Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Posted November 3, 2003
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is the first XBox game from one-time Nintendo mainstay Rare, acquired by Microsoft last year to the tune of several hundred million dollars. The cel-shaded action game begins as Cooper and his gal pal Amber approach a mansion cheerfully named Ghoulhaven Hall. Amber is spirited off by a group of nasties, and Cooper gallantly rushes in to rescue his lady love. He's assisted by a butler who fills Cooper in on the creatures that are teeming throughout the house, guiding him down a path to save Amber and defeat the black-hearted Baron.
Gameplay:
The control scheme is clean and simple. Like arcade games such as Robotron and Smash TV before it, Grabbed by the Ghoulies uses two sticks for the primary action. The left thumbstick predictably moves Cooper around the screen, and the right stick is used to attack. Cooper's array of assaults include punches and kicks, and he can also pick up items scattered throughout the levels to inflict further damage. The buttons to grab and discard weapons are the only ones used in actual gameplay. "Super scary shocks" -- when Cooper stumbles into Medusa's gaze or is startled by a massive monster -- require pressing the four face buttons in a particular sequence a la SIMON to avoid losing a chunk of health. Other scares in some levels can terrify Cooper so much that he's temporarily unable to do anything other than shiver with fear.
Because the right thumbstick is used to aim Cooper's attacks, camera manipulation is relegated to the left and right shoulder triggers. I was wary about this sort of control scheme initially, but it didn't present much of a problem at all. A couple of hiccups aside, the camera is intuitive enough that I didn't have to rotate it with any great frequency. My biggest stumbling block with this approach, at least before I got the hang of the scheme, was that I was used to fiddling with the right thumbstick in other games that, out of habit, I'd try to do the same here and prematurely have Cooper throw an object.
The controls are listed on the back of the instruction manual for a quick and easy reference. I noticed that the manual for Crimson Skies also rattled off the controls in the same way. It's a welcome idea, and one that I'd like to see Microsoft and other publishers adopt for all of their manuals.
Ghoulhaven Hall is littered with scores of ghoulies, including zombies, coffin-clad succubi, skeletons, hunchbacks, explosive worms, pirates, mummies, haunted televisions, vampiric chickens, and ninja imps. Similar games have a tendency to bombard the player with swarms of mindless creatures, offering little in the way of AI and attempting to compensate with sheer numbers. Grabbed by the Ghoulies doesn't have any shortage of monsters, but rather than have a couple hundred of dim ghoulies per stage, there are a smaller number of relatively bright ones. Just as Cooper can grab items lying around and use them to beat on the badniks, they can also grab objects -- umbrellas, framed pictures, and most anything else within arm's reach -- and whack Cooper with it.
A variety of power-ups in the forms of soup cans can be found throughout each level, providing additional health, strengthened weapons, heightened speed, resistance to shocks, invincibility, frozen enemies, more time to stave off the presence of the Reaper, and, in some rare cases, an instantly completed set of goals. Not all of the soup cans are beneficial; those with a bat icon up top contain one of several debilitating effects, reversing the controls, slowing Cooper down to a crawl, or temporarily robbing him of most of his health. The difference between a level that seems virtually impossible and one that's a breeze generally lies in discovering the locations of the most beneficial power-ups.
Some of the cans are revealed by shattering objects throughout the highly interactive environments. Other objects can be picked up and either used as blunt weapons or tossed at enemies. Some stages also offer semi-permanent weapons, including a squirt gun, a candle, a fire extinguisher, and a pistol that blasts soda cans. With a quick tap of the right thumbstick, Cooper will smack enemies with one of these weapons, and a prolonged press fires. These particular weapons have unlimited ammunition, but Cooper can only fire so many times before having to wait for the ammo to regenerate. I found the firing of certain weapons to be a pain at times; there were several instances where I was pitted against the Baron on level four and I'd have him down to 10 or 20 points of health. I'd successfully dodge his airplane, and my gun refused to fire, causing me to have to restart the excruciatingly laborious process all over again. That was one of the only times I got particularly frustrated playing the game.
