A woman named Diane is picking the final American track and field champion, when Shaggy and Scooby run by, trying to escape a monster attack. Once Fred catches the monster, Diane approaches Shaggy, telling him that he unofficially broke a world record. She brings him and the gang along to the 2012 London Olympics, with Scooby-Doo as his trainer. When they arrive, they meet Steve Looker, the American pole vaulting champion, for whom Daphne immediately falls. This causes Fred to get jealous, and lie about being a pole vaulter himself, which is overheard and earns him a spot in the games.
Unfortunately, with the gang comes a monster mystery, as a statue of Fortius, one of the first Olympic champions, comes to life and begins terrorizing the games. Diane reveals that another reason she invited the gang is that she was afraid this would happen, as the statue is cursed, or something.
Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games provides examples of:
- Academic Athlete: Steve is a pole vaulter and book worm.
- Accidental Athlete: Shaggy becomes an excellent runner when scared out of his mind.
- Always Someone Better: Steve Looker. Fred was originally jealous of him, but they soon become friends.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the monster first wakes up there's a scene of a frightened Shaggy and Scooby as something storms through the streets before its shown their watching a Kaiju movie. This turns into a Chekhov's Gun because the robot from that movie is being used for the Fortius hoax.
- Becoming the Mask: Fred only pretends to be a pole vaulter out of jealousy towards Steve but then becomes one for real.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:Shaggy: Why can't tracks ever lead somewhere good? Like a beach.Scooby: Or a picnic.Both: Or a beach picnic!
- Chekhov's Skill: Turns out Shaggy's running can make him into an Olympic athlete.
- Covers Always Lie:
- The statue of Fortius is actually gold, not silver.
- Since HBO Max and other digital releases use unaltered art from the DVD release (which had the special and 12 episodes of Laff-A-Lympics), Fred Flintstone and Yogi Bear are on the poster despite not appearing in the special.
- Dub Name Change: Daphne in the Hungarian dubs of the Scooby-Doo franchise is called Diána. So to avoid confusion, the dub of this film changed Diane's name to... Daphne.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Shaggy loses the race trying to stop the monster, something he takes quite well.
- Genre Savvy: When Diane hears rumors of a curse on the statute, she invites the other mystery solvers out to watch Shaggy.
- Large Ham:Fortius: You can run, but Fortius can run faster!
- Living Statue: The conflict revolves around the Fortius statue coming to life and attacking the athletes.
- Man in the Machine: Jack Riggins was controlling a robot of Fortius.
- Meaningful Name: Steve Looker is quite the looker.
- Men of Sherwood: The Olympic security guards remain on keen alert for the monster attacks, try to taser Fortius, and then help tackle him before he can escape after the gang defeats him.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Igor and Sergei are Russian athletes who are very brawny.
- Mythology Gag: The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "The Spirited Spooked Sports Show" (with Tim Conway) had the same premise—Shaggy becoming a fast competitive runner when he's scared.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Steve Looker is named for the Australian pole vaulter Steve Hooker
. - The Olympics: The story takes place at the 2012 London Olympics.
- Police Are Useless: Averted. They guard the games looking out for Fortius. Tackle him when he appears (although that time it was just Scooby in a costume wanting to scare Shaggy so he'd run faster). Then they taser the real Fortius when he appears (although this doesn't stop him) and help several athletes dogpile him when he's knocked down.
- Recycled Plot: The bad guys motive is similar to the baseball episode from What's New, Scooby-Doo?; trying to stop an athlete from breaking the standing record, and both times the culprit is a comentator/reporter figure who used to be an athlete.
- Sports Hero Backstory: Reporter Jack Riggins was once a champion pole vaulter himself and requests dibs on the first interview when Steve breaks his record.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Played for Laughs with Scooby encouraging Shaggy to continue eating junk food instead of training and resting (not that Shaggy needs too much prodding).
- Trademark Favorite Food: When Jack Riggins isn’t holding a microphone, there’s usually an ice cream cone in its place.
- Your Size May Vary: Fortius is about as big as buildings, but when he attacks the gang, he’s only just larger than a jeep.
