The game looks really fun never had a chance to play it, I didn't own an Xbox. It probably would have done really well on the PS2 or GameCube. The only real complaint I have about the game from what I've seen so far is I don't like the character designs.
Rare is the one game Studio that makes it their mission to make at least one game in every genre that has ever existed in video games. Like seriously, they never stay with the same formula for too long and they always just try something new and sometimes invent entirely new genres.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies was a Nintendo-Rare game on a non-Nintendo console. In an alternate reality, GbTG is a Gamecube hit and Cooper becomes a star in Smash Bros.
For real, i totally imagine Ghoulies being paired up with Luigi's mansion as those two good and short gamecube games everyone would replay when it was time for Hallowen
Some players call Doom slaughtermaps "combat puzzles" as well to emphasize how they (good ones, anyway) are not just about mindless slaughter, but strategic use of certain weapons, targeting certain enemies first, clearing space to establish a foothold, etc. I'd never heard that term outside of the Doom community but it looks like it applies here as well.
It's been a concept since the early days of an FPS but it has usually been a more focal point for speedrunners I'd say. The call of duty influence that fucking destroyed the boomer shooter type of game up until it's resurgence was throwing mindless NPCs at you who all do the same thing (hitfire guns) and cinematic moments taking down anything outside of a mindless Jarhead with a rifle, it's what Doom 16 and esp Eternal resurrected in a more refined way. It's why I'm so happy indie games have taken up the mantle and gamers understand more
@@BebxOfficial I would say Half-Life 1's puzzle and combat are fairly discrete, with their own verbs. "Combat puzzle" refers to when surviving combat itself is a puzzle to be solved through tactically applying the regular combat mechanics.
@@Enterim Yeah, I'd say that's how Half-Life (one, not two) is meant to be played. Lots of people find HL1 like, really hard, but if you use tactics and intuition (paying attention to the story and ect), it makes the game much easier. Though ig you can play it disregarding all that, still, playing it with actual awareness and tactics makes it much more interesting and fun.
I briefly worked for Rare during the Kinect period. I was lucky enough to work with many devs who went on to make Sea of Thieves. What struck me was the passion for games, and the level of care put into even the Kinect Sports titles. Your video clearly shows how much went into Ghoulies. The games industry, both developers and publishers, are trying to run a business, so there's inevitably a tug of war between creating a product vs creating a work of art. Rare has always produced something tipping the scales towards "art". Fantastic video on a fantastic company!
I trully want to believe you, but todaty the dev are really trash, the sea of thieves is a cake fill with bug glitch and wrong mechanics. Hitreg broken from the first day, cheater everywhere and no anticheat, 3 years do fix wrong mechanics.. is a shame.)
I was toi young for having a kinect, and now i still want a kinect, it's an incredible piece of hardware, who shouldn't be abandon because so much IS possible with it
This was easily one my most played games on the original Xbox as a kid. I was shocked to find out much later in life that basically everyone hated it on launch.
It didn’t deserve it at all I tried kameo as well but I didn’t like that game at all. I don’t think it did to good either but it wasn’t fun so no surprise. “Only banjo everything else bad rhghehrb”
I know it's a little late to discuss this. But I think the biggest struggle is "Grabbed by the Ghoulies", "Kameo", and "Viva Pinata" were clearly designed with N64 and Gamecube audiences in mind, which struggled a bit on a console with an audience primarily fueled by Halo and similar shooters.
@@tomforge614 viva pinata I feel is one that came at a bad era for it. An era before and it would fit well in the fad of animal care games at the time. An era after and it could fit in with management games that are still going strong. Now it is a bit of a cult classic and if you can get it in a proper state it's honestly not a bad time. Its biggest issue when I played it was optimization and probably a too obtuse goal.
@@floydstephman Oh, it flourishes as a Let's Play title, and I would bet some streamers could make a five year career off of it and its sequel with how popular cozy gaming is these days. Struggles with just low accessibility these days more than anything, like "Legends of Legaia" and "Skies of Arcadia Legends".
My dad got the xbox for himself, but Grabbed by the Ghoulies for me. I never realized it did so poorly in terms of sales, but given the kind of marketing the system had, that makes sense. Rare did an amazing job, and made a great game, regardless
I know that Rare isn't what it used to be, but it still fills me with pride to see that company kicking around. Thank the video game lords EA didn't get it's grubby hands on Rare and snuff out that flame forever.
@@beauwalker9820popcap too, even if ea didn't directly kill it, pvz lost its soul when most of the original devs left. at least we stil garden warfare i guess
I loved Grabbed by the Ghoulies back then. I tried a demo in a store and I loved it. Got my own copy of the game later and I still have my original copy.
There was a lot to learn from this, surprisingly. (And until today I didn't even know it existed!) I'll make sure to keep some of this game design analysis in mind in the future. Also learnt about new testicle slang today. That's also useful. Many thanks, HotCyder!
I am a huge Grabbed by the Ghoulies fan and defender and am always trying to get people to play it. This is hands down the best video Ive ever watched of this wonderfull game and the little retrospective of Rare under Microsoft throughout it was also a joy to watch seeing as I dont see a lot of people approach it with positivity. Spectacular work!
This was one of my favorite games as a kid, and I was shocked to hear that no one else had played or heard of it back then. It's why, as a new game dev, my current project is recreating this game's mechanics and style.
I've probably played this game at least 20 times and each time I never got bored. could be me but i'll never understand how this game got bad mouthed so much
I'm always happy to see people talk about Grabbed by the Ghoulies. I remember playing it when I was in elementary school after my dad traded our old Win98 computer for a box of Xbox games. I recently went back to play it after wondering if I would still like it all these years later. Glad to say that it's as comfy and charming as I remember.
I remember trying the Viva Piñata demo and falling so much in love with it that I replayed it over and over again until I luckily spotted an actual copy of the game and went overdive. Some months later, my mother found Nuts and Bolts and decided to buy it for me since it was clear by then that I was quite a creativity-hungry kid looking to exercise their brain's imagination and boy did Nuts and Bolts find a way into my heart. I understand why people don't like Nuts and Bolts and I do too (specially after I tried Banjo Tooie) but I still love the game despite not being what the old Banjo fans wanted (and the wasted potential of a Banjo Kazooie collectathon game that has been refreshed to cut some of the clunkiness that the hardware back then imposed on the older games is still a hard pill to swallow). From that point onward more collectathon platformers of varying quality have come out after Banjo Tooie like Psychonauts 1 and 2, Yooka-Leylee, A Hat in Time, Demon Turf, etc. so enjoyers of theese types of games still have some games to enjoy.
This is such a good video! I can’t remember how I even found your channel but I’m glad I did. I’d never heard of the game before but now it’s a must-play. Can’t wait to check it out this weekend 😄
This was one of my main games I played when my brother handed his OG Xbox down to me before the 360 released. The 'Jessie & Clyde' enemy used to scare me as a kid, especially in the room where you need to fight 2 or 3 at once 😆
The XBox fratboy culture was definitely my biggest hurdle to ever giving this game a chance, never bought the console; a feeling of "betrayal" as a diehard Banjo-Kazooie fanboy was another. Finally, reading about the game years later and hearing about how short it was made me completely dismiss it. I have to thank you for making this video and letting me see this game with fresh eyes. Nowadays I can really appreciate the appeal behind short and sweet games with versatile player-driven gameplay and a variable challenge, so if given the chance, heck yes I'd play this game! Wish I had the Rare Replay Collection to do just that! Also, I'm surprised you never called attention to the Ghoulies' occasional victims that appeared in the footage, but maybe that's for the best
@@dianamunoz4296 As an Xbox player i say sort of unlike Playstation This is for everybody and Nintendo fun for the whole family Xbox had always had a "How do you do fellow bros" that it was endearing at the beguining i said
Holy shit I couldn't remember the name of Ghoulies for the longest time. I remember playing it and being absolutely terrified of the reaper as a little kid lol - this video brought back so many memories 10/10
Beautiful Analysis! I remember playing this game as a child, not knowing anything on how it was created, and finally I understand the history of my childhood many, many years later! I still have space in my memory on how to complete certain levels in the game even after not playing it in over 10 years. Cheers hotcyder!
