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Grabbed by the Ghoulies

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Posted by: kombo

When Rare and Microsoft announced their partnership everyone was thrilled and eager to play the newlywed's first game. Well, here it is, in the form of Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Released just in time for Halloween, Ghoulies' haunted house theme amplified the spooky spirit. For those of you who will fall for the game's kiddy costume, enter...at your own risk. Features -50 rooms and 100 levels to explore -Unlockable bonus challenges -Many, many weapons to smash your foes' faces with. Gameplay Hack and slash, and hack and slash and hack and slash, repeat. By now, I think you can see what we're getting at here. At first you may find yourself quite charmed by the look and feel of the initial stages of the game, but soon the constant repetition of only slightly varied levels wears thin on the patience. Though you are supplied with some neat power ups and weapons, unfortunately they are not enough to vary the gameplay. Eventually my only motivation to get through the game was not to complete it, but rather, to end it. The plot of the game is as simple as the gameplay. You and your girlfriend are out for a walk. Suddenly it starts to rain and you decided to find shelter in a big, old mansion. See what I mean? Your character is known simply as “Cooper” and little else is revealed about the characters or plot as you progress through the game, leaving you with many questions and little motivation to keep hacking. You may think I am being too harsh on a "kids" game. Perhaps, but some parts of this game are very challenging, taking several trials (and many errors) before finally getting through the pointless task at hand. Unfortunately the difficulty makes the game quite unsuitable for kids. Graphics One of Ghoulie’s highlights is it's well polished and, I dare say, fun graphical style. You wont find yourself tackled by flesh dogs smashing through windows. Instead you will face an assortment of vampires, skeletons, mummies, zombies...etc. Vast assortments of objects found around the house are put to use when disposing of your enemies. Each level can has destructible areas and you will often find yourself smashing tables and book cases just because you can. It’s very satisfying to look upon the smashed and shattered room after destroying dozens of enemies that came at you from closets, windows, paintings and chests. One of the downfalls of the game's polished look is Cooper's choppy and unvaried animations. He has a forward, backward and side attack with the occasional flying elbow or kick, but all are boring and repetitive. Admittedly this isn’t helped any by the horrible camera. The camera is not only ill-placed, but not very cooperative either. This often results in you swinging blindly at enemies off-screen, which in turn results in you being hit by enemies off-screen. Sound The in-game music is perfect. A clash of Halloween-ish jingles and hoots and howls ties in perfect with the whole feel of the game. I often found myself humming along while beating down my enemies. The battle noises are also well executed; not over the top, but fitting. Replay Let’s face it; this game gets old quick. After a short while of smashing and beating, you realize that after you have played through the first few rooms, you have played through them all. The player doesn’t even get the subtle joy of smashing the buttons in as your attacks are controlled by use of the analog stick. Now, there are unlockables that are accessed by collecting books that can be found scattered around the mansion. Once a certain number of books are found, a bonus challenge appears in the menu. After completing a certain number of these bonus challenges (which are only repeats of levels you have already played in the game) not so special features are unlocked in the gallery such as artwork and whatnot. All in all, getting through this game once is a hard enough task, much less playing it twice. Overall A moderately entertaining adventure, Grabbed by the Ghoulies would have been much better received if Rare's standard polish was there. It’s fun game overall with too many crucial flaws that bring the whole experience down. Justin Stowell
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