm
3. Dissasembler

Chapter 6: Special Kombat

1. Astral Calamity (WB Shaggy)
2. Talladega (secret boss)

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Like, tropes used in this mod, man.

• Adaptational Badass: In Scooby-Doo itself, Shaggy is generally portrayed as a Lovable Coward with little combat aptitude; even when he's hypnotized to remove his cowardice, his skill is limited to knocking out the denizens of a Bad Guy Bar. Here, he's so powerful that he has to consciously hold back for the sake of Boyfriend. Just using 0.002% of his power, he can bring people Back from the Dead and reshape the world around them with no effort at all. Red Shaggy is even more powerful, as stated by him.
• Adaptational Villainy: Almost like with V.S. TABI Ex Boyfriend, Girlfriend is subjected to this. While we don't know what alignment she really is overall, she definitely hasn't (so far) killed anyone who seemed innocent, out of nowhere, just to get a rise out of someone, in this case Shaggy. Admittedly, she claims afterwards that she knew all along Shaggy could resurrect Scooby effortlessly.
• Affably Evil: Zephyrus, who decides not to conquer Boyfriend’s universe because he helped him, and to sing 3000 songs with him, with 1 song every few years. He’s also entirely upfront about his goals.
• The Ageless: Shaggy used his powers to stop aging at age 17, along with Scooby (who was insistent on always staying by his side). By the time the mod starts, Shaggy's around 70 years old.
• Back from the Dead: After the Girlfriend murders Scooby, Shaggy is able to bring him back with little effort at the end of "GOD EATER".
• Badass Fingersnap: Shaggy snaps his fingers to blow the mansion apart right before "GOD EATER" starts. It's suggested to be solely for the Rule of Cool even in-universe - after the song ends, he admits that he didn't need to do it in order to actually do anything.

