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XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Grabbed By The Ghoulies - Grasped 30

Thanks to GameSpot for their updated impressions of Rare's Grabbed By The Ghoulies, following the Xbox title's mixed reception at E3. The article suggests: "While the game features a pretty basic old-school beat-'em-up mechanic that's easy to pick up, there's a bit more to it", and goes on to conclude: "We're a bit disappointed to see that it doesn't have any multiplayer support, but any game that has a level featuring vampire chickens is clearly doing something right." Will this title go any further towards answering the eternal 'Have Rare lost it?' conundrum?
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Grabbed By The Ghoulies - Grasped

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  • Of Course Not (Score:2, Insightful)

    by redune45 ( 194113 )
    Everyone was so quick to judge Grabbed by the Goulies, saying that it was just another example of how Rare is falling to its demise.
    But no one ever considers that it may just be fun to play.
    It looks foolish, But who would have thought that Banzoo Kazooie would have been so absolutely fun to play-it looks even more generic.
    Give the guys a chance, you may me glad you did.
  • This could turn out to be one of those very simple yet highly playable games that the XBox could really do with.

    Not having a multiplayer option would be a shame. Anyone that's played "Zombies ate my neighbours" on the SNES will attest to the crazed arguments that can result from one player stealing all the good pickups.
  • Let's face it: Rare's most successful titles were pioneers for their time. Donkey Kong Country was successful, in part, because of its graphics. Goldeneye was a huge hit because the FPS genre had never worked very well on consoles prior to Rare's intervention. Battletoads was one of the first games where you could play as a mutant frog. Many of Rare's games has succeeded, and not always for expected reasons.

    As long as Rare's new games continue to bring new elements to gaming, they'll do just fine. If

  • Rare never had it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gamgee5273 ( 410326 ) on Thursday August 14, 2003 @08:11AM (#6694241) Journal
    Again, I hate to beat a dead horse, but there has been nothing from Rare (save GoldenEye and Conker's Bad Fur Day) to merit such praise of those developers. Other than those two games (and Conker wouldn't have been as satirically impressive if it wasn't on the "kid console" N64), they're middle-of-the-road and rather mediocre.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re:Rare never had it (Score:2, Interesting)

        by jherekc ( 460597 )
        Jet Force Gemini is one of the best games I have ever played. In fact I still play it to this day. To start with I was annoyed by the fact the I had to go through the enitre game again to collect all the parts from the spaceship, but then realised that there is alot more to the game than first meets the eye.

        A fine example of a game if ever I saw one.
      • "Rare have been making quality games for YEARS, and many of their titles for the N64 were superb - Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64."

        I concur. For example, Diddy Kong Racing. Several aspects of DKR beat Mario Kart hands down. Level design, number of levels, gameplay options, variety in gameplay, minigames, graphic quality, character choices (and impact on gameplay). All tilt to DKR. it did have it's downside. I hated the plane levels. plus,
        • I was seriously looking forward to the GC update, Donkey Kong Racing. Don't know what's going to happen to it (whether nintendo took over or it just died, I haven't been following the news at all)

          The last rumour I heard was that Nintendo handed it over to Namco, but I'm not sure whether that's been confirmed or not.
    • I agree, the older they've gotten, the less impressive they've become. I'd like to see them come back, but I'm not holding my breath.
    • Well, Rare had "it," but sadly, that was during the N64 era. DKC was sweet, and Battletoads, but Goldeneye is what really made them. Banjo Kazooie was a lot of fun (until you realized it was all about collecting puzzle pieces... snooze). Conker BFD was amazing. Perfect Dark was extremely cool. Heck, even Jet Force Gemini was a good-yet-ugly game. Star Fox Adventures was even reasonable (but again, once you realized you were just collecting stuff, it was pretty pointless). Both Killer Instinct games st
    • Let's also be real. Conkers was a terrible game. The worst camera I've ever seen, graphics that were just barely par and horrible controls. It's wit was barely smart enough to keep people interested. The Matrix spoof alone was reason to chuck it out the window.
  • Horsepuckey (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ChibiLZ ( 697816 )
    What's really funny is that if this game was slated for the GC, it would be praised for it's imaginative concept, crisp graphics, excellent gameplay, etc. People just expect different things from different systems, as well as all the fanboys still angry over losing Rare. Not that I see what the big deal is, Rare's nothing special...
  • Although the Stamper brothers are probably still there, Rare had an exodus of developers. I think Tradewest owns the 'Battletoads' franchise?? [Any updates on that will be welcome]
    Unless M$ is going to give this studio complete freedom, I don't think we'll see very innovative games coming down the pipe
    The past was ver bright though:
    Snake Rattlen'Roll
    Wizard & Warriors I & II
    RC Pro-AM
    Cobra Triangle (that was basically Pro'AM with boats)
    Off Road
    Battletoads Series
    DK Series
    Goldeneye

