Rare’s first title for a Microsoft console after their buyout in 2002 was Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and it was a flop. A 3D beat-em-up title with a distinct cartoon-visual style and simple controls, Ghoulies was destined for the Gamecube, but after Rare’s move to Microsoft the title ended up falling into an entirely different market, where games aimed at younger audiences had nowhere near the impact as they did on the pre-established fanbase Nintendo had already built up. Ghoulies flopped on its face: not because it was a terrible game, but because it failed to stand out among the rest of the Xbox’s flagship titles. Over five years later, Rare are offering the title up for grabs a second time as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Originals service, for a mere 1200 points. And while Ghoulies may not have been the next Donkey Kong Country or Banjo-Kazooie, and while its gameplay may not satisfying for everybody, the game remains a very charming title which is definitely worth a look.
The game stars Cooper: a young, handsome-blonde lad who has decided to take his girl out camping. During their travels, the couple notice a storm brewing on the horizon, and thus run to find the nearest shelter to keep them safe. They rush inside the gates of the nearby building, which as clichéd as it may sound, is a towering mansion named Ghoulhaven Hall which seems to be absent from Cooper’s map. Naturally upon entering the mansion Cooper’s girlfriend, Amber, is kidnapped by a horde of creepy ghouls, leaving Cooper with no choice but to take after his damsel in distress. It’s that same plot you’ve heard at least a thousand times before, and while there may be a few unexpected twists along the way, it’s clear that narrative isn’t the high point of this game.
So how exactly does the game work, then? Well, if there was any one way to explain it, I’d say that Ghoulies is basically a three-dimensional rendition of the sidescrolling beat-em-ups that flooded the game arcades in the eighties and early nineties. The game is very linear, and basically sees you going from one room of the mansion to the next along a predetermined path. Cooper uses the left control stick to navigate his way through each of the rooms, while the right stick is used to direct attacks at the various enemies the game throws at you; attacks basically being limited to a few punches and kicks from Cooper, as well as the ability to use any of the dozens of pick-up weapons in the rooms against your foes in typical beat-em-up style. The controls may seem a bit weird at first, but it only takes a few minutes to understand the choice here. Surrounded by bad guys? Direct your attacks towards whichever one you like. Low on health? Run away with the left stick while using the right one to direct your attacks at any baddies who may get close. You can also throw items in any direction while running where you like. It’s a nice design choice which makes survival all the more easier when things get hectic, while keeping extremely simple.
And rest assured, things definitely get hectic in this game. To mix things up a bit, Rare have added a variety of challenges to each of Ghoulhaven Hall’s areas – challenges whose requirements must be met before the player is able to advance to the next room. Requirements may be as simple as defeating all the Ghoulies in the room, but soon enough they’ll step up in difficulty and demand the player to only defeat baddies of a certain type, or find the key, or defeat baddies within a time limit, or simply avoid being hit. The added twist is that breaking any of the rules of a room will result in the calling of the Reaper, whose outstretched finger will instantly kill anything it comes in touch with.
Believe it or not, the Reaper plays a larger part in Ghoulies’ gameplay than one might think. As the game ramps up in difficulty towards the end and challenges become progressively harder, you’ll find yourself dying more often and having to restart the same rooms over again. Strategy comes into play, in that you’ll need to really think about how you’ll tackle a room’s requirements and still get out alive. Sometimes it’s as simple as making the right path through a room to avoid getting hit, but other times things may get too frantic within the hordes of attacking fiends under the room’s requirements. In this case, you may want to make things easier for yourself by breaking the challenge rules and calling the Reaper to help you get rid of any unwanted foes before you exit the room. That said, while this tactic will certainly come in use more than one time during the game, there are some occasions where a room will reveal secondary challenges after you complete the first one or when you try to leave a room, so calling the Reaper can really become a double-edged sword in some situations. The game becomes a case of thinking whether or not you should call the Reaper, and if so, knowing just when the right time to call him is. It certainly adds some depth to an otherwise fairly straightforward game.
The problem is that the challenges faced within a room can get quite repetitive, and that apart from the stacking up of several challenges at once towards the end of the game, Ghoulies doesn’t really try to throw anything different at you. If a room allows you to walk from one end to the exit door without any challenges popping up, then you can expect the door to lock as you reach it and another challenge to spring into play for you to complete before moving on. And while kicking shrieking spiders or bashing up fake door enemies is always fun, there are times where you just want to move on to the next room, but are instead restricted by a challenge. The challenges aren’t always that fun, either, and sometimes you can get stuck on one room for quite some time, dying over and over due to either limited health or the Reaper. It’s odd, because the game has such a childish appeal to it and yet it can be so frustratingly difficult later on in the game. Rare have even put in a special feature to give the little ones double as much health if they wish, although this hardly helps during those tense situations where one wrong move will summon the Reaper to rain on your parade.
Despite being quite repetitive at times with little to change things up, there was a certain charm with Ghoulies which prevented me from putting it down until I had beaten it. For one, the game has a great cartoon visual style for each of its characters and enemies, which reminds me of Wallace and Grommit in some ways due to the characters’ clay-like appearance. Plot development pans out via moving pictures in a sort of comic-book, along with dialogue boxes for each character’s speech similar to those used in old movies with no sound. Ghoulies’ soundtrack is fantastic, and while most tunes are remixed versions of the basic theme, it’s a tune that never gets old over the course of the game, and one that I’m sure many will find themselves humming to. The characters themselves have great personalities, whether it be the eccentric Baron Von Ghoul or the innuendo-filled chatter with Fiddlesworth the gardener. It’s just a bit saddening that the two protagonists have the least personality and are probably the most forgettable of the cast, though.
All up, Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a brilliant gem of a beat-em-up that I’m certainly not going to forget anytime soon. The unique cartoon style compliments what I feel is some great gameplay, a smooth transition from the old 2D beat-em-ups of the arcade. While I can’t say it’s a game for everyone in this regard, if you do like bashing up skeletons and don’t mind a bit of repetition you should discover a very delightful romp that’s worthy of becoming ‘that annual Halloween game’. Try it out whenever you get the chance.
