Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Xbox)

Game Diary / February 13, 2005 / John / 0

This is another one of those cracking titles that was buried under an avalanche of sub-standard sports titles and rehashed FPSen on release day. I’ve been going back to this game for years now – it’s a return to Rare’s roots. It plays not entirely unlike a combination of robotron and Atic Atac with some fantastic Rare humour thrown in. It’s essentially an Atic Atac stylee romp through a haunted house, flattening everything that gets in your way. The vast majority of the game play is comprised of single room challenges – for example, in order to progress to the next room, you may have to kill all the baddies without using weapons, or kill tons of ninja rats without taking any damage.

One of the best elements in the game is the invulnerable rock-star grim reaper who pops up if you break the challenge conditions and chases you around while playing metal licks on his scythe. One touch from Mr Reaper and you’re toast. Fortunately, you can generally get out of his way, make him dizzy using powerups, or just plain leg it to the door (after completing the challenge first, of course) before he gubbs you.

You can pick Grabbed by the Ghoulies up for a tenner these days – it looks and plays gorgeous.

John

UNIX geek, wannabe cook, musician, book-lover, and all round good-guy.