Grabbed By The Ghoulies Achievements

2003 video game

2003 video game

Grabbed past the Ghoulies
European cover art
Developer(s)	Rare
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(south)	Gregg Mayles[1]
Developer(south)	Chris Sutherland[ane]
Artist(s)	Steve Mayles[1] Ed Bryan[1] Steven Hurst[one]
Composer(s)	Grant Kirkhope[ane]
Platform(southward)	Xbox
Release	NA: 21 October 2003 Eu: 21 November 2003 JP: 29 April 2004
Genre(s)	Action-hazard, shell 'em up
Mode(southward)	Single-thespian

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is an action-take a chance game adult by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox. It was released in North America in October 2003, and in Europe in Nov. It was re-released worldwide on the Xbox 360 as a downloadable Xbox Alive Originals game in Feb 2009. This was removed from the store in June 2015, two months earlier a remastered version was released as part of the Rare Replay compilation for Xbox I. The game follows a immature boy, Cooper, who sets out to rescue his girlfriend from a haunted mansion infested with supernatural creatures.

Having originally been in development for the GameCube, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was the first Rare game to be published by Microsoft afterward Rare was bought out from Nintendo. The game was met with mixed reviews upon release. Criticism was directed at the gameplay, but the game's graphics and style were praised. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was nominated for the Panel Family Game of the Twelvemonth prize at the 2004 University of Interactive Arts & Sciences Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Gameplay [edit]

A still image from the game, showing Cooper about to engage in gainsay.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a 3D action-adventure game with crush 'em upwards elements. Breaking with the style of previous Rare platformers, the gameplay is elementary in design, utilizing the premise of moving through areas of the game'south mansion and completing the required challenges in each room.^[2] Such challenges include eliminating all ghoulies in a room, chirapsia simply a specified kind of ghouly while fugitive eliminating the residue, or finding a cardinal hidden inside a ghouly before the histrion-graphic symbol, Cooper, can continue. All combat and melee attacks are maneuvered by the command sticks, whereas the game's photographic camera can be rotated by both triggers.^[three] Most of the objects in the mansion are destructible, with the take a chance of finding Super Soup ability-ups inside. The Super Soups tin can take negative effects, like reversing the player's controls or lowering Cooper's speed, or positive effects, such as making Cooper invulnerable or immobilizing all ghoulies in the room. When the player fails a challenge or takes longer than a prepare time limit to consummate 1, rather than immediately restarting the room, the Grim Reaper will chase after Cooper; the Reaper will instantly impale Cooper if he'southward touched and the player will have to restart the room over, just the Reaper can also be used to the actor'due south advantage, as he volition also kill any ghouly that he touches. Standard enemies in the game include zombies, mummies, imps, skeletons and zombie pirates. Many objects in the game with which the grapheme can interact—including chairs, knives, and axes—tin can be used as weapons.^[3]

The game also features diverse bonus challenges. Each room the actor visits contains one of 100 hidden Bonus Books to be collected. For every five books the player collects, a bonus claiming is unlocked. The main objective of the bonus challenges is to revisit 1 of the rooms and perform a different chore within it, such every bit defeating a number of enemies in a sure amount or time or surviving a duel with the Grim Reaper.^[two] If a player successfully completes a bonus claiming, they are awarded a bronze, silver, golden or platinum medal based on their performance.^[four] For every platinum medal earned, a piece of the game's concept art is unlocked. If the role player earns a gilt or platinum medal for all 20 challenges, a final challenge is unlocked that tasks players with completing the entire game again as Cooper'due south girlfriend Amber, who has very low health and cannot utilize power-ups. Completing the 21st challenge unlocks the game's E3 trailer and a deleted cutscene in the bonus gallery.^[4]

Plot [edit]

Cooper and his girlfriend Amber are looking for shelter from a tempest when they come up beyond Ghoulhaven Hall, a mansion owned past Baron Von Ghoul. When Cooper calls him a pitter-patter, Von Ghoul kidnaps Amber in retaliation. Cooper chases after Amber, encountering the many ghoulies inhabiting Ghoulhaven Hall. Crivens, the mansion's butler, agrees to assist Cooper, guiding him through the manor. Cooper eventually finds Amber, but before the two of them can escape, the mad scientist Dr. Krackpot appears and transforms Amber into a hideous ghouly. Cooper asks the cook Ma Soupswill for help, and she tasks him with collecting three ingredients she needs to synthesize a cure. Along the way, he is aided by the mansion'south other inhabitants, including groundskeeper Fiddlesworth Dunfiddlin, Soupswill's skeletal assistant Mr. Ribs, and cleaning lady Barbara Buffbrass. After gathering the ingredients, Soupswill gives Cooper a jar of the cure. When Cooper pours the cure on Amber, Soupswill is shown to have mixed upward one of the ingredients, resulting in Bister transforming into a bigger, hostile ghouly. Cooper is well-nigh overpowered by Amber, but Soupswill arrives and applies the correct cure, transforming Bister back to normal.

