Grabbed by the Ghoulies Rare Retrospective

From the team that brought you the hugely popular Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel comes a spirited new gameplay experience, crammed to the rafters with new faces and a bony handful of twists on genre expectation. After months of speculation over the name, Grabbed by the Ghoulies finally showed its leering zombie mug for the first time at E3 2003.

As you might expect, the game is overflowing with spectres, zombies and other sepulchral misfits, notably those resident in the shadowy depths of Ghoulhaven Hall. Framed by jagged bolts of lightning and leering down from its high clifftop, the Hall isn’t a place that anyone would willingly venture into – unless, of course, they were left with no choice. As if on cue, meet the game’s central player Cooper, forced into this very position when the Ghoulies take advantage of the raging storm to pounce and spirit away his girlfriend…

What follows is a frenetic chase through long-standing haunted house tradition, complete with sinister aristocrats, cobweb-choked rooms and a gentlemanly butler, but also with a few Rare twists and surprises thrown into the mix. Gameplay is focused on making progress towards the heart of the house by solving puzzles or beating back all the enemies in each room, using any means available: the interactive and destructible nature of Cooper’s surroundings gives him the opportunity to use practically anything as a weapon, including most of the furniture and bits of his fallen foes. Which is just as well, because our hero will often be greatly outnumbered and have to fight off whole gangs of Ghoulies simultaneously – it’s fluid and fast-paced comedy violence all the way.

If you think all this sounds straightforward, however, think again. Tracking down the damsel in distress is only the tip of the iceberg, as it gradually becomes apparent that there’s a lot more to this haunted house scenario than meets the eye. Plus there are always more immediate concerns: in addition to the constant onslaught from Ghoulies in all their guises, there are specific heart-pounding frights in store that might just lay Cooper out flat if you don’t help him to overcome the shock, and locked rooms that will only open on completion of one of the Hall’s many Challenges. Even then, rooms will often be visited and revisited with a different surprise in store every time, and with performance ratings and special features accessed through the collection of Bonus Books, the gauntlet of Ghoulhaven Hall bears more than one run through for those of its guests who think they have the nerve.

If all this leads you to expect vast amounts of fun with only a modest dose of seriousness, then you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect from Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Released on October 21st (US) and November 21st (Europe) 2003, GbtG goes down in history as Rare’s very first Xbox release. Not what many were expecting, perhaps, but take a trip to this mercurial mansion and we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised…