Grabbed by the Ghoulies

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a beat 'em up video game released on the Xbox in late 2003. It was developed by Rare and published by Microsoft. Grabbed by the Ghoulies is the first Rare game that was released for an Xbox console, following the Microsoft acquisition in 2002. The game stars Cooper, who goes on an adventure to rescue his girlfriend, Amber, and other teenagers in Ghoulhaven Hall from Baron von Ghoul and a group of ghosts named the Ghoulies.

On February 16, 2009, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was ported to the Xbox 360 as a downloadable Xbox Originals, priced at 1200 Microsoft Points. The Xbox Originals release is mostly identical besides a minor graphical glitch that causes certain smoke effects to have a thin line through them. Grabbed by the Ghoulies is one of the 30 games featured on the Xbox One compilation, Rare Replay. The Rare Replay version was remastered to run natively on Xbox One, increasing its resolution and framerate relative to the original Xbox release.

As advertised on its box art and television commercial, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was made by the creators of Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie, and shared a largely similar development team. Grabbed by the Ghoulies features several cameo appearances of the Banjo-Kazooie series, the Rare logo, and Rare's earlier releases.

Story
Cooper Chance and his girlfriend Amber are looking for shelter from a storm when they come across Ghoulhaven Hall, a mansion owned by Baron Von Ghoul. When Cooper calls him a creep, 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's 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 up one of the ingredients, resulting in Amber transforming into a bigger, hostile ghouly. Cooper is nearly overpowered by Amber, but Soupswill arrives and applies the correct cure, transforming Amber back to normal.

Cooper and Amber prepare to leave the mansion, but Mr. Ribs begs Cooper to help free other children imprisoned throughout the manor. Crivens tells Cooper that Von Ghoul has the key to free the children, but the door to his quarters is locked by a powerful spell, which can only be broken using a counterspell that is in three pieces scattered throughout the mansion. Cooper collects the three pieces and enter's Von Ghoul's quarters, but finds that Crivens is already there seemingly attacking Von Ghoul and retrieving the key. When Cooper attempts to take 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 key. Cooper then follows Mr. Ribs throughout the mansion and races to free all the children before the mansion's doors are permanently locked, trapping them inside forever.

If Cooper succeeds in freeing all ten children before time runs out, he and Mr. Ribs are ambushed by 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 Amber then walk off to a nearby village, 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.

Gameplay
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a linear action-adventure title that plays like a beat 'em up game. Cooper is locked in various rooms of Ghoulhaven Hall, many of which are filled with Ghoulies. Cooper cannot freely explore Ghoulhaven Hall at any part of his adventure, and he is forced to progress by following a set path. Often, whenever Cooper enters a room, he has to complete one or more Challenges to open the door to the next room. The game is divided into 100 "scenes", each taking place in a room, including some that Cooper has visited earlier. During a Challenge, the door to the next room has a large, light green question mark painted on it. The door from which Cooper has entered or can only access at a later part in his journey are blocked off by large, green spiky vines. Once Cooper clears the Challenge(s), the large question mark disappears, and the door opens. If Cooper loses all his health during a Challenge, he has to restart it.

Cooper's health is represented by a heart icon, which is displayed at the upper-right of the screen either if Cooper enters a new room, the game is paused, or if Cooper takes damage from either an enemy or a hazard. Cooper can have up to 50 HP, although starting with the second visit to the Billiard Room, Baron von Ghoul changes Cooper's health every time he enters a new room.

Cooper can find Ma Soupswill's Super Soup cans all over Ghoulhaven Hall. There are different types of Super Soups, each of which are identifiable by an icon above them. Most Super Soups have a helpful effect such as restoring some health or granting a temporary power-up. Some Super Soups have a negative temporary effect, such as reversing the game controls or removing all of Cooper's energy; these can be identified by a black ghost icon.

In every room (except the Trophy Room), there are objects that Cooper can break, and sometimes they reveal a Super Soup. There are many objects that Cooper can pick up and use as Temporary Weapons against other enemies, such as chairs, paintings, or even a dead swordfish. After one or a few hits, the Temporary Weapon breaks. Sometimes, a helpful staff member of Ghoulhaven Hall gives Cooper a Permanent Weapon to use for a few levels, such as a water squirter or a Fire Extinguisher. Unlike Temporary Weapons, a Permanent Weapon does not break after a few uses.

Another obstacle are scares, which are unexpected events, such as a Haunted Telephone ringing, that manifest themselves as manically laughing red spheres. If Cooper gets caught in one, he becomes spooked temporarily, during which he walks slowly, is unable to attack, and takes twice as much damage each time he is hit. There are also Super Scary Shocks, which occur when Cooper is directly scared by certain types of monstrous Ghoulies. During a Super Scary Shock, the player must press the A, B, X, and Y buttons in the order indicated on screen. In later parts of the game, more buttons have to be pressed. If the buttons are pressed on time, Cooper shrugs it off, but if this is not done on time, he loses 10 HP. In either case, the Ghouly that caused the Super Scary Shock goes away afterward.

