Grabbed by the Ghoulies comes to XBL

By Oli Welsh Published 17 February, 2009

Rare's first Xbox game added to Originals.

Rare had added its first piece of work for Microsoft, the generally overlooked Grabbed by the Ghoulies, to the Xbox Originals catalogue on Xbox Live.

The download will set you back 1200 Microsoft Points, equivalent to GBP 10.20 / EUR 14.40. Yes, TEN POUNDS.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is, as you can probably judge from the title, a smirking, silly haunted-house beat-'em-up in which a teenage boy must rescue his girlfriend from some disgusting fiends. With its spooky theme, cartoon graphics and twin-stick controls, it was strongly reminiscent of Nintendo's Luigi's Mansion, only with more jokes about genitalia and vomit.

We loved it back in the day but many others didn't, and Rare's inaugural Xbox effort didn't exactly set cash-registers alight. It was a telling start to the Twycross developer's odd-bedfellows relationship with Microsoft - as Ghoulies team lead Greg Mayles sort of admitted on Rare's site.

"For all those discerning games connoisseurs who somehow managed to miss out on playing Ghoulies the first time (and I'm sure there must be a few million of you somewhere), I highly recommend you spend a few lazy evenings (or a lot if you're rubbish at games) inside the Baron's delightful Ghoulhaven Hall," Mayles said.

"Imagine a game you really like and then visualise Ghoulies as a stylish haunted house version of that. So, if you like Halo, pretend that the main character is Master Chief and the hilarious DJ Mummy is a terrifying Covenant alien. It works for me."

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    How about Halo 2? I love that game, and it actually works thorugh VGA.

    Never played this first time around, and at that price it's a smidge out of my usual 800 point impulse buy zone.

  • GamesConnoisseur #2 3 years ago

    That great! I havent finished the game and would certainly love to add this to my collection, just need to delete couple of installed games from my 120 hdd though!

  • Darren #3 3 years ago

    Ah Grabbed by the Ghoulies... looked absolutely fantastic visually, as you'd expect from Rare, but it turned out to be a lacklustre, rushed game with awful controls that constantly annoyed me throughout the entire time I played it. I still own the original (I'm otherwise a big fan of Rare's games) but it isn't something I wish to return to any time soon, thank you.

  • Mildew #4 3 years ago

    Let's have an update of Blast Corps! I loved that game!

  • IronCladChicken #5 3 years ago

    Tempted; but I'm with DFawks - 800 points is my usual impuse buy threshold.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #6 3 years ago

    I really enjoyed Ghoulies, but sadly found it a bit too old-school difficult to ever complete. Still, it's a fun, good-looking (for its time) game, and Rare's self-depricating attitude towards it is to be commended.

    BTW, does this work on BC? I've still got my old Xbox version kicking about and it'd be good to not have to set up the old Xbox if I want to play it!

  • Penguinzoot #7 3 years ago

    BTW, does this work on BC?

    Yeah it does. I recently started playing this again on the 360, but like Darren, the controls wind me up no end.

  • Pasco #8 3 years ago

    How can people that write funny webpages like this also make such insultingly boring games.

    Grabbed by the Ghoulies felt like the first try of an amateur game-maker by the way. How can anyone excuse the minute long QTEs where you had to witness a whole lot of nothingness, had to push a button every 15 seconds and had to start all over again (being pushed a couple of minutes back) if you did something wrong? Or a boss fight where you practically run around a table and pause now and then to shoot back?

  • jonsaan #9 3 years ago

    Top game. I may just have to snap it up!

  • "him" #10 3 years ago

    Great game... agree about it being difficult though.

    Though I have completed it! (after much swearing!)

    The Butler did it...

  • Bulbatron #11 3 years ago

    PLEASE Microsoft, put SILENT HILL 2 on Xbox Originals - and make sure that, unlike the disc version, it also works in the UK. Do this and I will be a happy chap.