Lost In Translation

Evening!


...and now to scare off the audience...


It's officially Video Game Week! 


I mentioned in one of my first posts back from vacation that I would be doing more theme weeks and fleshing out my concepts to a fuller degree. This will serve as the first of such endeavors. So strap in and get ready to be subjected to my thoughts on old, forgotten and underrated Games I Have Loved. First up - Rare's momentum-killing Grabbed By The Ghoulies!

I say this, of course, with an affectionate disdain that any chagrined gamer can attest to wearing. The game is known, in some circles, as being one of the first major missteps by a company whose track record was otherwise legendary. Rare, the British game studio behind the deservedly loved Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye, Killer Instinct and Banjo Kazooie, had been acquired by Microsoft in a rather controversial move. The first IP they released in the wake of the Microsoft acquisition was the curious, distinctly styled Grabbed By The Ghoulies. Until this point that company had maintained a solid string of critical and commercial successes. Here, though, was their first stumble. As a matter of course, the game became an exclusive Xbox title, released in 2003 to little fanfare. It lives on in infamy with few devoted fans. I humbly count myself among their numbers. But I'll get to that in a minute. First, a little background.

The premise for the game is simple and straight-forward: protagonist Cooper's girlfriend Amber is kidnapped by Baron Von Ghoul after the pair stumble into his haunted mansion and it is up to Cooper to free his love from Von Ghoul's captivity and requisite minions.  It's all by the numbers, with little meat to it, but to be honest, the plot is almost ancillary to gameplay. While many games as of late grow over the top with their convoluted plots, Rare has often set up intricately-made games with the most basic plot, under the guise that plot really is window dressing to get you to the fun. (Par example - someone stole the bananas! Get 'em, DK!) The action is simple - almost everything is done by the two thumb-sticks on the massive Xbox controller we all hated, save a few key moments where a string of buttons get you out a quick-time-event (ugh) scare sequence. Basically you work Cooper through room after room in the mansion, just beating up zombies, imps, skeletons, mummies and other horror mainstays. As you progress, challenges are thrown in the mix to keep things interesting - don't get hit, time limits, kill only these things, etc. The house is filled with things to use as weapons - furniture, plates, whatever can be picked up. The gameplay is so straightforward it's almost hard to believe Rare was behind it. My first time playing it I wondered if I was missing something.

But really it's not even about the gameplay, for me. I think I picked it up for a whole two dollars back in 2006, looking for something to amuse me during a cold winter that saw me A - being quite broke and B - living near a Gamestop. The simplicity of the game made it fun to dink around in while I listened to podcasts. I loved the atmosphere Rare created. It brought back memories of the Halloween sections of the first Banjo Kazooie, which I loved. I got the feeling it was Rare's love letter to old horror films, flaws and all. In some ways it calls to mind the gameplay of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, only updated and dumbed down. As a fresh-out-of-college slacker it was great for having a beer and goofing off with friends, even if we just riffed on how bad some elements of play could be. Hell, look at the title - Grabbed By The Ghoulies. It's a game based around a bit of British slang, of all buzz-killing marketing techniques. I've heard (completely unverified) rumors that Rare named the game before there was a concept, potentially as a sequel to the (column pending) Conker's Bad Fur Day. 

Despite all my kvetching and dog-piling on a game that's almost 10 years old and forgotten by almost all, I still dust off the ol' black box to give it a spin when I miss that time in my life. For a mere two dollars, I got a surprising amount of play out of it. Somehow it made the cut for the Xbox Originals downloads section of the Live Marketplace, again for cheap. For a more positive, affectionate spin on why I might keep coming back to it, check out this write up for kinder words. If you're looking for a bit of a curiosity in the annals of gaming, give it a whirl - maybe you'll find it as charming as I did.


Just don't tell anyone.