Grabbed by the Ghoulies was part of the lineup of my first ever games. I had an Xbox and an N64. Alongside the greats like Goldeneye, DK64, Mario 64 and Halo. I had these obscure little Gems like Ghoulies, Voodoo Vince and Fusion Frenzy. They hold a special place in my heart
RARE is no longer the developer I used to remember. 1992 to 2002 from Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country to Dinosaur Planet's Starfox Adventures. The game that killed RARE isn't Grabbed by the Ghoulies, but I think it was Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. Because I know of RARE's best game from the Microsoft era was Kameo Elements of Power and I loved that game from start to finish, kinda wished there was more to do in the post game content.
I may be overthinking but conisdering the MC voicework and some animations(like how he grabbs his heart like he almost had a heart-attack after being scared or whatever) I think Rare intended the character to be a bit older orig
No. Rare has a video that talks about the development and there are even videos to watch in the video game! Zeke was always their intended character, as was his girlfriend.
With alot of those forgotten games from the early to mid 2000s range getting reboots. This is definitely one I can see them taking another look at some point. A sequel / reboot of this has alot of potential
Rare's Microsoft era shows that, while still talented developers, their excellence under the big N had alot to do with Nintendo's control and focus, which was gone under MS.
@@thedapperdolphin1590 That’s not true. It’s a common myth. The only key developers that had left by then were some of the main talent behind goldeneye, by they were gone by the time perfect dark was starting to enter development. Pretty much everyone behind all 3 donkey Kong country games, both banjos, conker, diddy Kong racing, jet force Gemini, blast corps, perfect dark, conker, and dinosaur planet were still at rare all the way until Kinect sports rivals for the Xbox one. I think the main issue that rare had during the Xbox era was actually having to switch hardware after the buyout. They had been learning the GameCubes architecture and experimenting with it since the late 90s, and they had been developing a ton of games for it, including Ghoulies, Kameo, Viva piñata, and other games that never saw the light of day such as donkey Kong racing and an untitled saber man game. I think having to switch to a whole different architecture at the start of the generation really messed them up. Kameo and Viva piñata was delayed all the way until the 360, Ghoulies was already pretty much finished by the time of the buyout, and they still spent an entire year just porting it over. That coupled with the longer development cycles of working with more powerful hardware is a pretty reasonable explanation for their more infrequent output. All of that considered, their Xbox output is actually a lot better than people usually portray it as. Ghoulies is an excellent game, made by all of the same people who made DKC 1 and 2, Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie. Viva Piñata is also an excellent game, helmed by the head designer of the aforementioned games. Kameo is also an amazing game, which is often overlooked, made by the original team behind DKC 3 and DK64. Conker Live and Reloaded is a bit lesser compared to the original, but it’s gorgeous, and really showed the promise of rare technically. It looks like a late 360 game. Even nuts and bolts, hated as it may be, is a stellar game, and in my opinion, a fantastic follow up which is true to the spirit of the originals, if not the gameplay (although it does have a surprising amount of platforming elements. Showdown town is essentially a banjo tooie level). Even Kinect sports is an incredible game. Sure, it lacks a lot of the personality we’ve come to love from rare. But it’s objectively the best Kinect game, and Kinect sports rivals retains all of the charm that we love from rare. The only problem I can see with Rares 360 output is the sheer lack of output. They absolutely didn’t release as many games as would be expected from them. But that’s completely understandable given the circumstances, and with the exception of perfect dark zero, each game holds up to their golden age output. Another problem I think is a huge cause of the backlash, is the lack of sequels to their older ip. But that’s the thing about rare; they never really did that many sequels. With the exception of donkey Kong and banjo tooie (and mickeys speedway USA, but Yknow. We dont talk about that game), every game they did on the n64 was a completely original IP. Even banjo was an original ip. Rare didn’t make sequels, and if they did, they would really only make one and that’s it (dkc 3 was a different team than 1 and 2). The fact that we got banjo 3 is honestly remarkable, and it makes sense that it had a different gameplay style given this track record. So yeah.
@@raxxtv1998 I wouldn't say Rare had a lack of output on the 360. A decade ago, I would've agreed with you, but time has shown how much we took their quantity of output on that console for granted. They released 8 games on the 360 which is pretty impressive. That's almost as many games as they released on the N64! As great as Sea of Thieves is, their 360 output makes their Xbox One and Series X output pathetic in comparison lol. Wish they would release that many games again. Also, I just want to say that Mickey's Speedway USA has a very underrated soundtrack despite the game itself being sort of lacking.
Used to play this when I was a wee kid and had nothing but great memories with it, also I remember a segment where you walk down a hallway wit monster heads where they’ll jump scare you and just now realizing one of the heads is a bear who resembles Banjo and I thinks that’s great. Good video bro 10/10
I loved playing this game so much as a kid! And it's nice to see someone doing a review on it as in my opinion is pretty good or alright. The idea of a second one is something I can only dream of hope for, but the ideas you brought up were really nice. In any case, I will always adore the game and once again thanks for reviewing one of my favorite childhood games!
I remember the TV advert so well. Announcer had a cheesy voice saying 'GraabBbBbed by the GhoOoOoULiEsSsss~!". Very Vincent Price inspired. I grew up with Playstation, so we got the PS2 instead of the new Xbox so I never got to experience the game beyond the TV advert. But it's been 20 years and I finally decided to get the OG Xbox for myself recently, and I know what to pick up first!
I loved this game so much as kid, so much so that the sounds the characters make, the main menu music, and many others aspects of it has been stuck in my head for at least 10 years, maybe more.
I feel like Rare is one of the last AAA developers who embraces cartoonish art styles. Besides Nintendo, most studios embrace the "realistic" style to embrace graphic trends. It's funny because when it comes to most games, the ones that people buy are not graphical powerhouses, but the ones that are accessible, like Fornite, Minecraft, League of Legends, etc. Modern gaming companies just don't get that people just want something to look nice, not real
What killed RARE more was that RARE's audience was NEVER on the XBox to begin with. RARE's primary audience was on the Nintendo and they should have kept developing games on the GameCube and never be brought by Microsoft to begin with.
Sea of thieves pretty much changed that though. Whether you like it or not. SoT on Steam alone outsold the entire BK series Blame Nintendo for not investing in them. Rare having funding issues towards the end of the N64 led to the perfect dark team collapsing mid way into development because of pay issues between Dolak and the Stamper Brothers.
I agree 100% that Rareware should of never been on Xbox to begin with and you can thank Iwata for that as he was the president of Nintendo at time in September 2002 so he had the ability to purchase Rareware but he didn’t and he almost destroyed Nintendo completely but thankfully we now have a ceo that knows what gamers want.
