Grabbed by the Ghoulies

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a 3D action-adventure game with beat 'em up elements. Breaking with the style of previous Rare platformers, the gameplay is simple in design, utilizing the premise of moving through areas of the game's mansion and completing the required challenges in each room. Most of the objects in the mansion are destructible, with the chance of finding Super Soup power-ups inside. The Super Soups can have 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 set time limit to complete one, rather than immediately restarting the room, the Grim Reaper will chase after Cooper; the Reaper will instantly kill Cooper if he's touched and the player will have to restart the room over, but the Reaper can also be used to the player's advantage, as he will 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 character can interact—including chairs, knives, and axes—can be used as weapons. If a player successfully completes a bonus challenge, they are awarded a bronze, silver, gold or platinum medal based on their performance. For every platinum medal earned, a piece of the game's concept art is unlocked. If the player earns a gold or platinum medal for all 20 challenges, a final challenge is unlocked that tasks players with completing the entire game again as Cooper's girlfriend Amber, who has very low health and cannot use power-ups. Completing the 21st challenge unlocks the game's E3 trailer and a deleted cutscene in the bonus gallery. ==Plot==

Cooper 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 defeats Dr. Krackpot, 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. ==Development==

The development of Grabbed by the Ghoulies began in 2000, after the completion of Banjo-Tooie. The idea for the game began with the name, which is a pun on "goolies", a British slang term for "testicles". Before any details of the game were publicised, it was rumoured that Grabbed by the Ghoulies would be the subtitle to the next Conker the Squirrel game. After Microsoft purchased Rare for £375 million in 2002, development of the game for the GameCube was delayed until Rare converted it to the Xbox console. Development of the game took under three years. It was originally conceived as a larger, non-linear open platform game for the GameCube. 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 once it was converted. == Release ==

The game was revealed at E3 2003, with a playable demo being a mostly complete version of the game, albeit with a few levels missing. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was released in North America on 21 October 2003, in Europe on 21 November and in Japan on 29 April 2004, becoming Rare's first game to be released under Microsoft. It was later re-released as an Xbox Originals game for the Xbox 360 on 16 February 2009, later being removed from the store on 16 June 2015, 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. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was one of the first original Xbox games to be compatible with Xbox One via backwards compatibility. ==Reception==

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. Similarly, Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer felt that the game represented Rare's "slump period", calling it a "particularly awkward gear change" for the developer. Despite its problems however, Whitehead also felt that the game "has a charm and character that is almost entirely absent from the AAA console space in 2015". Grabbed by the Ghoulies was nominated for "Console Family Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition" at the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; the first award was ultimately given to EyeToy: Play and ''The Sims: Bustin' Out (in a tie), while the latter was given to Medal of Honor: Rising Sun''. ==References==