    I t
    • If the Stampers are still there, they probably won't be for a lot longer. The word going round was the sale came about because the Stampers wanted out, but Nintendo didn't want to pay them what they were asking.
    • Exactly..Rare is a lot more than just the N64 games. You forgot two games 'tho.

      Pinbot: The best pure pinball game in the 8-bit and most of the 16-bit generation IMO.

      Killer Instinct:Amazing graphics for the time, and an interesting style.

      The sad thing is, GbtG more than likey will be slammed by the X-Box fanboys, and be an amazingly big flop. At the same time, it'll more than likely be a lot of fun.

      Too bad.
  • Their stuff was once really innovative and fun, and sure they've done some great things in recent years like Conkers, Goldeneye, and Banjo Kazooie (though Tooie was a distinct disappointment). At some point they just decided to just seize onto the "multiple playable characters" mechanic by the goolies and not let go! Thus they gave us huge games with unfocused levels but that we're supposed to think are fun just because we get to play them three or four times with different characters, none of which are t
  • Does "Grabbed by the ghoulies" have the same sexual connotations in the US that it has in the UK?
  • by Anonymous Coward
    I played this at E3, yet haven't played the newest release (should have it this week.) However, from reading the Gamespot article, it's basically the same as it was at E3, a mindless beat 'em up that kids will enjoy and adults will burn out on after 5-6 levels. It doesn't matter that there's 100 items to use to hit something with, since that's ALL you do in this game...hit things. There are no puzzles to solve, no platforming bits. You just run from pretty room to pretty room, flinging hamburgers and cokes
    • According to you 90% of the games out there aren't repetetive? I mean take a dozen random games, and see if you are just doing the same thing over and over. You either build army - kill other guy run around collect stuff hit things shoot things How about people wait until it comes out to bitch? Is it not on your favorite system or something?
  • Everything that made RARE worth what it is has gone. Much of the talent behind Goldeneye has left to form a studio of their own. Their product was time splitters and timesplitters 2. I'm not sure how much longer the Stamper Brothers will remain with RARE, as I believe that MS bought some assets from them. I haven't seen anything nearly as original as Blast Corps from RARE in a long long time. I'd say its Microsoft's loss, but really I think the video game player has lost a quality game source as well.
  • I think is way too soon to judge "Grabbed". first of all, this are the same guys who have made a great title from just about every cliche genere in the market: fps (goldeneye) beat'emup (killer instinct great combo system and gameplay) and even a Kart game! (diddy kong racing, check it out if you dont believe me.)

    Second: the XBOX needed a good family title badly, the closest thing there was is "Blink the boring cat" and er... Halo (I guess).
    Now Rare could have pulled a simple Mario clone but they went f
    • I'm going to go a bit of topic just to share with those out of you who werent lucky enough to enjoy conker subtle and ellegant MP mode here are some of the game styles it featured.

      The Heist: (My personal favorite)
      4 weasels in a competition to rob a bank's "money bag" maim each other using several weapons including a 1 shot rocket launcher, tommy guns and kitchen knives. the catch: once you had the money bag you were unable to defend yourself your only chance was to run like hell to base. Seriously sei

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