Cooper and Amber prepare to go out the mansion, simply Mr. Ribs begs Cooper to help free other children imprisoned throughout the manor. Crivens tells Cooper that Von Ghoul has the key to complimentary the children, but the door to his quarters is locked past a powerful spell, which tin can only be broken using a counterspell that is in iii pieces scattered throughout the mansion. Cooper collects the three pieces and enter's Von Ghoul'south quarters, merely finds that Crivens is already there seemingly attacking Von Ghoul and retrieving the fundamental. When Cooper attempts to have the key, Crivens attacks him and removes his disguise, revealing he was Von Ghoul all along. Cooper fights and defeats Von Ghoul, throwing him out of the mansion and collecting the primal. Cooper so follows Mr. Ribs throughout the mansion and races to free all the children before the mansion's doors are permanently locked, trapping them within forever.

If Cooper succeeds in freeing all ten children before fourth dimension runs out, he and Mr. Ribs are ambushed past imps outside the mansion. Cooper is knocked unconscious and Mr. Ribs is decapitated, but before the imps can feast on them, Ma Soupswill arrives and fights back the imps. Cooper regains consciousness and is thanked for his efforts by Soupswill, Mr. Ribs, Dunfiddlin and Buffbrass. Cooper and Bister then walk off to a nearby hamlet, unaware that Baron Von Ghoul is following behind them in his makeshift plane. If Cooper does not save all the children in time, the scene in which Soupswill defends Cooper and Mr. Ribs from the imps is omitted.

Development and release [edit]

Ghoulies was a less rocky road. We did a bit of work on a GameCube version and then over to the Xbox, and then literally I call back we put our foot down.

Gregg Mayles in an interview with Retro Gamer ^[5]

The development of Grabbed by the Ghoulies began in 2000, after the completion of Banjo-Tooie.^{[half dozen]} The idea for the game began with the name,^[7] which is a pun on "goolies", a British slang term for "testicles".^[8] Co-ordinate to designer Gregg Mayles, the name of the game materialised after he overheard someone mention "beingness grabbed by the goolies", and thought that it would make a suitable name for an upcoming Rare game.^[9] Before any details of the game were publicised, it was rumoured that Grabbed by the Ghoulies would be the subtitle to the side by side Conker the Squirrel game.^[10] After Microsoft purchased Rare for £375 1000000 in 2002, development of the game for the GameCube was delayed until Rare converted information technology to the Xbox console.^[11]

Development of the game took under iii years. Information technology was originally conceived equally a larger, non-linear open platform game for the GameCube.^[12] However, a simpler design and simpler concept were adopted due to the Microsoft buyout and increasing time constraints.^{[9] [13]} After Microsoft's purchase of Rare, the studio re-affirmed their "simple design" of the game so that players would be able to easily suit and devote less delivery to it.^[5] In a retrospective interview, Mayles stated that the change from GameCube to Xbox was difficult and required a lot of changes as Grabbed by the Ghoulies was "an original game that started life every bit a Nintendo product".^[nine]

Co-ordinate to Mayles, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was not inspired past Rare's similar-themed Atic Atac.^[v] The cel-shaded fine art mode and blueprint of the characters in Grabbed by the Ghoulies were inspired by Hanna-Barbera cartoons,^[nine] and the various character personalities were based both on historical figures and people from Mayles' childhood. Antagonist Baron von Ghoul was "a mix" of the Carmine Baron and British aristocracy, whereas supportive characters, such as Ma Soupswill, were loosely based on staff from a schoolhouse.^[ix] Mayles considered the conversion of the game to the Xbox to be ane of the hardest challenges during development, as Rare had less than a year to end the game once it was converted.^[9]

The game was revealed at E3 2003, with a playable demo being a mostly complete version of the game, admitting with a few levels missing.^{[xiv] [15]} Grabbed by the Ghoulies was released in Due north America on 21 October 2003,^[sixteen] in Europe on 21 November and in Japan on 29 April 2004,^[17] becoming Rare'southward first game to be released under Microsoft. It was later re-released every bit an Xbox Originals game for the Xbox 360 on 16 February 2009, subsequently being removed from the store on xvi June 2015,^[18] before the Rare Replay compilation game which included it was released on 4 August 2015. The game was remastered to run natively on the Xbox One, increasing its resolution and framerate relative to the original Xbox release.^[xix] Grabbed past the Ghoulies was one of the first original Xbox games to be uniform with Xbox One via backwards compatibility.