Many of the stages have certain goals and guidelines necessary to proceed -- find a key, defeat all enemies of a certain type, stay alive for a defined period of time, steer clear of being hit, attack enemies with or without weapons, avoid inflicting any damage to items in the room, and quite a number of others. Some of these guidelines can be disregarded, but there's a consequence for doing so. If Cooper breaks one of those rules, the Reaper is unleashed, and a single touch is fatal. The Reaper, who's fond of breaking down into a scythe-guitar riff after each of his kills, isn't necessarily gunning just for our hero: he's willing to smite anything that crosses his path, which can work to Cooper's advantage if he can maneuver the Reaper in front of certain enemies. The Reaper can also be attacked directly to keep him at bay, and though he's speedy, it's very much possible to avoid his clutches and complete a stage despite his presence. To further amp up the difficulty, the Baron also controls how much health Cooper has at the beginning of each stage.
The various goals in each level have Cooper trotting throughout dozens of the mansion's rooms, often repeatedly. Thankfully, Grabbed by the Ghoulies doesn't devolve into an annoying maze or collectomania. There's a clear progression, and the game pushes the player where he needs to go: no guesswork, constant map referencing, or accidental retreads are necessary. Although some of the stages' goals do require acquiring certain objects, it's hardly on the same level of previous Rare outings like Star Fox Adventures or Donkey Kong 64. If Cooper has to uncover a key or two to progress, they're hidden in the current stage. Other objects, such as the ingredients for a transmogrifying brew or tattered pages of a poem, have their locations clearly marked, and they're a small number of individual goals, not an artificial way of extending the gameplay.
One way that Grabbed by the Ghoulies does offer more than the core play is through mini-games, unlocked by tracking down books hidden throughout each stage. Completing mini-games earns one of three different medals, and snagging certain medals offers more extras, such as conceptual art. I wasn't able to uncover all of the books and blast through their challenges for this review, but reportedly, completing all of them unlocks videos and a chance to run through the entire game again with Amber.
The criticism that's been lobbed most frequently at Grabbed by the Ghoulies is that it's simplistic and repetitive. I tend to like games that take a straightforward, arcade-inspired approach, and I didn't find Grabbed by the Ghoulies to be as monotonous as other creature carnage games like Hunter: The Reckoning. The quick, short levels are perfect for some grab-'n-go gaming, something that can be played in several minute spurts rather than demanding hours upon consecutive hours of attention. Admittedly, I did find my interest severely waning by the end of the third set of levels, but once I'd waded through those stages, the remainder of the game -- a lengthy boss battle and a timed gauntlet to free as many captive children as possible -- greatly livened up the gameplay.
The immediately accessible controls, straightforward gameplay, and cartoonish visuals should make Grabbed by the Ghoulies appealing to a wide range of ages. The game also has a "Butler's Brew" option to ease up on the difficulty for the younger set, doubling Cooper's health after he faints. I wouldn't think that option would make Grabbed by the Ghoulies a total cakewalk. The Reaper was responsible for dozens of my lost lives, and additional health would have made little difference. I thought the level of difficulty struck a nice balance. Some of the later stages are challenging, but rarely frustratingly tough, and they're small enough in scope that even having to restart several times doesn't become unbearably annoying. Cooper has an unlimited number of continues, although the game keeps a tally of his performance, spouting off a rating at the end of the game to summarize how well -- or how poorly, depending -- the player did.
Graphics:
The still screenshots that have been floating around the web for so many months really don't do Grabbed by the Ghoulies any justice; the game has to be seen in motion to be fully appreciated. Between the cel shading, the vivid palette used, and character design straight out of Saturday morning animation, the game looks quite a bit like an interactive comic book. Backgrounds and environments are richly detailed, reflecting the game's skewed sense of humor in their design and appearance. The highly interactive levels are nicely designed, allowing Cooper to take his frustrations out on the destructable environments as well as to uncover additional weapons and power-ups.
One of the most frequently cited complaints about virtually any 3D game is the camera. As noted earlier, Grabbed by the Ghoulies has an unconventional method of manipulating the camera, but I rarely found myself in situations where I needed to swing it around. There were only a few instances where the camera became a particular annoyance, particularly in the battles with the hideously deformed creature at the end of level two and the Baron in level four. Some objects, such as the curtains in the boss battle against the Baron, would obscure the screen and make it difficult to tell where I was and where enemies promising certain death were lying in wait.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies has a 16x9 option for widescreen displays, with the gameplay offering a wider frame while menus and cut scenes are pillarboxed. The game also has a progressive scan mode for EDTV/HDTV-capable televisions.