• Cover Version:
  • "Where are you?", as the title implies, is an instrumental rendition of the theme to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
  • In week 2, "What's new" is an instrumental version of the theme to What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Shaggy doesn't seems to be much of a challenge at first, but after the first song he'll show you that he can mean business if he wants to. This also applies to his counterparts.
• Death by Adaptation: Implied by Shaggy, as he used his powers to stop himself and Scooby from aging 53 years ago, but he didn’t do the same to Fred, Velma, or Daphne because he knew it would be selfish not to let them rest. By the time the mod takes place, Shaggy laments on how Scooby is all he has left, implying that his friends are long dead. In Week 5, Red Shaggy says that his Scooby died a long time ago after Boyfriend asks about him (having mistaken Red Shaggy for his green counterpart).
  • Confirmed by Zephyrus if you ask him about Shaggy’s past. One of his friends (implied to be Velma) went crazy and killed everyone else and herself. Shaggy was able to stop her from killing Scooby, but Red Shaggy wasn’t so lucky.
• Duels Decide Everything: Implied aversion. In the ending cutscene, Shaggy warns that if Girlfriend tries to kill Scooby again, he will demonstrate that singing is not his only means of offense by a long shot.
• Everyone Has Standards: Boyfriend is legitimately shocked by Girlfriend cutting Scooby in half.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Scooby as always, immediately realizing Girlfriend's true nature as a demon and cowering in fear. He turns out to be right.
• Evil Mask: Zephyrus.
• Excuse Plot: Zig-zagged. In week 1, Shaggy's search for Scooby is dropped after the introduction to the first song, and is mostly used as a reason to why Shaggy and the Boyfriend meet in the first place. It comes up again near the start of week 2 as Shaggy attempts to get Scooby's attention by singing his favorite song, but this also fades as the week progresses. It's only after "Super Saiyan" that the plot is finally resolved when Scooby shows up.
• Expy: Zephyrus is a transparent expy of Spamton from Deltarune Chapter 2, having similar ways of unlocking his boss battle and adopting some of his mannerisms as well. He was even supposed to look outright like Spamton's face, but that was scrapped since the creator decided it might get confusing for players.
• Fetch Quest: To unlock the secret song "Talladega", you need to collect pieces of Zephyrus’ face scattered throughout the mod. Once you’ve found one, you can enter conversation with (phantom) Zephyrus from the menu, who can give you hints on where to find the other parts. When you’ve found all four, talk to Zephyrus and then bring him to Week 6.
• Friendly Enemy: Shaggy to Boyfriend by Week 2. After learning about Shaggy's Dark and Troubled Past, BF trash-talks him to get him out of his slump and better song. Shaggy realizes this and chuckles before calling him a "prick", before singing "Super Saiyan". After "GOD EATER", it's clear that Shaggy outright considers BF to be a Worthy Opponent, facing off against 0.002% of his full power. This also applies to Zephyrus; he’s genuinely happy that Boyfriend helped him and even keeps his promise of 3000 rap battles… sort of.
• Glamour Failure: Just like in the vanilla game's Week 7, Girlfriend shows hints of her demonic nature when she slices Scooby, revealing her parents' glowing red eyes and her mother's long fingernails.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Girlfriend fatally cleaves Scooby in half with a simple gesture in the prelude to "GOD EATER". He gets better.
• Implied Death Threat: Before leaving, Shaggy warns the Girlfriend that if she tries to kill Scooby again, then he won't pretend singing is his only option.
• Medium Awareness: Shaggy is aware that Boyfriend has time reversal powers that allows him to reset when ever he loses, most likely aware that the player can reset if Boyfriend loses.
• Mythology Gag: "GOD EATER" samples a couple of lines from Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur - specifically, a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner uttered by a hypnotized Shaggy. Since that scene indirectly originated the Ultra Instinct Shaggy meme, it fits his portrayal in the mod, especially since the song accompanies a level where Shaggy unleashes far more of his power than before.
  "This can go two ways, punk. One: you walk away. Two: I walk on your face."
• Oh, Crap!: Boyfriend visibly panics after Girlfriend cleaves Scooby in half, knowing full well that he's in for a hell of a time afterwards.
• Rage Breaking Point: Shaggy hits his when Girlfriend kills Scooby, at which point he obliterates the mansion, goes flying, and unleashes an absolutely grueling song that requires the player to master 9 arrows to get through his onslaught. However, if the Boyfriend manages to succeed, Shaggy reveals that he was never really angry at all, as he can effortlessly resurrect Scooby, and "GOD EATER" was far from him going all out.
• Reality Warper: Shaggy, as well as his counterpart (presumably), is one on a level approaching godlike, if not beyond it, to the point that things like rewinding time and raising the dead are barely scratching the surface of what he's capable of, including meddling with the very mechanics of the game to add extra arrows. Zephyrus was powerful enough to conquer universes in the past before being sealed, and regains that power when he attaches to WB Shaggy.
• The Reveal:
  • After clearing "GOD EATER", Shaggy reveals a few things. One, he could revive Scooby (and the world) at any time after destroying it. Two, Shaggy came to the world of Friday Night Funkin' because Scooby heard about a fellow unaging teenager. And three, Boyfriend is implied to have time reversal powers that allows him to reset when ever he loses, and was the reason Shaggy was holding back, even during "GOD EATER".
  • After Thunderstorm, Boyfriend asks after Scooby, to which Red Shaggy reveals that his Scooby died a long time ago, and that he’s a different person from the Shaggy we see in Weeks 1-3.