Reception [edit]

The game was met with mixed reviews from critics upon release. It holds an average score of 66/100 at Metacritic, based on an aggregate of 42 reviews.^[twenty]

The graphics and animation were praised past critics. Kevin Gifford of 1UP stated that the cel-shaded graphics were "perfect" for the "spooky" theme of the game, and that the smooth animation resulted in the enemies appearing "endearing".^[21] Ronan Jennings of Eurogamer was less impressed by the graphics, stating that the game "never blew him away" merely always kept a high standard of creativity. All the same, Jennings did praise the animation and character designs.^[8] Reviewers of Game Revolution gave praise to the game's visuals, comparing them to exist sharper and clearer to the visuals of Banjo-Kazooie, just noted that the character designs still seemed "tied down to the by", existence more suited to the Nintendo 64 than to the Xbox.^[22]

The game was criticised for its simplistic gameplay and lack of innovation. Gifford noted that the game'southward "biggest trouble" was its unchallenging gameplay, stating that it was "repetitive"; he compared it to gameplay of the 16-bit era.^[21] Game Revolution stated that the gameplay appeared "interesting" at get-go, merely grew tiresome the longer the game is played, despite its curt length.^[22] Jennings noted that the gameplay was not "groundbreaking" and similarly stated that the game relied heavily on "what is practically sixteen-fleck gameplay".^[eight] The photographic camera controls were another criticised aspect of the game, due to the control sticks being allocated for attack functions. Gifford labelled the "forced shunt" idea every bit a "terrible elevate" which became troublesome during the latter half of the game.^[21] Game Revolution'due south review as well criticised the camera controls, stating that the use of triggers to rotate the camera was "on the clunky side".^[22] Jennings, however, felt that the camera was "fine" and did not provide any obstruction.^[viii]

Grabbed past the Ghoulies was nominated for the Console Family Game of the Year^[24] and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition at the 2004 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Almanac Interactive Achievement Awards.^[25] The awards were given to London Studio'southward EyeToy: Play and Electronic Arts' The Sims: Bustin' Out, respectively.^[24] In 2008, Game Informer listed information technology among the worst horror games of all time.^[26]

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d eastward f} "Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003) Xbox credits". MobyGames. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Television receiver Spot trailer". Game Trailers. Defy Media. 12 January 2004. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 5 Baronial 2015.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Grabbed by the Ghoulies E3 2K3 Trailer". Game Trailers. Defy Media. 12 January 2004. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Grabbed past the Ghoulies Challenges Guide". Rare Gamer. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
5. ^ ^{a b c} "A Rare Glimpse". Retro Gamer. No. 84. Dec 2010. p. 38.
6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2020-02-03. Retrieved 2020-05-04 . {{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: archived re-create as title (link)
7. ^ Carlsxon, Ale (eighteen July 2014). "Rare'due south Trouble Is Not Microsoft". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 26 December 2015. Retrieved five August 2015.
8. ^ ^{a b c d east} Jennings, Ronan (12 November 2003). "Eurogamer review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved five Baronial 2015.
9. ^ ^{a b c d eastward f} "Rare: The Tepid Seat". Rareware. March 2004. Archived from the original on xi May 2006. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
10. ^ Tramwell, David (28 February 2001). "Rare grabs more names for Conker". Nintendo World Study. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 5 Baronial 2015.
11. ^ Totilo, Stephen (25 May 2010). "Why Insomniac'due south Move Is No PlayStation Panic". Kotaku. Archived from the original on iii September 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
12. ^ Towell, Justin (October 22, 2015). "Why Rare's supposedly worst, least pop game is actually my favourite". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on January 29, 2016. Retrieved Oct 22, 2015.
13. ^ Lobb, Ken (11 August 2003). "Grabbed past the Ghoulies interview". IGN. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 Baronial 2015.
14. ^ "GameSpot interview with Grabbed past the Ghoulies (E3 2003)". GameSpot via YouTube. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
15. ^ Reed, Kristen (20 May 2003). "E3 2003: Grabbed by the Ghoulies". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
16. ^ "Grabbed by the Ghoulies - IGN overview". IGN. Archived from the original on 5 Nov 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
17. ^ "Grabbed by the Ghoulies - Japan release and FAQ". IGN . Retrieved 17 Baronial 2015. ^{[ dead link ]}
18. ^ Orry, James. "Grabbed by the Ghoulies joins Xbox Originals". Video gamer. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
19. ^ "Rare discussing Rare Replay and more". ICXM. 24 June 2015. Archived from the original on 22 August 2015. Retrieved v August 2015.
20. ^ ^{a b} "Grabbed by the Ghoulies". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2013-04-02 .
21. ^ ^{a b c d} Gifford, Kevin. "Grabbed past the Ghoulies review". 1UP. Archived from the original on eight June 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
22. ^ ^{a b c d} "Grabbed past the Ghoulies - Game Revolution review". Game Revolution. Crave Online. 10 October 2003. Archived from the original on viii September 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
23. ^ "Grabbed past the Ghoulies Review". IGN. 23 Oct 2003.
24. ^ ^{a b} "7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards". The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 29 Oct 2007. Retrieved five August 2015.
25. ^ "7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and Nominations". The University of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
26. ^ "The Wrong Kind of Scary: Worst Horror Games Ever", Game Informer, no. 186, p. 121, October 2008, archived from the original on May 27, 2011, retrieved May 10, 2011

External links [edit]

• Grabbed past the Ghoulies at MobyGames

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grabbed_by_the_Ghoulies

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