Challenges
There are several different types of challenges in the game. Each challenge is named in the game manual. Several of the Challenges can have their rules broken, such as "Don't Defeat" or "Weapons Only"; this also applies to Challenges involving a time limit, including "Survive" and "Time Limit". Whenever Cooper breaks the rules of a Challenge, The Reaper appears in the room. It is still possible for Cooper to clear the room, although he must avoid being touched by The Reaper, as this instantly defeats him. The Reaper also destroys enemies that it touches, and Cooper can use this to his advantage, especially to defeat stronger enemies, such as a Haunted Door or Jessie & Clyde.

Characters

 * Cooper: Cooper, the game's protagonist, is a teenage boy who must brave the horrors of Ghoulhaven Hall to rescue his girlfriend.
 * Amber: Cooper's girlfriend, a self-willed woman. She is kidnapped by the Ghoulies after Cooper offends the wrong person...
 * Baron von Ghoul: The insane owner of the manor and leader of the Ghoulies. He makes a habit out of kidnapping children, who can be found tied-up throughout the mansion.
 * Crivens: Crivens is the feeble old butler of Ghoulhaven. He tries to help Cooper at any time he needs it.
 * Ma Soupswill: A strange chef who, for some reason, leaves little tastes of her stew around Ghoulhaven.
 * Mr. Ribs: Ma Soupswill's cooking assistant, Mr. Ribs is a skeleton and the only kind Ghouly in the manor.
 * Fiddlesworth Dunfiddlin: Fiddlesworth is the kindly yet bumbling groundskeeper of Ghoulhaven Hall.
 * Babs Buffbrass: Barbara (Babs for short) is the cranky cleaning lady of Ghoulhaven Hall. She hates it when any kind of mess is made in the mansion.
 * Dr. Krackpot: A mad scientist who briefly turns Amber into a revolting ogre.

Ghoulies
The Ghoulies are the enemies that Cooper encounters in Ghoulhaven Hall. They consist of various paranormal entities such as ghosts, vampires, and monsters. They are separated in a few different categories:

Super Scary Shock Ghoulies
These Ghoulies only appear to cause a Super Scary Shock to the player character, although Ghoulie Amber can also cause one when first seen.
 * Blob
 * Grasping Hand
 * Mingella the Guard Dog
 * Stuffed Head
 * Tentacle Terror

Scare Ghoulies
These Ghoulies only appear to give Cooper a scare.


 * Blobbelda the Guard Dog
 * Bony Arm
 * Freaky Monk
 * Hag
 * Haunted Telephone
 * Ogre Head
 * Spooky Grandpa
 * Spooky Granny
 * The Munching Cavalier

Standard Ghoulies

 * Ancient Mummy
 * Ancient DJ Mummy
 * Chicken
 * Vampire Chicken
 * Cursed Mummy
 * Imp
 * Big Head Imp
 * Roger the Cabin Boy
 * Fire Imp
 * Flying Imp
 * Ghoulie Amber
 * Haunted Chair
 * Haunted Coat
 * Haunted Door
 * Haunted Painting
 * Haunted Television
 * Hunchback
 * Jessie & Clyde
 * Medusa
 * Ninja Imp
 * Skeleton
 * Skeleton Maid
 * Spider
 * The Reaper
 * Vampire
 * Warlock
 * Worm
 * Zombie
 * Zombie Pirate
 * Zombie Pirate Captain

Other Ghoulies

 * Bat
 * Gargoyle
 * Scarab Beetle
 * Terrance the Table Cloth

Super Soups
There are Super Soup cans that can be used to do various things to help Cooper out, during his adventure at Ghoulhaven Hall. Each of these super soups will be helpful along the way to allow Cooper to pick up. The Super soup effects are divided into four different categories, and each category is different, whenever it effects Cooper or if it effects anything else throughout the course of the room, in the game. Some types of Super Soups are rare, so the player might wanna be on the lookout for the more-obscure super soups that can be very useful, throughout Cooper's journey. These super soups can be found on the ground, or they can be hidden in some places, so Cooper will have to break specific things to get the super soups to uncover.