Audio:
Grabbed by the Ghoulies takes much better advantage of the XBox's Dolby Digital 5.1 capabilities than the majority of the games I've played for the system. Directionality is particularly well done, particularly the pans as Cooper kicks a badnik across a room or the aural shifts as he maneuvers around an area. The rears are frequently buzzing with activity, and the center channel, often neglected in six-channel games, is used extensively throughout. Grabbed by the Ghoulies sports a hefty low-end as well, particularly the thunderous music in the dance hall and whenever Cooper slams into a monster. The various speakers are also used to build an appropriately eerie environment, with creaks, groans, and rattling chains providing creepy ambiance.
The score is a light-hearted homage to '50s schlock-horror, appropriately heavy on organ and theremin, occasionally tossing in effective, creepy piano tinkling. Some of the same snippets of music are repurposed continually, but there's enough variety that the music didn't become particularly repetitive. The score greatly complements the visuals and the overall tone that the game sets. Though there's quite a bit of text that propels the story along, it's accompanied by very little in the way of voice acting. There's virtually no spoken dialogue, limited to grunts, moans, and the occasional monosyllabic exclamation. I understand that it's a tenet of Rare's games to avoid long passages of spoken dialogue, but it just seems bizarre to me to have a third of a screen of text, followed by an "Mmmg!" from that character. I think I'd prefer to have no spoken dialogue than some sort of obligatory grunt that doesn't really match up with the provided text.
Conclusion:
Grabbed by the Ghoulies suffers more because of the anticipation built up for Rare's freshman outing for the XBox than any actual shortcomings. It's insubstantial but fun, and its instant accessibility and brief length make it an excellent choice for a rental. Before forking over a credit card for a purchase, I'd personally renting the game, playing through the demo on the December issue of the Official XBox Magazine, or, despite its slimmer than usual price tag, wait until the list price drops further.
Demos and Videos: The disc doesn't have any playable demos, but there are video previews of Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 2, XBox Music Mixer, Top Spin, Links 2004, Amped 2, NBA Inside Drive 2004, and XSN Sports.
Gameplay:
The control scheme is clean and simple. Like arcade games such as Robotron and Smash TV before it, Grabbed by the Ghoulies uses two sticks for the primary action. The left thumbstick predictably moves Cooper around the screen, and the right stick is used to attack. Cooper's array of assaults include punches and kicks, and he can also pick up items scattered throughout the levels to inflict further damage. The buttons to grab and discard weapons are the only ones used in actual gameplay. "Super scary shocks" -- when Cooper stumbles into Medusa's gaze or is startled by a massive monster -- require pressing the four face buttons in a particular sequence a la SIMON to avoid losing a chunk of health. Other scares in some levels can terrify Cooper so much that he's temporarily unable to do anything other than shiver with fear.
Because the right thumbstick is used to aim Cooper's attacks, camera manipulation is relegated to the left and right shoulder triggers. I was wary about this sort of control scheme initially, but it didn't present much of a problem at all. A couple of hiccups aside, the camera is intuitive enough that I didn't have to rotate it with any great frequency. My biggest stumbling block with this approach, at least before I got the hang of the scheme, was that I was used to fiddling with the right thumbstick in other games that, out of habit, I'd try to do the same here and prematurely have Cooper throw an object.
The controls are listed on the back of the instruction manual for a quick and easy reference. I noticed that the manual for Crimson Skies also rattled off the controls in the same way. It's a welcome idea, and one that I'd like to see Microsoft and other publishers adopt for all of their manuals.
Ghoulhaven Hall is littered with scores of ghoulies, including zombies, coffin-clad succubi, skeletons, hunchbacks, explosive worms, pirates, mummies, haunted televisions, vampiric chickens, and ninja imps. Similar games have a tendency to bombard the player with swarms of mindless creatures, offering little in the way of AI and attempting to compensate with sheer numbers. Grabbed by the Ghoulies doesn't have any shortage of monsters, but rather than have a couple hundred of dim ghoulies per stage, there are a smaller number of relatively bright ones. Just as Cooper can grab items lying around and use them to beat on the badniks, they can also grab objects -- umbrellas, framed pictures, and most anything else within arm's reach -- and whack Cooper with it.
