Grabbed by the Ghoulies

Where to begin. This game breaks all barriers when it comes to video games. It's one of the most innovative games that came out by the time it released, and I truly believe it will stay this way for years to come.

This game follows an incredibly intricate, and ingenious storyline and offers phenomenal character development.

Speaking of characters, the dialogue and interactions are so intense that they keep you on the edge of your seat. The gameplay and graphics are beyond anyone has ever seen and ever will. I truly believe this is humanity's greatest creation and nothing can surpass it.

Rare was a video game company that really came to the forefront of the gaming industry by being innovative and by making some of the best games there were for the N64. They often times had an idea and then proceeded to change it in extreme ways to great effect. They were designing a game with a cutesy squirrel that was going to be your standard platform game. They got negative feedback, and instead made a game with a foul mouthed squirrel and singing poo and called it Conker's Bad Fur Day. They were designing a role playing game and decided it needed changing up because it was bland, and thus a game about a bear with a bird in its backpack is born in Banjoo Kazooie. Then they moved from the Nintendo to the Xbox, a company that would most likely be more than fine with a foul mouthed character and they moved to disc format meaning voice overs should be no problem. Thus, they made a cutesy horror game with no voice overs that is bland and irritatingly difficult in, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies".

The story has a guy and his girl going to a spooky mansion and being caught in a place filled with strange creatures at every turn! Pretty standard stuff, the girl gets kidnapped and you must find her; however, you pretty much must go in a pretty linear path. Then girl turns to monster and you must change her back and after that you must see about rescuing all the others trapped in this mansion. No one speaks and the game uses storyboards to tell you the story. You only get minimal voice overs her consisting of things like "Ah!", "Whoa" and the like. Once again, a game made in 2003 should have full voice overs!

The game play consists of you going from room to room fighting the various ghoulies present in the mansion. The combat is a bit neat as you run around using the left directional joystick and attack using the right. So the fighting was not a problem to me, it is the fact that in nearly every room there is a challenge that makes the game more difficult than it needs to be and even when no challenge is present you have a random amount of hit points that range from 1 to 50 and trust me, most of the time you are near the bottom. I quit after I got a page of a rhyme and then fought off several ghoulies only to have another challenge thrown my way that was equally as tough. I died and the whole stage reset!

So overall, the game could have been good if it were less linear and the challenges they incorporated into the game were maybe used on an insane difficulty setting or something. The graphics are okay, I guess, but not really much better than say those found in Conker or the Banjoo game for the N64. Just seems they really dropped the ball with this one and after it, they have not really done much else as for the most part all the best talent has long since left their company. Perhaps had they not jumped ship and left Nintendo they would have been around longer, but probably not. It was not as if Nintendo was censoring their games or anything, this one is kind of the lightest thing they released during this time in the company.

I remember playing this game as a kid back in summer camp. I do get scare of this game and I like how cartoon-ish this is. The gameplay was good but not great as you expected. Everything else in this game has a hilarious humor that I enjoyed and if you have kids, they'll probably enjoy this game.

One of my favorite game companies, Rare, made this cutesy horror game exclusively for Xbox. It is pretty fun and all, until you get to the later levels. Then you're screwed. Owner of the mansion Baron Von Ghoul sends hordes of Ghoulies after you, and sometimes in packs they are basically unstoppable. They beat the guts out of you so you can't even attack, and that's not fun at all. Other than that though I really enjoyed this game, even though the graphics are a bit aged and blocky. I recommend it to anyone who is up to a big, bad, extreme challenging game.

7/10 or: C+

This game had gorgeous graphics and a unique style to it, especially for 2003. The characters are lovable and funny and Grant Kirkhope creates a perfect score that is both catchy and fits the situations incredibly well. I loved this game as a child and still do; the house and map overall was brilliantly made, it never takes itself too seriously with the creatures had individual quirks you wouldn't expect from their darker horror stereotypes. This game was underrated and I would kill for a sequel to be released in its original art style and characters