@@Itshadow306 You you understand that Iwata was Nintendo CEO right untill they start to shape what Switch would be like, like hybrid form factor literally was his idea
Surprising to see a video about this game on my feed. I enjoyed this game so much back in the day but I never knew anyone else who even played it apart from my own siblings. I'll always stand by this games pacing and challenge, it's sad it was so overlooked 😞
Nintendo wasn’t Rare’s parent company since they didn’t own the company. Rare was always second party like Game Freak, Hal Labs and Intelligent Systems
I worked for Game, when this game was getting released. I never played it. But I loved answering the phone "Thank you for calling Game, where you can now get Grabbed by the Ghoulies" (similar joke for the worms game that was released around the same time). Needless to say that this upset a few callers but it was part of the store policy when answering the phone. My boss did ask us not to answer the phone with that game but it had no effect.
I remember playing this game when it came out. I was not a fan of it at all. The controls felt too stiff and I was not a fan of the right stick combat. But maybe after all these decades, I might give this game another once over to see if I was too harsh on it.
Do you have parkinsons because the game had on one of the best control schemes of an early 2000s 3d action mashup even the ps2 had few games at that point with such smooth and intuitive controls ahead its time
@@erueka6 Wow, no. For the record, I played Jet Li's Rise to Honor and that had much smoother controls. But like I said, I'll give Ghoulies another try to confirm that.
@@MoonSpiritChannel it was a joke I know , its just the resurgence of old games i loved that are forgotten yet were trashed or ignored as a youngling getting retrospectives too late to matter is getting annoying
I honestly think that out of the big gaming companies that could buy rare (aside from Nintendo) Microsoft was probably the best option because Microsoft is more open to putting their games on other platforms than other companies. I mean look at minecraft which Mojang was also bought by Microsoft, that game is on everything. And plus with the introduction of banjo in smash, I'd say the chance isn't very high but we do have a chance for a rare game on Nintendo platforms.
If it wasent for them buying Minecraft then they would never put their games on PC and some indie games they published and funded like Cuphead on Switch and PS4 alongside PC.
I remember my dad had gotten me this game when we got the original xbox and it was one of those games that, despite not being very popular commercially, was a game all the kids in the neighborhood wanted to come over and play. Bought a copy of rare replay to give the game another play through in 1080p and had a great time, even started speed running challenge 21 a bit. awesome review man.
this is an absolutely amazing video showcasing how much of an absolutely amazing game ghoulies is, im so glad someone actually shined the light on it rather than biasedly hating it without even giving it a try -- as everyone tends to do with the games made under rare's buyout... im really hoping you do the same with nuts and bolts, it's a very amazing game that ive honestly replayed more than the first two, i had such a freakin blast 100%'ing it, and the replay value is so crazy! it really upsets me seeing everyone hate on it unjustifiably, that jontron video really hurt its reputation too. i understand it's not the banjo-threeie people have always wanted but it's still such a phenomenal game! ive read people suggesting it could've went better without it being connected to banjo but i say otherwise, i love it being connected to banjo and its world!
See of Thieves, Nuts and Bolts and Viva Piñata I had at the very least heard about, but never this game strangely enough... Sorry, I had to sneak it in.
This was a rad watch! I never played Ghoulies until the Rare Replay when that first came out. When I tried it, I definitely didn't vibe with it but I'm definitely willing to give the game another shot after this video!
Really good video. Glad this showed up in my recommended. I didn’t enjoy what I played a ton when I started it on Rare Replay, but I am tempted to go back now…
Very true if it carried a different name the reception would have been better. A lot of people got it hoping for a platformer and got something very different not bad but different. I'm not a fan of the play style of nuts and bolts it's not for me.
Really hope this one gets a remaster or remake if not all 3 maybe just the 3rd one that one is my favorite so many memories of it. Star wars games used to be so fun man.
Idk if someone already commented this already but another game that shares the right stick fighting control scheme is Jet Li Rise To Honor on PS2. Another underrated game imo.
What I find most interesting is that so many early 2000s movie tie-in games, as well as the Lego movie tie-ins, are similar in terms of raw goals and mechanics... You say it didn't leave an impact on developers, but I think it might have had more influence than initially portrayed.
I remember I got this game from a local thrift store that my parents brought me and my sister to one day. My sister was wanting an Xbox game, a Madden title if I remember correctly, even though she was not much of a gamer. So, in typical younger sibling fashion, I decided that if she got a game, then I should get one too. My parents agreed, as long as it was cheap enough. So I went looking around and eventually saw this game on the shelf. I had watched a lot of lets play videos about the game and thought it looked really fun and cool, so naturally I wanted to try it. Long story short, it led to me breaking two thumb sticks (I had an anger problem when playing games), one on each controller. So for awhile, the original Xbox was a no go for playing. But despite that rocky past, these days I adore the game, even with its annoying later rooms, and challenges that will make you go crazy trying to platinum. A true classic, that I felt immense pride in 100% completing more then once.
You're right it has an undeniable charm that you won't find anywhere else. For this game I like that they catered for all the monkey brained players who don't want to learn combos and just button mash. I really do think that a lot of content was cut for budget/time besides those motion comic cut scenes that Professor Crackpot character appeared as if he was going to be a boss fight but was sidelined. Music is fire as well.
Honestly it sounds like what killed rare was the fact it wasn't on Nintendo or Playstation this game probably would have done really well on those. I never got a chance to play this game it looks really fun ,I had a GameCube and Playstation 2.
I think Sony would have been better owners for Rare as they actually had kid friendly series on both PlayStation and PlayStation 2, I think Sony would have put more money into Rare and we would have gotten Banjo Threeie and more sequels by now.
Was listening to a retrospective on Luigi’s mansion and thought of this, this game was my Luigi’s mansion because since I wanted Halo and Incredible Hulk this was all I could get. But I do not regret it, one of my absolute favorite games that I was sad to see never go beyond backwards compatibility on the 360…. maybe its time to track it down again.
The worms also resemble the maggots or worms from the Metal Slug games. They will drop from ceilings or be already present on the ground, squirm around then lift upright to swell, glow hot and self destruct. This can result in them squeezing molting acid from their tip that melts themselves or strait up exploding. I'm not sure if Metal Slug was also referencing the game "Worms" by this, but those from Grabbed by the Goulies certainly remind me of those found in the former game.
I've been tempted to give this game a go after picking up Rare Replay recently, you've convinced me for sure! Only criticism I can give is to maybe cut out the parts of the recording where you take a breath between lines, users of headphones will thank you! ;)
From what I heard from others Rare was already going downhill right before they were boughtout by Microsoft. I also read on an articlue[can't remember which] that interviewed on of the staff during the late 2000's and said that management at rare were not good.