 * Cooper Effective Soups
 * Energy Boost! One of the first and more common soups found in Ghoulhaven Hall. This gives Cooper extra energy depending which number fills the heart that floats above the can. It can go from 1 up to a large whopping 25, which Cooper finds in particularity difficult challenges.
 * Invisibility! A more rare kind of a super soup that allows Cooper to become completely invisible for a short period of time and works against any Ghoulies that are in the same place as you. Cooper can manage to pass by them completely without the Ghoulies noticing him or he can fight them, without any trouble.
 * Invulnerability! An uncommon super soup can that allows Cooper to be invincible for a set amount of time. While Cooper will still react to any Ghouly attack that he receives, The added benefit of the super soup keeps him intact, which means that his number amount of energy will stay the same, regardless of what untimely attacks that the ghoulies will perform on Cooper.
 * Turbo Cooper! Sometimes Cooper just isn't fast enough to re-act. This super soup temporarily triples Cooper's speed. It will allow him to run faster, perform faster attacks, fire weapons faster, and even deliver blows even quicker. This is very useful to help get rid of the Ghoulies faster and gives him better timing to re-act to his surroundings and get him to much safer distances. This even helps on clearing the game in a more efficient manner and speed through the game, in which benefits the player's Time Taken score.
 * Increased Offensive Soups
 * Knock-Out Mania! When Cooper is dealing with a bunch of ghoulies, The player will realize the aggravation of having to smack a ghouly around a few times, just to get them dizzied, then knocking down a single member of a group of Ghoulies. But with this super soup, every single hit that Cooper manages to go in contact with a Ghouly, will register as knockouts as they were already dizzied and will send them flying. But just like most other soups, it's only temporarily.
 * One-Hit Wonder! One of the most useful soups in the game. Not only will the ghoulies be knocked out, when Cooper comes in contact with attacking them, but it will also give him the power to drain their health to zero after hitting them just one time, in which that makes him a Grim Reaper to the Ghoulies. This is usually found in some rooms that give the player a challenge to defeat a number of ghoulies within an amount of time.
 * Miniature Cooper! Sometimes Cooper can't just fight alone. That's why he literally gets a little help. Picking this super soup, will allow Cooper to create a smaller clone of himself. They may be small, but their attack power is just as strong as Cooper's real attacks. While they can't be defeated, they can still get effected by the stuns of the Scary Shocks, so Cooper must be careful on where and when he'll send them out.
 * Super Weapons! Allows Cooper to continuously use those priceless antiques as weapons that he picks up in Ghoulhaven Hall, and abuse the weapon well past its breaking point. For permanent weapons (such as the Holy Water Gun or the Soda Pop Gun) Cooper gains the comfort of drawing from an untapped supply as the needle will never deter from the full icon. This is very useful for dealing with powerful and/or multiple ghoulies.


 * Immediate Ghouly Effective Soups
 * Dizzy Reaper! If Cooper goes against the rules during a challenge at any room and ends up breaking them, The Grim reaper will come after Cooper. However, this super soup will allow the Grim Reaper to become dizzy causing him to spin around in a circle which he'll be unable to do any harm, and which this gives Cooper a chance to ditch him and escape his clutches from touching him. This will also give Cooper some extra time to solve a rule-broken challenge and escape before the soup effects wear off, causing the Grim Reaper to regain his senses.
 * Freeze Ghoulies! While the "Turbo Cooper!" super soup is a solution to deal with many ghoulies, This super soup with a Snowflake on top of the lid, allows Cooper to stop the action of the Ghoulies altogether in the room and plan the ways of escape. All ghoulies in the room will freeze in their current pose, and this allows Cooper to get a big chance to attack the Ghoulies which they won't be able to move nor attack and they will be prevented from reacting towards the damage that Cooper deals. Each successful hit can do 10 damage, and it will give Cooper the opportunity to deliver finishing blows towards the Ghoulies.
 * Traitor Fever! Not all ghoulies will attack Cooper, nor will the ghoulies agree with each other. In some rooms, There will be some ghoulies that fight against each other, before they focus on Cooper. Picking this super soup that is identified with a green smiley face can will cause all ghoulies in the same room, to turn traitorous and go against each other and by other means hurting each other as well. This gives Cooper a chance to attack the ghoulies and escape as well. But once the soup effects wear off, they will regain their senses and focus on hurting Cooper.
 * Challenge Specific Soups
 * Challenge Complete! The most sought-after super soup in the whole game. Picking this super soup will make the challenge already completed without having to waste any time. Very useful to save time and when Cooper's going through difficult challenges and plus, this gives Cooper the opportunity to escape and proceed to the next room.
 * Extra Time! There are some challenges that must be completed under a strict time limit before the Grim Reaper shows up. This super soup will give Cooper extra time onto getting the challenge done. If this super soup is picked up, before the challenge starts, ten seconds of Cooper's time will be wasted, that could have been used for the challenge. It's best to uncover these super soups while ample, before the challenge starts.
 * Shocker Blocker! If Cooper gets effected with a Super Scary Shock, A limited amount of time to solve the frantic button combination will be at hand. If the frantic fails to be solved, then Cooper will lose 10 Heart points by letting the shock succumb him. If Cooper manages to pick this up, it will automatically solve the combination flawlessly for Cooper, on future Super Scary shocks after picking it up. The effects for the soup will also be permanent throughout the room, making it useful.

