Hello everyone I'm Jack Red, I recently finished Grabbed by the Ghoulies from Rare Replay. You also can buy it digitally from the store section online. Even among some of the strangest Rare moments I got to see. This game does stand out in a way you just wouldn't think. I would even say this is one of the best within that compilation.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is actually a pun while replacing the original final word to make it more kid to family friendly. Oh well it originally was grabbed by the balls are you happy lol. Thankfully that doesn't actually happen in the game. You play as a teenager named Cooper no not Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Now that would be ridiculous yet hilarious lol.
His girl friend gets kidnapped by monsters working for the baron. Later on, you get an additional goal where you need to rescue all the prisoners. I will talk more about that later. The actual cut scenes plays like a horror comic book which I love so much. Almost a Goosebumps vibe, not the feeling. I meant the franchise Goosebumps.
Seriously, if you read the books or seen the show as well as the movies. You already know Goosebumps, not a lot of people know there was video games based on them. I temporary had Attack of the Masked Mutant game many years ago. Strangely, parts of this game's art design is somewhat similar to that. The dialogue is similar to Banjo-Kazooie series.
There's five chapters you must play through. A huge amount of it is done as a 3D beat em style. Although, there are sections you get firing weapons until the following section. You got to hate when that happens right? Especially when you have enemies that can only be defeated in particular ways. Most of them, you can easily beat em up that's it.
Enemies like vampires and mummies requires a different method. You can do whatever you want, their health isn't going down. I haven't even mention the single worst enemy you likely could run into. Can you believe the grim reaper himself is in this game? He appears as a nearly invincible enemy that can one shot you in one touch.
Thankfully, sometimes you can use that to your advantage to quickly kill an enemy with high health. Personally, I kinda wish Gregg the Grim Reaper was here instead lol. At least, there isn't any bloody cats in this game lol. You often get challenges that can be tricky to finish. Sometimes, I say the hell with it to cause the grim reaper to show up.
Sometimes, you need to break stuff to find keys or warlocks. Yeah I should mention, warlocks are pricks in this game. Most locations they are automatically hiding. You have to search everything you can break until he shows up. Unless, you already know which thing to break. Sometimes, it does seem to random switch his spawning location in some areas making that more frustrating.
He could quickly firing projectiles at you without warning when you're within range at a angle he can fire at. Most areas you will be revisiting a lot with clear changes. Chapter 4 is just one boss fight against the baron himself. This might surprise people I actually prefer Grunty over this prick. For a few great reasons that I will quickly go through.
1. She has more memorable lines
2. She forces you to learn stuff about those games
3. Her actual boss fights for the most part more fun in comparison
4. Grunty has more interesting tricks up her sleeves
5. She doesn't need much to fly around
6. Her voice sounds more villainous
7. Her tyranny goes beyond just a mansion (Yes I low that's a low blow sue me)
His boss fight goes from a weird attack pattern. You need to carefully avoid his attacks while attacking him. In order, to force him to drop his weird melee weapon. Not long, he wears this mini plane suit. What is this Banjo-Kazooie lol.
As the boss fight goes on, he will summon skeletons to zombies to exploding worms to zombie pirates. This boss fight ends up being one of the easiest in the entire game. I mostly had trouble with mutant Amber boss fight in comparison. Now, we can talk about Chapter 5. You will be timed to rescue the prisoners you seen through out the game.
What the game doesn't tell you is beyond rescuing the ninth prisoner. There's no more time limit, not much of the game left from this point. Your girl friend is the final prisoner no surprise there. Up to this point, the final chapter felt more like a mini game than an actual ending section. I should mention, this skeleton will tell you early on this chapter, there's no saving prior to a point.
Thankfully, most of this is easily to memorize with a few parts being tricky to do. The big surprise is the chef herself suddenly becomes playable for one little section. This is because Cooper gets knocked out by the imps. She used a mixture on her spoon to making it huge. You got to take out a lot of imps on yourself with no time limit.
Guess what beyond that the game is over I'm not kidding. One section early on, you move automatically in first person while getting ready to press buttons. You will get jump scared a lot here. I should also mention, if you look closely cameo heads of both Banjo & Kazooie are there too. Some of Rare's other franchises gets reference as well.
There's also a challenge mode 1-20 by default. To unlock more of them, you need to find these bonus books with the Rare logo. You also can unlock challenge 21 as well. Completing the first twenty challenges unlocks your girl friend Amber as a playable character.I love not only you can replay chapters but also sections within chapters too.
This is helpful for collecting the bonus books you missed during a play through. There's some great animations in this game. The audio is strangely strong here too. Now I am aware Rare has a repetition of great video game sound tracks. This is hands down one of they're strangest yet. The sound effects work well enough to keeping it fun for a while.
There's a great variety of weapons as well as enemies. I do need to talk about the power ups & power downs you will come across. There is a handful of power downs that will make it a bit more difficult. Like one of them temporary makes your health to 1 making anything can kill you in one hit. I felt the power ups is a nice variety that have their own strengths as well as weaknesses.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a game you probably heard about but never got to play. Maybe until you play it through Rare Replay like I did. Often, the baron will change the amount of health. For a while I thought this was randomized. However it turned out regardless which section you are playing. The baron will give you a preset amount of health per a section.
You will have to deal with times you are given low health while other times he gives you a lot of health. The story may seem like you already know how it's going to end. Trust me, you don't know how it would end until you played it or watch it online. You will meet up with a couple of characters as well. You get melee weapons with some throwing ones too at times.
I felt the firing weapons does help to keep the grim reaper away as long you don't push too far into it's limit. Speaking of him, even you don't attack him for a while. He will move faster which will increase over time. The only way I was even able to beat this guy is force him out of a particular huge window. This is a short game lasting a few hours.
Despite it's flaws, I still say it's a surprisingly solid beat em/run & gun style game. I strongly felt this game is way better than it's currently repetition which is sad. This is a sleeper hit that even got over looked by Rare fans. Clearly, Rare had a lot of fun making it. I would even go as far to say this is a strong recommendation to play it.
It's more satisfying than Banjo-Kazooie's Mad Monster Mansion or Spooky Chapter from Conker's Bad Fur Day. By the way, there actually isn't a butler there a major spoiler. I loved how each room was designed well enough to enjoy em. Especially you are replaying them through selecting which section you want.
There's two kinds of jump scares in this game. I already talked somewhat about pressing the buttons as shown. The other type involves stuff like ghosts or telephones. Cooper gets scared then you got a short period of time to move away or you will be scared. This is a temporary state but you can take double the damage if you aren't careful.
This also removes weapons you're wielding that usually destroys em. Some sections has a few spots that do just that. Honestly, I went from not being a fan of this game to absolutely loving every minute of it. This is absolutely a game you must play on Halloween. Personally, no offense to Rare but I do prefer MediEvil more.
Overall, Grabbed by the Ghoulies does pull you in. Yes, the difficulty will often spike but not enough to rage quit. Like a couple games included in Rare Replay. You get a beautifully made horror inspired game that's surprisingly refreshing to play. Even the humor stands out in a huge way. This is a game you shouldn't take lightly at all because it is a very unusual Rare game that nails most aspects.
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