tldr: GbtG was silly n scary when I was 8. It was a beat-em-up MSoft RE spinoff made by Rare's og devs... and man, it had: +The Trophyroom jumpscares, +The british mumbling voices(8 yr old me found it funny), +The Grim Reaper(Gradually got faster on failed challenges, played an electric guitar to troll you when you got touched, AMBIENT MUSIC STOPPED. It terrified me.), +The Ninja Imps(they got big and could lunge with tiny scary kicks, custom ninja music.), +The haunted furniture (scared me so much), +Random loud Jumpscares (one of the earliest games that tried this and I grew to not find it scary later. Hate grew to love.) +Hard levels (some were plain hard at 8 y.o like low health starts, no touching X, dont kill X, time limits), +The Vampire woman (nightmare fuel since she's invincible without a powerup or weapon), +Replayable new game + (they time your 2nd runs) +Collectible books for bonus concept art/ "deleted scenes" enemies, levels, designs (They had much more ideas to add into an already complete game. So much potential as you'd expect from Rare. I miss Rare so much...) +Bonus Challenge levels (fun, just more GbtG room puzzle creativity to play with) +Butlers Brew (easy mode for kids), +Cheesy Scavenger hunt-like story (I liked it cause it meant you explored more rooms of the mansion. The mansion felt huge. I remember wanting the sequel to give replayability so you could revisit old rooms/areas... which wouldve been areas likely in "Ghoulsville".) +Ambient Music was memorable and not repetitive (exploration and combat music had maybe 5 variations with 1 scary choir one to make you feel) +The textures are perfect for the time. Cartoony, curvey, nothing straight as the devs stated they wanted in their art direction. (Rare Revealed video) +The text panels were old-timey and a small, odd reference. +Ballroom level (such a fun level) +The 3 Bonnie and Clyde Labratory level (hated it, couldnt get past it, scared me, but it was actually very satisfying to find the order of solving it.) +In Hindsight, GbtG introduced me Resident Evil's level design and I love it for that. - I never saw the Banjo/Kazooie trophy room reference when I was young, og xbox was my first console and imo. 2001 was when 3d games started looking beautiful (dos/ late 90s n64 didnt appeal to me other than ocarina of time.) Kinda feel sad when I see them in that level now, and I wish GbtG hadnt have been a polarizing political debate for n64 fans as it was back then... Rare made another great gem of another genre they mastered imo. Rare couldnt make a bad game regardless of what msoft did. Post-GbtG, yeah- I agree, Nuts and Bolts had none of Rare's dev-input I believe. Msoft should have left them alone with publisher money - Rare was trustworthy enough, but I digree, Msoft were greedy then. Not surprising. Rare should've survived to make whatever games THEY wanted to make. All their franchises deserve complete trilogies imo
Another thing I love about this game is the idea of crowd control its very easy for Cooper to get surrounded so instead of just mindlessly spamming attacks you have to strategically use the mechanics and environmental objects to win for example when fighting with your fist you can cause enemies to get stunned or become dizzy this allows you to get away to fight another enemy another example is the use of weapons the weapons are really useful to get a huge crowd of enemies off your ass its honestly a really unique mechanic that separates its from other beat em up games that are more about memorizing combos and being fast and flashy
Happy to hear someone talk about this gem. I was 6 when this game released and I love it just as much now as I did back then. It was a formative game for me, so it was shocking to find out way later that it was a nail in the coffin kind of game for rare. Thinking about it, I probably grew up on xbox because I had a brother 10 years older than me, so it makes sense that I was an outlier in this game reaching its intended audience.
So this is absolutely an example of wrong time and wrong place, if it was on GameCube and didn’t have the Microsoft buyout publicity, the game likely would have been looked back on like most of the weirder titles from that little lunchbox that could. This game looks like an absolute blast
Loved this game as a kid. The right stick combat felt fresh to me, i think rise to honor was the only other game I played at that time with twinstick melee combat
This game was of my favorites back when. Pretty original. In my Xbox hall of fame with: Blinx 1|2, halo 1|2, Tak (something tournament juju), and a crimson skyes.
Well, I could say that Kinect Sports was the game that put Rare on hard times, while Sea of Thieves put them back on the radar. Though, much of the legacy staff have already left the studio to form their own. So, their legacy IPs are handled by various studios now.
I haven't played this game, but from the looks of the gameplay, this game plays like a kid-friendly version of the obscure Blade II game, in that in both Ghoulies and Blade II, the right stick is used to attack enemies, and the player can use projectile weapons. It's actually pretty funny that a kid-friendly beat-em-up is better than one which has blood and profanity, well, if anyone else knows about the Blade II game!
I just feel like for the last 20 or so years, Rare has been determined to created games that nobody asked for a nobody really wanted. If they aren’t interested in rebooting some of their old classics, fine, give them to somebody else to take a crack at it. Microsoft and Rare have been sitting on some wonderful IPs for years, but don’t do anything with them. Make another Conker or Banjo Kazooie, damnit!
Best Ghoulies analysis I’ve ever seen, on what has become one of my absolute favourite games from Rare. Great stuff, dude.
The game looks really fun never had a chance to play it, I didn't own an Xbox. It probably would have done really well on the PS2 or GameCube. The only real complaint I have about the game from what I've seen so far is I don't like the character designs.
You know, I was thinking of your video when I was watching this one.
Lol you say that as if it's a tough fought achievement, this is literally one of three analysis videos on ghoulies on youtube
Does Dead Rising inspired by this game ?
@@bobmclovinelectricboogaloo Xbox was better than ps back then
Rare is the one game Studio that makes it their mission to make at least one game in every genre that has ever existed in video games. Like seriously, they never stay with the same formula for too long and they always just try something new and sometimes invent entirely new genres.
I can only imagine what they would do in the racing genre
@@DukeTheRebel they made diddy kong racing
@@DukeTheRebel there's also Bamblejo Kazooblie - Washers and Nails. Which wasn't pure racing. But racing was a major element.
@@josephfox7068 racing rpg game... crazy... one of the best of all time... car.. boat.. plane...
@@7RStudios my favorite Banjo game
Grabbed by the Ghoulies was a Nintendo-Rare game on a non-Nintendo console.
In an alternate reality, GbTG is a Gamecube hit and Cooper becomes a star in Smash Bros.
For real, i totally imagine Ghoulies being paired up with Luigi's mansion as those two good and short gamecube games everyone would replay when it was time for Hallowen
Some players call Doom slaughtermaps "combat puzzles" as well to emphasize how they (good ones, anyway) are not just about mindless slaughter, but strategic use of certain weapons, targeting certain enemies first, clearing space to establish a foothold, etc. I'd never heard that term outside of the Doom community but it looks like it applies here as well.
It's been a concept since the early days of an FPS but it has usually been a more focal point for speedrunners I'd say. The call of duty influence that fucking destroyed the boomer shooter type of game up until it's resurgence was throwing mindless NPCs at you who all do the same thing (hitfire guns) and cinematic moments taking down anything outside of a mindless Jarhead with a rifle, it's what Doom 16 and esp Eternal resurrected in a more refined way. It's why I'm so happy indie games have taken up the mantle and gamers understand more
I think half-life 1 was described like that as well.
@@BebxOfficial I would say Half-Life 1's puzzle and combat are fairly discrete, with their own verbs. "Combat puzzle" refers to when surviving combat itself is a puzzle to be solved through tactically applying the regular combat mechanics.
@@Toripusutashi Vomitoreum, is still my current favorite. ya got any gud suggestions for other fun ones I can buy?
@@Enterim Yeah, I'd say that's how Half-Life (one, not two) is meant to be played. Lots of people find HL1 like, really hard, but if you use tactics and intuition (paying attention to the story and ect), it makes the game much easier. Though ig you can play it disregarding all that, still, playing it with actual awareness and tactics makes it much more interesting and fun.
I briefly worked for Rare during the Kinect period. I was lucky enough to work with many devs who went on to make Sea of Thieves. What struck me was the passion for games, and the level of care put into even the Kinect Sports titles. Your video clearly shows how much went into Ghoulies.
The games industry, both developers and publishers, are trying to run a business, so there's inevitably a tug of war between creating a product vs creating a work of art. Rare has always produced something tipping the scales towards "art".
Fantastic video on a fantastic company!
That’s so lovely to hear! glad you enjoyed the video 🙏
I trully want to believe you, but todaty the dev are really trash, the sea of thieves is a cake fill with bug glitch and wrong mechanics. Hitreg broken from the first day, cheater everywhere and no anticheat, 3 years do fix wrong mechanics.. is a shame.)
Most relevant developers have created games that are “art.” Not exactly a unique achievement.
@@asianbeowulf4276 artists who make art? Who'd have thought.
I was toi young for having a kinect, and now i still want a kinect, it's an incredible piece of hardware, who shouldn't be abandon because so much IS possible with it
This was easily one my most played games on the original Xbox as a kid. I was shocked to find out much later in life that basically everyone hated it on launch.