Unfavorable Soups
Identified by the ghostly orange form floating above the lid, The player will have to avoid picking up these kinds of soups at all costs, because they will not help Cooper. If these kind of soups are uncovered, The player should stay away from them at all times and not pick them up whatsoever. Unlike the super soup cans, If Cooper picks one of these up by mistake, they cause negative effects, and can be seriously handicapping during challenges. But however on the bright side, they are only temporarily and they last no longer then a few seconds for the bad effects to wear off, but it's best not to pick them up at all to avoid any trouble.


 * Energy Sapper! This negative soup predictably drains Cooper's Total Heart points to 1, meaning that after picking this up by mistake, this will cause Cooper to suddenly have one HP left by instant, basically making this a poison soup and very dangerous to pick up. Even if the player has a large number of HP, picking this up will sap Cooper's HP to 1.
 * Reverse Controls! This will cause the controls of Cooper's movement to revert which can catch the player by surprise. If he accidentally picks this up, and Cooper tries to run away from the Ghoulies desperately, he'll end up running into them instead, since the player's controls have been mirrored, technically making this a Revert soup, due to the soup's effects causing the controls to completely reverse.
 * Slo-Mo Cooper! This works identical to the "Turbo Cooper!" super soup, but this is the exact opposite. This greatly slows Cooper down instead of speeding him up, in which this will give him a hard time when it comes to facing against the Ghoulies, or trying to escape. Basically, this soup's effects makes this soup can a Sluggy soup, since it heavily decreases Cooper's speed. Picking up the Turbo Cooper! soup, while having this negative effect, can actually wear off the sluggy movements and can help speed him up.

Chapters and scenes
Grabbed by the Ghoulies has a total of 100 scenes.

Development
Grabbed by the Ghoulies began as simply a name. According to the game's Tepid Seat, various Rare employees were talking one day and "someone mentioned being 'grabbed by the goolies'" and they thought it sounded like "a great name for a game."

The game's development spanned just about three years, originating as a large, non-linear platform game for the Nintendo GameCube, and being moved to the Xbox after Microsoft's buyout of Rare. However, a simpler design and simpler concept were adopted due to the Microsoft buyout and increasing time constraints. After Microsoft's purchase of Rare, the studio re-affirmed their "simple design" of the game so that players would be able to easily adapt and devote less commitment to it. 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 as a Nintendo product".

According to Mayles, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was not inspired by Rare's similar-themed Atic Atac. The cel-shaded art style and design of the characters in Grabbed by the Ghoulies were inspired by Hanna-Barbera cartoons, 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 Red Baron and British aristocracy, whereas supportive characters, such as Ma Soupswill, were loosely based on staff from a school. Mayles considered the conversion of the game to the Xbox to be one of the hardest challenges during development, as Rare had less than a year to finish the game after its conversion.

During the development of the game, some of the more risqué things in the game were cut out in order to maintain an "E" rating with the ESRB. Some of Fiddlesworth's interjections were cut; for example, "measure my marrow!", "rub my radish!", "choke my chicken!" and "sow my seeds!" Additionally, the name of a town near Ghoulhaven Hall was changed from "Neede-in-the-Nuts" to "Ghoulsville-in-the-Gloom." Neede-in-the-Nuts was to be the subtitle and main location of a possible sequel to Ghoulies. Had the sequel happened, it would have been different and far more "open-world," rather than following the linear style of Ghoulies. Members of the team have stated that if the game sells well on Xbox Originals, they would love to make a sequel.

Music
The music of Grabbed by the Ghoulies was composed by Grant Kirkhope, who was also the main composer of the Banjo-Kazooie series.

Reception
Upon its release, Grabbed by the Ghoulies sold poorly, and the game had no advertising to promote it. The poor sales of Grabbed by the Ghoulies was referenced a few times in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, most notably in the level Banjoland, where several unsold copies appear in the giant trash can, filled up to the brim. The low sales of the game has been acknowledged on Rare's Scribes.

Critical reception to Grabbed by the Ghoulies was average upon release, although it has also since been regarded negatively; for example, appearing on Game Informer magazine's "The Wrong Kind of Scary: Worst Horror Games Ever" list. The game currently has a 66/100 on review aggregate website Metacritic and a 70% on aggregate website GameRankings. Many were also confused about Grabbed by the Ghoulies ' s simplistic design, controls, and lack of level and music variety which previous Rare titles were renowned for. The criticisms and low sales appeared to have a lasting impact on Rare, who has not managed to return to their former critical and commercial success.


 * IGN: 7.0/10
 * GameSpot: 6.5/10
 * GameSpy: 2/5
 * 1UP: C+
 * TeamXbox: 7.6/10