A variety of power-ups in the forms of soup cans can be found throughout each level, providing additional health, strengthened weapons, heightened speed, resistance to shocks, invincibility, frozen enemies, more time to stave off the presence of the Reaper, and, in some rare cases, an instantly completed set of goals. Not all of the soup cans are beneficial; those with a bat icon up top contain one of several debilitating effects, reversing the controls, slowing Cooper down to a crawl, or temporarily robbing him of most of his health. The difference between a level that seems virtually impossible and one that's a breeze generally lies in discovering the locations of the most beneficial power-ups.
Some of the cans are revealed by shattering objects throughout the highly interactive environments. Other objects can be picked up and either used as blunt weapons or tossed at enemies. Some stages also offer semi-permanent weapons, including a squirt gun, a candle, a fire extinguisher, and a pistol that blasts soda cans. With a quick tap of the right thumbstick, Cooper will smack enemies with one of these weapons, and a prolonged press fires. These particular weapons have unlimited ammunition, but Cooper can only fire so many times before having to wait for the ammo to regenerate. I found the firing of certain weapons to be a pain at times; there were several instances where I was pitted against the Baron on level four and I'd have him down to 10 or 20 points of health. I'd successfully dodge his airplane, and my gun refused to fire, causing me to have to restart the excruciatingly laborious process all over again. That was one of the only times I got particularly frustrated playing the game.
Many of the stages have certain goals and guidelines necessary to proceed -- find a key, defeat all enemies of a certain type, stay alive for a defined period of time, steer clear of being hit, attack enemies with or without weapons, avoid inflicting any damage to items in the room, and quite a number of others. Some of these guidelines can be disregarded, but there's a consequence for doing so. If Cooper breaks one of those rules, the Reaper is unleashed, and a single touch is fatal. The Reaper, who's fond of breaking down into a scythe-guitar riff after each of his kills, isn't necessarily gunning just for our hero: he's willing to smite anything that crosses his path, which can work to Cooper's advantage if he can maneuver the Reaper in front of certain enemies. The Reaper can also be attacked directly to keep him at bay, and though he's speedy, it's very much possible to avoid his clutches and complete a stage despite his presence. To further amp up the difficulty, the Baron also controls how much health Cooper has at the beginning of each stage.
The various goals in each level have Cooper trotting throughout dozens of the mansion's rooms, often repeatedly. Thankfully, Grabbed by the Ghoulies doesn't devolve into an annoying maze or collectomania. There's a clear progression, and the game pushes the player where he needs to go: no guesswork, constant map referencing, or accidental retreads are necessary. Although some of the stages' goals do require acquiring certain objects, it's hardly on the same level of previous Rare outings like Star Fox Adventures or Donkey Kong 64. If Cooper has to uncover a key or two to progress, they're hidden in the current stage. Other objects, such as the ingredients for a transmogrifying brew or tattered pages of a poem, have their locations clearly marked, and they're a small number of individual goals, not an artificial way of extending the gameplay.
One way that Grabbed by the Ghoulies does offer more than the core play is through mini-games, unlocked by tracking down books hidden throughout each stage. Completing mini-games earns one of three different medals, and snagging certain medals offers more extras, such as conceptual art. I wasn't able to uncover all of the books and blast through their challenges for this review, but reportedly, completing all of them unlocks videos and a chance to run through the entire game again with Amber.
The criticism that's been lobbed most frequently at Grabbed by the Ghoulies is that it's simplistic and repetitive. I tend to like games that take a straightforward, arcade-inspired approach, and I didn't find Grabbed by the Ghoulies to be as monotonous as other creature carnage games like Hunter: The Reckoning. The quick, short levels are perfect for some grab-'n-go gaming, something that can be played in several minute spurts rather than demanding hours upon consecutive hours of attention. Admittedly, I did find my interest severely waning by the end of the third set of levels, but once I'd waded through those stages, the remainder of the game -- a lengthy boss battle and a timed gauntlet to free as many captive children as possible -- greatly livened up the gameplay.