It didn’t deserve it at all I tried kameo as well but I didn’t like that game at all. I don’t think it did to good either but it wasn’t fun so no surprise. “Only banjo everything else bad rhghehrb”
I know it's a little late to discuss this.
But I think the biggest struggle is "Grabbed by the Ghoulies", "Kameo", and "Viva Pinata" were clearly designed with N64 and Gamecube audiences in mind, which struggled a bit on a console with an audience primarily fueled by Halo and similar shooters.
@@tomforge614 viva pinata I feel is one that came at a bad era for it. An era before and it would fit well in the fad of animal care games at the time. An era after and it could fit in with management games that are still going strong. Now it is a bit of a cult classic and if you can get it in a proper state it's honestly not a bad time. Its biggest issue when I played it was optimization and probably a too obtuse goal.
@@floydstephman Oh, it flourishes as a Let's Play title, and I would bet some streamers could make a five year career off of it and its sequel with how popular cozy gaming is these days.
Struggles with just low accessibility these days more than anything, like "Legends of Legaia" and "Skies of Arcadia Legends".
I cant believe it is so hated. I played the demo on Project gotham racing 2. I played the gouhlies demo as much as i played pgr2 itself
My dad got the xbox for himself, but Grabbed by the Ghoulies for me. I never realized it did so poorly in terms of sales, but given the kind of marketing the system had, that makes sense. Rare did an amazing job, and made a great game, regardless
I thought this game was bad because of the first time I heard of it was a passing joke reference from zero punctuation. Glad people like it.
Mister Trump grabbed me by the ghoulies
yup it was one of my favourite childhood games back then
Rare's story behind the game is so incredibly them.
"We think testicle puns are funny. Also new Scooby-Doo is dumb."
What's new Scooby Doo was pretty dull.
@@phoebeaurum7113the theme was sure great though
@@phoebeaurum7113personally it’s my favorite version tbh, though I can understand why others might not care for it.
@@forsociopoliticalstuff2629it was the only one on when I was growing up. (It had been out nearly a decade at that point tho)
I know that Rare isn't what it used to be, but it still fills me with pride to see that company kicking around.
Thank the video game lords EA didn't get it's grubby hands on Rare and snuff out that flame forever.
I'll never forgive EA for killing Maxis, and Sim City.
@@beauwalker9820 The Maxis brand name is all that's left! ☹️
@@beauwalker9820popcap too, even if ea didn't directly kill it, pvz lost its soul when most of the original devs left. at least we stil garden warfare i guess
RIP Pandemic Studios and BioWare. Y’all made my favorite games growing up, and only their lifeless husks still exist
I loved Grabbed by the Ghoulies back then. I tried a demo in a store and I loved it. Got my own copy of the game later and I still have my original copy.
There was a lot to learn from this, surprisingly. (And until today I didn't even know it existed!) I'll make sure to keep some of this game design analysis in mind in the future.
Also learnt about new testicle slang today. That's also useful.
Many thanks, HotCyder!
I am a huge Grabbed by the Ghoulies fan and defender and am always trying to get people to play it. This is hands down the best video Ive ever watched of this wonderfull game and the little retrospective of Rare under Microsoft throughout it was also a joy to watch seeing as I dont see a lot of people approach it with positivity. Spectacular work!
This was one of my favorite games as a kid, and I was shocked to hear that no one else had played or heard of it back then. It's why, as a new game dev, my current project is recreating this game's mechanics and style.
I've probably played this game at least 20 times and each time I never got bored.
could be me but i'll never understand how this game got bad mouthed so much
Maybe because it wasn't a platformer or the move to Microsoft and different console souring fans and poor marketing.
Nintendo nerds is what happened
@allenparedes6132 to me moving to a console marketed towards teens and adults probably wasn't the best move at the time.
If I'd trust anyone to give me an analysis of Grabbed by the Ghoulies, it'd be you. This was fantastic!
I always wanted this game as a kid. I would watch the trailer over and over on a Cartoon Network dvd that came out of a cereal box
Finding out the game was Ghoulies came as a surprise. I think it's an awesome game that fits pretty perfectly into Rare's overall output.
I'm always happy to see people talk about Grabbed by the Ghoulies. I remember playing it when I was in elementary school after my dad traded our old Win98 computer for a box of Xbox games. I recently went back to play it after wondering if I would still like it all these years later. Glad to say that it's as comfy and charming as I remember.
I remember trying the Viva Piñata demo and falling so much in love with it that I replayed it over and over again until I luckily spotted an actual copy of the game and went overdive.
Some months later, my mother found Nuts and Bolts and decided to buy it for me since it was clear by then that I was quite a creativity-hungry kid looking to exercise their brain's imagination and boy did Nuts and Bolts find a way into my heart.
I understand why people don't like Nuts and Bolts and I do too (specially after I tried Banjo Tooie) but I still love the game despite not being what the old Banjo fans wanted (and the wasted potential of a Banjo Kazooie collectathon game that has been refreshed to cut some of the clunkiness that the hardware back then imposed on the older games is still a hard pill to swallow).
From that point onward more collectathon platformers of varying quality have come out after Banjo Tooie like Psychonauts 1 and 2, Yooka-Leylee, A Hat in Time, Demon Turf, etc. so enjoyers of theese types of games still have some games to enjoy.
I played viva pinta when my rare replay disk still worked and it was a blast
I still have my Viva Pinata. That game is a masterpiece and nobody can tell me otherwise
This is such a good video! I can’t remember how I even found your channel but I’m glad I did. I’d never heard of the game before but now it’s a must-play. Can’t wait to check it out this weekend 😄
This was one of my main games I played when my brother handed his OG Xbox down to me before the 360 released. The 'Jessie & Clyde' enemy used to scare me as a kid, especially in the room where you need to fight 2 or 3 at once 😆
Lmaooo I'm having a wLk down memory lane reading these comments
I remember raging at those Jessie and Clyde's haha, or the cursed mummy 😂
The XBox fratboy culture was definitely my biggest hurdle to ever giving this game a chance, never bought the console; a feeling of "betrayal" as a diehard Banjo-Kazooie fanboy was another. Finally, reading about the game years later and hearing about how short it was made me completely dismiss it. I have to thank you for making this video and letting me see this game with fresh eyes. Nowadays I can really appreciate the appeal behind short and sweet games with versatile player-driven gameplay and a variable challenge, so if given the chance, heck yes I'd play this game! Wish I had the Rare Replay Collection to do just that!
Also, I'm surprised you never called attention to the Ghoulies' occasional victims that appeared in the footage, but maybe that's for the best
Sounds like you’re the frat boy
Xbox never had fratboy culture??
@@dianamunoz4296 As an Xbox player i say sort of unlike Playstation This is for everybody and Nintendo fun for the whole family Xbox had always had a "How do you do fellow bros" that it was endearing at the beguining i said
Keep up the quality content and hopefully you'll get a blessing from the algorithm.
Holy shit I couldn't remember the name of Ghoulies for the longest time. I remember playing it and being absolutely terrified of the reaper as a little kid lol - this video brought back so many memories 10/10
How the Reaper, just keeps floating towards you relentlessly, with his hand out
Beautiful Analysis! I remember playing this game as a child, not knowing anything on how it was created, and finally I understand the history of my childhood many, many years later! I still have space in my memory on how to complete certain levels in the game even after not playing it in over 10 years. Cheers hotcyder!
Grabbed by the Ghoulies was part of the lineup of my first ever games. I had an Xbox and an N64. Alongside the greats like Goldeneye, DK64, Mario 64 and Halo. I had these obscure little Gems like Ghoulies, Voodoo Vince and Fusion Frenzy. They hold a special place in my heart
FUZION FRENZY FUCK YEA LOL
RARE is no longer the developer I used to remember.
