Grabbed by the Ghoulies

It always worries when I see on the front of a game the names of other games the developers have made.  It makes me think that they have to say how amazing their previous games are so please forgive this crap.  I was thankful with this game it wasn't fully the case.

So, in Grabbed by the Ghoulies you take on the role of Cooper, a guy whos Girlfriend has been abducted outside Ghoulhaven Hall, it is Coopers (and of course your)  task to rescue her by fighting off all manner of monsters.

The game looks great, with fantastic detail in each level on both the characters and scenery and the cut scenes are nicely presented in a comic strip style.  The actual control dynamics are also very good with the left stick controlling the character, left and right shoulder buttons controlling the camera and right stick controlling the fighting actions.  It was unusual at first using a stick to control the fighting actions rather than a button, but it worked really effectively as it means you can attack in any direction without having to move the character, very handy when swarmed with skeletons!  Pushing the stick in any direction gives a normal attack, but pushing and holding gives a stronger attack or special attack with one of the special weapons. Various power ups and weapons are scattered all over the place, each of the latter with their own hit count.  Most weapons are very effective but you need to make sure you know what’s best for long or short range attacks as if you are trying to swing a wheelbarrow at an enemy very close up it will often end with them getting a hit in first.  Enemies have a range of hit points to finish them off, from one hit wanders to the more challenging Ghoulie, but to be honest all of them are pretty easy to overcome. Even though this means some enemies take longer to fight off, it doesn’t really make them any more difficult to defeat.

For me Grabbed by the Ghoulies feels far too linear as you don’t get to wander around; rather you are guided along by the story and from cut scene to cut scene.  I feel the game would work much better if it was completely free roaming and you could just explore and figure out the puzzles of where to go next and how to open doors etc.  The linear aspect to the game makes it rather boring and easy as you don’t have to use your brain at all, there is also no real challenge in the combat.  It also doesn’t help that there are so many cut scenes between each stage.  It can take a matter of a minute to finish a stage then you have to go through a cut scene that takes the same amount of time, before you get another short stage and cut scene.....and so on, it just makes the game drag too much and I just found my interest in the game waning.

Throughout the game I couldn’t help but think how much better it would have been if it had been produced as Luigi’s Mansion 2. The game play from Luigi’s mansion would have worked perfectly and as I played I could hear the voice of Luigi ringing out....Mario.....Mario...........

All in all though I did enjoy the game, it looks great and plays fairly well.  It is an easy game to play and would be fun for younger less experienced gamers.  I picked my copy up for 99p with £1.50 postage from EBay, it was in fair condition but unfortunately no manual. It’s worth a go, I don’t regret my purchase at all.

One little thing, there is a Cook called Ma Soupswill that you have to find ingredients for to help Amber.  However I found her voice, well the noises she made, stereotypically Jamaican; very similar to Jim Davidson’s not very PC Chalky character. I hate Jim Davidson......