The immediately accessible controls, straightforward gameplay, and cartoonish visuals should make Grabbed by the Ghoulies appealing to a wide range of ages. The game also has a "Butler's Brew" option to ease up on the difficulty for the younger set, doubling Cooper's health after he faints. I wouldn't think that option would make Grabbed by the Ghoulies a total cakewalk. The Reaper was responsible for dozens of my lost lives, and additional health would have made little difference. I thought the level of difficulty struck a nice balance. Some of the later stages are challenging, but rarely frustratingly tough, and they're small enough in scope that even having to restart several times doesn't become unbearably annoying. Cooper has an unlimited number of continues, although the game keeps a tally of his performance, spouting off a rating at the end of the game to summarize how well -- or how poorly, depending -- the player did.
Graphics:
The still screenshots that have been floating around the web for so many months really don't do Grabbed by the Ghoulies any justice; the game has to be seen in motion to be fully appreciated. Between the cel shading, the vivid palette used, and character design straight out of Saturday morning animation, the game looks quite a bit like an interactive comic book. Backgrounds and environments are richly detailed, reflecting the game's skewed sense of humor in their design and appearance. The highly interactive levels are nicely designed, allowing Cooper to take his frustrations out on the destructable environments as well as to uncover additional weapons and power-ups.
One of the most frequently cited complaints about virtually any 3D game is the camera. As noted earlier, Grabbed by the Ghoulies has an unconventional method of manipulating the camera, but I rarely found myself in situations where I needed to swing it around. There were only a few instances where the camera became a particular annoyance, particularly in the battles with the hideously deformed creature at the end of level two and the Baron in level four. Some objects, such as the curtains in the boss battle against the Baron, would obscure the screen and make it difficult to tell where I was and where enemies promising certain death were lying in wait.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies has a 16x9 option for widescreen displays, with the gameplay offering a wider frame while menus and cut scenes are pillarboxed. The game also has a progressive scan mode for EDTV/HDTV-capable televisions.
Audio:
Grabbed by the Ghoulies takes much better advantage of the XBox's Dolby Digital 5.1 capabilities than the majority of the games I've played for the system. Directionality is particularly well done, particularly the pans as Cooper kicks a badnik across a room or the aural shifts as he maneuvers around an area. The rears are frequently buzzing with activity, and the center channel, often neglected in six-channel games, is used extensively throughout. Grabbed by the Ghoulies sports a hefty low-end as well, particularly the thunderous music in the dance hall and whenever Cooper slams into a monster. The various speakers are also used to build an appropriately eerie environment, with creaks, groans, and rattling chains providing creepy ambiance.
The score is a light-hearted homage to '50s schlock-horror, appropriately heavy on organ and theremin, occasionally tossing in effective, creepy piano tinkling. Some of the same snippets of music are repurposed continually, but there's enough variety that the music didn't become particularly repetitive. The score greatly complements the visuals and the overall tone that the game sets. Though there's quite a bit of text that propels the story along, it's accompanied by very little in the way of voice acting. There's virtually no spoken dialogue, limited to grunts, moans, and the occasional monosyllabic exclamation. I understand that it's a tenet of Rare's games to avoid long passages of spoken dialogue, but it just seems bizarre to me to have a third of a screen of text, followed by an "Mmmg!" from that character. I think I'd prefer to have no spoken dialogue than some sort of obligatory grunt that doesn't really match up with the provided text.
Conclusion:
Grabbed by the Ghoulies suffers more because of the anticipation built up for Rare's freshman outing for the XBox than any actual shortcomings. It's insubstantial but fun, and its instant accessibility and brief length make it an excellent choice for a rental. Before forking over a credit card for a purchase, I'd personally renting the game, playing through the demo on the December issue of the Official XBox Magazine, or, despite its slimmer than usual price tag, wait until the list price drops further.
Demos and Videos: The disc doesn't have any playable demos, but there are video previews of Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 2, XBox Music Mixer, Top Spin, Links 2004, Amped 2, NBA Inside Drive 2004, and XSN Sports.