1992 to 2002 from Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country to Dinosaur Planet's Starfox Adventures.
The game that killed RARE isn't Grabbed by the Ghoulies, but I think it was Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts.
Because I know of RARE's best game from the Microsoft era was Kameo Elements of Power and I loved that game from start to finish, kinda wished there was more to do in the post game content.
Kameo is great. First game to give me that classic Rare feel since Conker
I may be overthinking but conisdering the MC voicework and some animations(like how he grabbs his heart like he almost had a heart-attack after being scared or whatever) I think Rare intended the character to be a bit older orig
No. Rare has a video that talks about the development and there are even videos to watch in the video game! Zeke was always their intended character, as was his girlfriend.
@@xXLunatikxXlul ah gotcha
This is the game that came with my Xbox, along Star Wars Clone Wars and Tetris. I liked it a lot and the replayability is great with the challenges.
With alot of those forgotten games from the early to mid 2000s range getting reboots. This is definitely one I can see them taking another look at some point. A sequel / reboot of this has alot of potential
Rare's Microsoft era shows that, while still talented developers, their excellence under the big N had alot to do with Nintendo's control and focus, which was gone under MS.
Most of the key devs had left by the time of the Microsoft buyout
@@thedapperdolphin1590 That’s not true. It’s a common myth. The only key developers that had left by then were some of the main talent behind goldeneye, by they were gone by the time perfect dark was starting to enter development. Pretty much everyone behind all 3 donkey Kong country games, both banjos, conker, diddy Kong racing, jet force Gemini, blast corps, perfect dark, conker, and dinosaur planet were still at rare all the way until Kinect sports rivals for the Xbox one.
I think the main issue that rare had during the Xbox era was actually having to switch hardware after the buyout. They had been learning the GameCubes architecture and experimenting with it since the late 90s, and they had been developing a ton of games for it, including Ghoulies, Kameo, Viva piñata, and other games that never saw the light of day such as donkey Kong racing and an untitled saber man game. I think having to switch to a whole different architecture at the start of the generation really messed them up. Kameo and Viva piñata was delayed all the way until the 360, Ghoulies was already pretty much finished by the time of the buyout, and they still spent an entire year just porting it over. That coupled with the longer development cycles of working with more powerful hardware is a pretty reasonable explanation for their more infrequent output.
All of that considered, their Xbox output is actually a lot better than people usually portray it as. Ghoulies is an excellent game, made by all of the same people who made DKC 1 and 2, Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie. Viva Piñata is also an excellent game, helmed by the head designer of the aforementioned games. Kameo is also an amazing game, which is often overlooked, made by the original team behind DKC 3 and DK64. Conker Live and Reloaded is a bit lesser compared to the original, but it’s gorgeous, and really showed the promise of rare technically. It looks like a late 360 game. Even nuts and bolts, hated as it may be, is a stellar game, and in my opinion, a fantastic follow up which is true to the spirit of the originals, if not the gameplay (although it does have a surprising amount of platforming elements. Showdown town is essentially a banjo tooie level).
Even Kinect sports is an incredible game. Sure, it lacks a lot of the personality we’ve come to love from rare. But it’s objectively the best Kinect game, and Kinect sports rivals retains all of the charm that we love from rare.
The only problem I can see with Rares 360 output is the sheer lack of output. They absolutely didn’t release as many games as would be expected from them. But that’s completely understandable given the circumstances, and with the exception of perfect dark zero, each game holds up to their golden age output. Another problem I think is a huge cause of the backlash, is the lack of sequels to their older ip. But that’s the thing about rare; they never really did that many sequels. With the exception of donkey Kong and banjo tooie (and mickeys speedway USA, but Yknow. We dont talk about that game), every game they did on the n64 was a completely original IP. Even banjo was an original ip. Rare didn’t make sequels, and if they did, they would really only make one and that’s it (dkc 3 was a different team than 1 and 2). The fact that we got banjo 3 is honestly remarkable, and it makes sense that it had a different gameplay style given this track record.
So yeah.
@@raxxtv1998 I wouldn't say Rare had a lack of output on the 360. A decade ago, I would've agreed with you, but time has shown how much we took their quantity of output on that console for granted. They released 8 games on the 360 which is pretty impressive. That's almost as many games as they released on the N64! As great as Sea of Thieves is, their 360 output makes their Xbox One and Series X output pathetic in comparison lol. Wish they would release that many games again.
Also, I just want to say that Mickey's Speedway USA has a very underrated soundtrack despite the game itself being sort of lacking.
Used to play this when I was a wee kid and had nothing but great memories with it, also I remember a segment where you walk down a hallway wit monster heads where they’ll jump scare you and just now realizing one of the heads is a bear who resembles Banjo and I thinks that’s great. Good video bro 10/10
I loved playing this game so much as a kid! And it's nice to see someone doing a review on it as in my opinion is pretty good or alright. The idea of a second one is something I can only dream of hope for, but the ideas you brought up were really nice. In any case, I will always adore the game and once again thanks for reviewing one of my favorite childhood games!
I remember the TV advert so well. Announcer had a cheesy voice saying 'GraabBbBbed by the GhoOoOoULiEsSsss~!". Very Vincent Price inspired. I grew up with Playstation, so we got the PS2 instead of the new Xbox so I never got to experience the game beyond the TV advert.
But it's been 20 years and I finally decided to get the OG Xbox for myself recently, and I know what to pick up first!
This is one of my favorite games ever made! Love Grabbed By The Ghoulies!
I loved this game so much as kid, so much so that the sounds the characters make, the main menu music, and many others aspects of it has been stuck in my head for at least 10 years, maybe more.
I feel like Rare is one of the last AAA developers who embraces cartoonish art styles. Besides Nintendo, most studios embrace the "realistic" style to embrace graphic trends.
It's funny because when it comes to most games, the ones that people buy are not graphical powerhouses, but the ones that are accessible, like Fornite, Minecraft, League of Legends, etc. Modern gaming companies just don't get that people just want something to look nice, not real
This why i like Indie devs over Triple "AAAaaaaasss"
What killed RARE more was that RARE's audience was NEVER on the XBox to begin with.
RARE's primary audience was on the Nintendo and they should have kept developing games on the GameCube and never be brought by Microsoft to begin with.
Sea of thieves pretty much changed that though. Whether you like it or not. SoT on Steam alone outsold the entire BK series
Blame Nintendo for not investing in them. Rare having funding issues towards the end of the N64 led to the perfect dark team collapsing mid way into development because of pay issues between Dolak and the Stamper Brothers.
I agree 100% that Rareware should of never been on Xbox to begin with and you can thank Iwata for that as he was the president of Nintendo at time in September 2002 so he had the ability to purchase Rareware but he didn’t and he almost destroyed Nintendo completely but thankfully we now have a ceo that knows what gamers want.
@@Itshadow306 You you understand that Iwata was Nintendo CEO right untill they start to shape what Switch would be like, like hybrid form factor literally was his idea
LOL @6:35. It's always funny when you find something you posted _decades ago_ while doing research. Such a bizarre feeling!
Surprising to see a video about this game on my feed. I enjoyed this game so much back in the day but I never knew anyone else who even played it apart from my own siblings. I'll always stand by this games pacing and challenge, it's sad it was so overlooked 😞
Just expectations built from the early Nintendo days
Nintendo wasn’t Rare’s parent company since they didn’t own the company. Rare was always second party like Game Freak, Hal Labs and Intelligent Systems
What an incredible video! I love getting recommended great channels, even if it is every other year! I’ll be keeping up with videos you put out
I worked for Game, when this game was getting released. I never played it.
