Grabbed by the Ghoulies – A Game Like This is Truly Rare

Author's Rating:

Pros: fun gameplay, dozens of weapons and power-ups, interesting graphics style, well orchestrated music

Cons: no multi-player mode, not much replay value, fairly short adventure

The Bottom Line: 
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a very fun adventure developed by Rare that has some old-school roots. Although brief, I managed to really love every minute of it.

Author's Review
Rare is one of those video game developers that everyone has to love. They’ve made games that have pleased everyone – be it one of the Conker games, one of the Banjo-Kazooie games, the Donkey Kong series, the original GoldenEye or Perfect Dark. In 2002, Rare was bought by Microsoft, thus ensuring that the famous developer would develop console games solely for the Xbox. Everyone, including I, had big expectations for their first release on this system. Toward the end of 2003 Rare’s first Xbox game titled Grabbed by the Ghoulies was released. Surprisingly, I grew to like this game.

The plot is very generic. Cooper, a young blonde with spiky hair, and his girlfriend Amber are taking a walk in the woods when suddenly it begins to rain. They come across a haunted house and within a matter of minutes, Amber becomes kidnapped. Copper must trek through this house, known as Ghoulhaven Hall, and reunite with his girlfriend. There are 50 rooms and 100 levels to go through; thus making an exciting adventure. In between missions, the story advances via a very interesting system, which I will speak of later.

Although I usually avoid telling readers the controls for a game, I believe it is quite necessary for this game. The control system is very unique, as the X, Y and B buttons are virtually never used at all. Cooper’s movement is controlled via the left thumbstick, while items are picked up and used via the A button. The two triggers located on the back of the controller are used to alter the camera angle. All of Cooper’s attacks, however, are controlled via the right thumbstick. When you press in a direction, Cooper will kick, punch and elbow opponents in that direction. At first I disliked this control system as it felt awkward but then I became accustomed to it quickly. Had the X, Y and B buttons been assigned attacks, this would have become a button masher.

In Grabbed by the Ghoulies, the gameplay is very linear. In virtually every mission, you enter a room, then the way out becomes shut off and you are presented with a challenge. The challenges vary slightly, yet always involve killing a large amount of monsters. Challenges vary from killing all of the skeletons to killing a certain amount of imps in a minute or even using only weapons to kill certain opponents. Failure to comply will result in the unleashing of the Grim Reaper, who kills you in one quick motion, followed by an air guitar celebration.

The enemy variety was well executed. There is an array of mummies, skeletons, vampires, imps, haunted objects, spiders and the like. All of them are presented in a very PG manner unlike the Doom series in order to make this a child friendly game. Another great aspect is the ability to smash virtually all objects in the rooms. All of the furniture can be and usually is destroyed by the time you move on… just because you can. Smashing tables has never been so much fun.

So far you probably think that your hands and feet are your only weapons in this game. Fortunately, that is not the case. There are plenty of weapons in this game, most of which are just laying around waiting to be thrown or used to smack someone with. Items like birthday cakes, vases, bottles and plants can be thrown from a distance to induce damage. Objects like skillets, umbrellas and even are used as melee attacks and break after a few smacks. Also, there are objects like the pool table that you can spin in a semi-circle to knock down all enemies in its path. Finally, there are a few items that are given to you at the start of missions, which are rechargeable, such as water guns or soda launchers. These are also controlled via the right thumbstick, and my aim was pretty bad with them originally.

There are also plenty of power-ups to make the gameplay even more exciting. Power-ups are presented in the form of cans, and usually appear after you smash a certain item. Power-ups have many advantages as they can replenish your health, increase your speed, allow you to perform one-hit kills for a limited time, make you invincible, add time to a challenge, reload your weapons, freeze your enemies, make them fight each other, complete the challenge right away, make you immune to the Grim Reaper, as well as a multitude of others. However, not all power-ups have positive effects…

Throughout the game, there are a bunch of surprises. For example, there are things called Scary Tests. You’re walking through a peaceful hall when suddenly a GIANT monster pops up. Cooper is scared to death, and you are prompted to press the buttons displayed on the screen in precise order in a few seconds, otherwise Cooper will faint. The first time I came across this it scared me too.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies does not offer too much in the replay value department. No multi-player modes are offered whatsoever, which is a shame. The single-player adventure will last you about 10 solid hours. This appears to be a kid’s game on the outside, however it is extremely challenging at certain points and it will probably be too hard for young ones. I recently had the urge to play this game again because I really enjoyed it the first time I played it.

Graphically, Grabbed by the Ghoulies is somewhat impressive. The graphics are cel-shaded, slightly similar to the Wind Waker game. The characters were animated in a very cute and friendly manner, yet it is never too cute. They are drawn in a way that appeals to the younger gamers as well as to adults. The character animations are hilarious. If you leave Cooper standing alone for a while, he’ll begin to scratch his butt, dig in his nose and the likes. It’s obvious that Rare injected some of their trademark humor into this game. Other animations are just what I expected from a game like this and the particle effects are spectacular. The rooms themselves also fit into the Halloween-type theme spectacularly. Also, the way that the story moves on is done ingeniously. After certain missions, Cooper’s adventures are presented in an animated comic book manner. It moves from panel to panel, and when danger is at its highest gamers regain control of their favorite blonde spiky-haired skeleton-busting character.

The audio department also deserves a congratulatory pat on the back. Although the game lacks character voices, they are replaced by text and grunts. This seems completely out of date, especially with the Xbox being a next-generation system but this text really gives the game an authentic Rare feel. The background music is amazing and fits in with this game perfectly. You hear Halloween-themed orchestrated music that really brings it home. The random shrieks and screams in the background also add to this theme. The sound effects are fairly basic, yet they get the job done with sounding like over-recycling clips from other games.

Overall, Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a very entertaining game by Rare. Although this will not become a classic, the gameplay is on par with other Rare titles. The gameplay may seem repetitive to some, the lack of replay value might discourage others while the cel-shading might not appeal to others, yet I happened to thoroughly enjoy this game and even came back to it again. It is a perfect Halloween present, and this game can be found for $20 or less fairly easily. I definitely recommend everyone to rent this game, and if you enjoy it picking it up might also be worthwhile for you. Now I’m just waiting for Conker: Live and Reloaded, a definite masterpiece for the Xbox by Rare.