• Self-Deprecation: The method of obtaining Zephyrus' mouth is to catch it falling during "Blast" in Week 2. According to Zephyrus, this happens because he was laughing so hard at how shit the song was that it just fell. srPerez themself has made it clear before that Blast is their least favorite of the mod's songs, making this a clear case of this.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Girlfriend's efforts to get Shaggy to stop holding back by murdering Scooby were doomed from the start in two different respects. First, Shaggy is powerful enough to resurrect him with no effort. Second, even after a rage-driven, fearsome-looking display of strength in "GOD EATER", she still only managed to provoke him into using 0.002% of his power.
• Shonen Hair:
  • Downplayed in week 1 and for the later songs of week 2. Shaggy's hair stands up slightly and grows spikier when he powers up.
  • Played straight in "GOD EATER": once Shaggy goes ballistic, his hair stands up considerably in a Super Saiyan-like fashion.
  • Averted everywhere else. Red Shaggy’s hair stays the same through Week 5. WB Shaggy’s hair blows in the non-existent wind but doesn’t stand up, and for the secret song his hair becomes more unkempt than anything.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Kaio-ken" and "Super Saiyan" both refer to Super Modes from Dragon Ball, alluding to the origin of Shaggy's Memetic Badassery.
  • Beating week 2's bonus song leads to a twofer:
    • Shaggy describes a tournament in another universe for especially strong individuals, a dead ringer for the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super.
    • He also mentions that Saitama, the famously strong protagonist of One-Punch Man, is likely to attend.
• Speaking Simlish: Shaggy's "singing" voice is created by quote mining the syllables from the phrases "Oh, but that's okay, Scooby's been through training school!" and "Lil' Doe Eyes Dinkly", rearranging them into rhythmic tunes.
• Streamer-Friendly Mode: Week 2's first song, an instrumental Cover Version of What's New, Scooby-Doo?'s theme, triggers YouTube's song detection systems. To get around this, holding the P key while selecting the week in the menu removes the guitar from the song, leaving only the drums.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • "Kaio-ken" alters the game's central mechanics in one critical way. Shaggy's power causes six arrows to appear instead of four, giving you only a few seconds to get use to the new control scheme before the song starts. This returns for the second and third songs of week 2.
  • "GOD EATER" makes the game's note charts more complicated by increasing the number of potential notes to nine (two sets of arrow keys and a central diamond shape). Zephyrus brings this control scheme back for his song, "Talladega".
  • Week 5 uses seven arrows in its later songs. Week 6 uses it for "Astral Calamity".
• Wham Line:
  • After clearing week 2 and being reunited with Shaggy, Scooby reveals the reason they got separated was because he go scared by a monster. Then he turns his head to Girlfriend...
  Scooby: It's the monster!
  • After clearing "GOD EATER", Shaggy offers an explanation for his visit that simultaneously implies that Boyfriend is The Ageless and indicates that the preceding Brutal Bonus Level was far from his true power.
  Shaggy: Anyways, to tell the truth Scooby was looking for you. We came to your universe because we heard a teenager was like, immortal. And you beat me first try! From my perspective at least... I'm guessing you have some time resetting ability, so I'm glad I didn't go full power against you.
  • Pretty much anything Zephyrus says, before and after he is reassembled.
• Wham Shot:
  • When week 1's final song starts up, an Unexpected Gameplay Change is heralded by Shaggy quickly powering up, causing six arrows to appear.
  • At the end of Week 2, Shaggy is finally reunited with Scooby. Then Girlfriend suddenly bisects the dog, quickly leading into "GOD EATER" where Shaggy exerts far more of his power.
  • After Zephyrus attaches to WB Shaggy's face the background goes black, his power aura disappears, his face shows an expression of pain all at once, and he soon falls offscreen with a slam. The first thing we see afterwards is... whatever this is.◊
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Shaggy is over 70 years old, but used his powers to stop himself from aging when he was 17. He didn’t do the same for Fred, Velma, and Daphne because he knew it would be selfish to not let them rest, and only did it for Scooby because of how insistent he was. While he seems generally content with his immortality, he still laments on how Scooby is all he has left. Red Shaggy doesn’t even have Scooby left.
• Willfully Weak: Shaggy deliberately holds back his true power for Boyfriend's sake. He briefly loses control near the end of "Where are you?" (reflected by the note chart momentarily getting more difficult than usual) and steadily loosens up throughout each week. By the time week 2 concludes, Girlfriend attempts to goad him into going all-out by murdering Scooby... but even then, after he destroys the mansion with a Badass Fingersnap, begins floating, and forces the player to contend with nine notes, he claims that he was only using 0.002% of his true power once "GOD EATER" is over. This implied he's aware that Boyfriend can reset whenever he loses, which is why he holds back, even during the bonus song. Same applies to Red Shaggy, who is even more powerful than his counterpart but also holds back for Boyfriend's sake.
• Worthy Opponent: It's hinted Shaggy sees Boyfriend as this, wanting to take it easy on him but acquiescing to his requests to go a bit faster with each song. It's even reflected in his health meter icon: instead of the usual scared, angry, or dead icons that other opponents have, his defeat icon is merely an amused smirk. This gets Zig-Zagged in the case of GOD EATER, as his anger changes his health meter icon to be enraged as his defeat icon, but he remains humble when defeated barring his warning that if Girlfriend tried what she did again, he would show it's not just singing he's good at...

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