But I loved answering the phone
"Thank you for calling Game, where you can now get Grabbed by the Ghoulies" (similar joke for the worms game that was released around the same time).
Needless to say that this upset a few callers but it was part of the store policy when answering the phone.
My boss did ask us not to answer the phone with that game but it had no effect.
I remember playing this game when it came out. I was not a fan of it at all. The controls felt too stiff and I was not a fan of the right stick combat. But maybe after all these decades, I might give this game another once over to see if I was too harsh on it.
Do you have parkinsons because the game had on one of the best control schemes of an early 2000s 3d action mashup even the ps2 had few games at that point with such smooth and intuitive controls ahead its time
@@erueka6 Wow, no. For the record, I played Jet Li's Rise to Honor and that had much smoother controls. But like I said, I'll give Ghoulies another try to confirm that.
@@MoonSpiritChannel it was a joke I know , its just the resurgence of old games i loved that are forgotten yet were trashed or ignored as a youngling getting retrospectives too late to matter is getting annoying
It amazes me that DashieGames knows this hidden gem and It surprised me that no one has ever talked about it.
Based Dashie (common)
I honestly think that out of the big gaming companies that could buy rare (aside from Nintendo) Microsoft was probably the best option because Microsoft is more open to putting their games on other platforms than other companies. I mean look at minecraft which Mojang was also bought by Microsoft, that game is on everything. And plus with the introduction of banjo in smash, I'd say the chance isn't very high but we do have a chance for a rare game on Nintendo platforms.
That, and the other company was Activision...
Banjo-Kazookie being on NSO is a good start.
If it wasent for them buying Minecraft then they would never put their games on PC and some indie games they published and funded like Cuphead on Switch and PS4 alongside PC.
@@sebastianescalante5618 Microsoft basically bought Activision to rid of the people who were making those harsh working environments
@@LucarioShirona yeah, but back on 2002, Activision was one of the companies wanting to buy Rare...
I remember my dad had gotten me this game when we got the original xbox and it was one of those games that, despite not being very popular commercially, was a game all the kids in the neighborhood wanted to come over and play. Bought a copy of rare replay to give the game another play through in 1080p and had a great time, even started speed running challenge 21 a bit. awesome review man.
I just want another conker !! 😭
A good Battletoads and another viva pinata!
this is an absolutely amazing video showcasing how much of an absolutely amazing game ghoulies is, im so glad someone actually shined the light on it rather than biasedly hating it without even giving it a try -- as everyone tends to do with the games made under rare's buyout... im really hoping you do the same with nuts and bolts, it's a very amazing game that ive honestly replayed more than the first two, i had such a freakin blast 100%'ing it, and the replay value is so crazy! it really upsets me seeing everyone hate on it unjustifiably, that jontron video really hurt its reputation too. i understand it's not the banjo-threeie people have always wanted but it's still such a phenomenal game! ive read people suggesting it could've went better without it being connected to banjo but i say otherwise, i love it being connected to banjo and its world!
Good news!
th-cam.com/video/cfcvFc8XvL8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=jbdhGYB2xcdvQZ3z
Thanks! I had no idea this game was a beat-em-up. I just saw the button sequence gameplay and thought that was it.
See of Thieves, Nuts and Bolts and Viva Piñata I had at the very least heard about, but never this game strangely enough...
Sorry, I had to sneak it in.
I miss the flair the OG Xbox had.
Nowadays, Xbox feels more like Windows than an actual game console.
that original controller was so punk bro now everythings all clean and simple lol
This was a rad watch! I never played Ghoulies until the Rare Replay when that first came out. When I tried it, I definitely didn't vibe with it but I'm definitely willing to give the game another shot after this video!
rare lost a lot of talent before the buyout, doak, ellis, hilton, norgate, etc, all left after perfect dark and formed free radical.
I've got a podcast mini-series about Free Radical coming up in the new year that goes more into that 👀
Really good video. Glad this showed up in my recommended. I didn’t enjoy what I played a ton when I started it on Rare Replay, but I am tempted to go back now…
Nuts and bolts is actually great, it gets unnecessarily shit on it’s actually super fun
it just wasn't what people were hoping for, if they called it something else I think it would have gotten a fair shake, like viva pinata
Very true if it carried a different name the reception would have been better. A lot of people got it hoping for a platformer and got something very different not bad but different. I'm not a fan of the play style of nuts and bolts it's not for me.
@@keithmichael112 It was a fine banjo game honestly but they needed to release banjo threeie first. Like, it was basic market understanding
Grab by the ghoulies should be a franchise. It has unlimited possibilities
A crossover between the franchise and NecroNancy needs to be made!
Yeah I think the problem with Rare and Xbox was bad marketing and the different audience. A lot of them fit better in a Nintendo console.
A Rare dev trashing Scooby-Doo and the 13 Ghost in a Q&A session is something I never expected to see but I’m happy I did
literally never heard of this thanks for diving into the rare titles everyone else is too cowardly to touch
Haha, "rare" titles
Dawg who is cowardly to talk abt rare games dumb ash ☠️
@@fizishy very good
@@fizishy Not to mention "Too cowardly" for a game that plays on the spooky factor
The art style of grabbed by the ghoulies reminds me of psychonauts.
Happy Thanksgiving hotcyder. I have thought of myself what if Don Bluth made Grabbed by the Ghoulies instead of Rare
Really hope this one gets a remaster or remake if not all 3 maybe just the 3rd one that one is my favorite so many memories of it. Star wars games used to be so fun man.
Idk if someone already commented this already but another game that shares the right stick fighting control scheme is Jet Li Rise To Honor on PS2. Another underrated game imo.
This was the first game my dad bought me as a kid. I was totally scared. Funny in retrospect.
I miss playing grab by the ghoulies so much, used to play it everyday as a kid
What I find most interesting is that so many early 2000s movie tie-in games, as well as the Lego movie tie-ins, are similar in terms of raw goals and mechanics... You say it didn't leave an impact on developers, but I think it might have had more influence than initially portrayed.
Good point! I didn’t think how similar the beat em up fun of the Lego games were to it
I remember I got this game from a local thrift store that my parents brought me and my sister to one day. My sister was wanting an Xbox game, a Madden title if I remember correctly, even though she was not much of a gamer. So, in typical younger sibling fashion, I decided that if she got a game, then I should get one too. My parents agreed, as long as it was cheap enough. So I went looking around and eventually saw this game on the shelf. I had watched a lot of lets play videos about the game and thought it looked really fun and cool, so naturally I wanted to try it. Long story short, it led to me breaking two thumb sticks (I had an anger problem when playing games), one on each controller. So for awhile, the original Xbox was a no go for playing. But despite that rocky past, these days I adore the game, even with its annoying later rooms, and challenges that will make you go crazy trying to platinum. A true classic, that I felt immense pride in 100% completing more then once.
Wow this looks way cooler than I expected. Really up my alley on multiple levels. Maybe I'll check it out on Series X since I already own Rare Replay
You're right it has an undeniable charm that you won't find anywhere else. For this game I like that they catered for all the monkey brained players who don't want to learn combos and just button mash. I really do think that a lot of content was cut for budget/time besides those motion comic cut scenes that Professor Crackpot character appeared as if he was going to be a boss fight but was sidelined. Music is fire as well.
It definitely was designed for GameCube, no doubt about that with the controls layout...
Honestly it sounds like what killed rare was the fact it wasn't on Nintendo or Playstation this game probably would have done really well on those. I never got a chance to play this game it looks really fun ,I had a GameCube and Playstation 2.
I think Sony would have been better owners for Rare as they actually had kid friendly series on both PlayStation and PlayStation 2, I think Sony would have put more money into Rare and we would have gotten Banjo Threeie and more sequels by now.
Was listening to a retrospective on Luigi’s mansion and thought of this, this game was my Luigi’s mansion because since I wanted Halo and Incredible Hulk this was all I could get.
But I do not regret it, one of my absolute favorite games that I was sad to see never go beyond backwards compatibility on the 360…. maybe its time to track it down again.
The worms also resemble the maggots or worms from the Metal Slug games. They will drop from ceilings or be already present on the ground, squirm around then lift upright to swell, glow hot and self destruct. This can result in them squeezing molting acid from their tip that melts themselves or strait up exploding. I'm not sure if Metal Slug was also referencing the game "Worms" by this, but those from Grabbed by the Goulies certainly remind me of those found in the former game.
So true, I don't think there is anything they can do to top their Nintendo days...
Funny thing is , the original viva piñata has a reference of grab by the ghoulie within the game
I've been tempted to give this game a go after picking up Rare Replay recently, you've convinced me for sure! Only criticism I can give is to maybe cut out the parts of the recording where you take a breath between lines, users of headphones will thank you! ;)
This guy sounds like a Welsh Johntron. Good video. Subbed.
Great video! I often forget Grabbed by the Ghoulies exists, let alone that Rare made it
From what I heard from others Rare was already going downhill right before they were boughtout by Microsoft. I also read on an articlue[can't remember which] that interviewed on of the staff during the late 2000's and said that management at rare were not good.
Judging by the design of the playable characters, this game is a sequel to Zombies Ate my Neighbors on the SNES
tldr: GbtG was silly n scary when I was 8. It was a beat-em-up MSoft RE spinoff made by Rare's og devs... and man, it had:
+The Trophyroom jumpscares,
+The british mumbling voices(8 yr old me found it funny),
+The Grim Reaper(Gradually got faster on failed challenges, played an electric guitar to troll you when you got touched, AMBIENT MUSIC STOPPED. It terrified me.),
+The Ninja Imps(they got big and could lunge with tiny scary kicks, custom ninja music.),
+The haunted furniture (scared me so much),
+Random loud Jumpscares (one of the earliest games that tried this and I grew to not find it scary later. Hate grew to love.)
+Hard levels (some were plain hard at 8 y.o like low health starts, no touching X, dont kill X, time limits),
+The Vampire woman (nightmare fuel since she's invincible without a powerup or weapon),
+Replayable new game + (they time your 2nd runs)
+Collectible books for bonus concept art/ "deleted scenes" enemies, levels, designs (They had much more ideas to add into an already complete game. So much potential as you'd expect from Rare. I miss Rare so much...)
+Bonus Challenge levels (fun, just more GbtG room puzzle creativity to play with)
+Butlers Brew (easy mode for kids),
+Cheesy Scavenger hunt-like story (I liked it cause it meant you explored more rooms of the mansion. The mansion felt huge. I remember wanting the sequel to give replayability so you could revisit old rooms/areas... which wouldve been areas likely in "Ghoulsville".)
+Ambient Music was memorable and not repetitive (exploration and combat music had maybe 5 variations with 1 scary choir one to make you feel)
+The textures are perfect for the time. Cartoony, curvey, nothing straight as the devs stated they wanted in their art direction. (Rare Revealed video)
+The text panels were old-timey and a small, odd reference.
+Ballroom level (such a fun level)
+The 3 Bonnie and Clyde Labratory level (hated it, couldnt get past it, scared me, but it was actually very satisfying to find the order of solving it.)
+In Hindsight, GbtG introduced me Resident Evil's level design and I love it for that.
- I never saw the Banjo/Kazooie trophy room reference when I was young, og xbox was my first console and imo. 2001 was when 3d games started looking beautiful (dos/ late 90s n64 didnt appeal to me other than ocarina of time.) Kinda feel sad when I see them in that level now, and I wish GbtG hadnt have been a polarizing political debate for n64 fans as it was back then... Rare made another great gem of another genre they mastered imo. Rare couldnt make a bad game regardless of what msoft did. Post-GbtG, yeah- I agree, Nuts and Bolts had none of Rare's dev-input I believe. Msoft should have left them alone with publisher money - Rare was trustworthy enough, but I digree, Msoft were greedy then. Not surprising. Rare should've survived to make whatever games THEY wanted to make. All their franchises deserve complete trilogies imo
Another thing I love about this game is the idea of crowd control its very easy for Cooper to get surrounded so instead of just mindlessly spamming attacks you have to strategically use the mechanics and environmental objects to win for example when fighting with your fist you can cause enemies to get stunned or become dizzy this allows you to get away to fight another enemy another example is the use of weapons the weapons are really useful to get a huge crowd of enemies off your ass its honestly a really unique mechanic that separates its from other beat em up games that are more about memorizing combos and being fast and flashy
Happy to hear someone talk about this gem. I was 6 when this game released and I love it just as much now as I did back then. It was a formative game for me, so it was shocking to find out way later that it was a nail in the coffin kind of game for rare. Thinking about it, I probably grew up on xbox because I had a brother 10 years older than me, so it makes sense that I was an outlier in this game reaching its intended audience.
So this is absolutely an example of wrong time and wrong place, if it was on GameCube and didn’t have the Microsoft buyout publicity, the game likely would have been looked back on like most of the weirder titles from that little lunchbox that could.
This game looks like an absolute blast
I never gave this game a chance because GameInformer wrote a review that was titled "Punched in the Ghoulies".
I love this games art style, it r reminds me of a zombies ate my neighbors meets Scooby Doo meets Luigi's mansion
Loved this game as a kid. The right stick combat felt fresh to me, i think rise to honor was the only other game I played at that time with twinstick melee combat
This game was of my favorites back when. Pretty original.
In my Xbox hall of fame with: Blinx 1|2, halo 1|2, Tak (something tournament juju), and a crimson skyes.
Well, I could say that Kinect Sports was the game that put Rare on hard times, while Sea of Thieves put them back on the radar.
Though, much of the legacy staff have already left the studio to form their own. So, their legacy IPs are handled by various studios now.
I really do miss this game, I used to play it everyday as kid. Really had a charm that many younger audience based games just dont have anymore.
I just wished Rare would make more games.
I really like grabbed by the ghouliles its even better now its remastered love the style
"Kameo - Elements of Power" on Xbox 360 from 2006, still looks and sounds great in 2022 especially on Xbox One X with the free 4K/60 upgrade.
Ur videos are amazing man keep it up
I played this game back when it came out, I was young and didn't know any of the background company and development stuff, it's a fav of mine
I haven't played this game, but from the looks of the gameplay, this game plays like a kid-friendly version of the obscure Blade II game, in that in both Ghoulies and Blade II, the right stick is used to attack enemies, and the player can use projectile weapons. It's actually pretty funny that a kid-friendly beat-em-up is better than one which has blood and profanity, well, if anyone else knows about the Blade II game!
I just feel like for the last 20 or so years, Rare has been determined to created games that nobody asked for a nobody really wanted.
If they aren’t interested in rebooting some of their old classics, fine, give them to somebody else to take a crack at it. Microsoft and Rare have been sitting on some wonderful IPs for years, but don’t do anything with them. Make another Conker or Banjo Kazooie, damnit!
I played Grabbed by the Goolies when I was a kid. I really loved it. I didn't know it had any infamy
Very interesting as I felt the game that killed Rare for me was Star Fox Adventures.
That game was amazing. Was like star fox zelda