3 January 2004 1:16 GMT / By Stuart Miles
Laid out like a comic book, Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a strange mix of storytelling and live action as you try and not get too frightened on your quest to save your girlfriend. It's a strange premise and one that has mixed feelings on the screen. Seemingly aimed at children with the linear storyline and reduced controls, Rare, the developers, have laced the gameplay with plenty of adult humour. This mix leaves a strange taste in the mouth. The gameplay will bore the adults while the humour will be lost on the children.Graphically luscious however, the game unfolds across pages in a comic book with the pages flipping over to tell the story. It certainly offers a fresh approach to the usual games you expect to find on the Xbox and the choice to tell the story from this perspective it one of the games stronger points. Following a combination of cut scenes normally played out with the butler and the house keeper of a scary house, you have to solve simple puzzles as well as bash the usual bad guys like skeletons or haunted doors.
Verdict
As a game for children this is great, colourful with plenty to challenge the young at mind, however that said, we would be uncomfortable leaving a young child playing this game alone. The innuendos, most of which are sexual are very close to the mark - one level for example involves you shaking a pot of glue held at the waist with both hands before spurting it out across your opponents and for that reason rather like “Furry Friends”, another Rare title that saw forest animals and teddy bears at war with each, we can’t but help think that somewhere along the line once again the wires got crossed. Good fun, but easily misread.
Score
Review Recap
- Made by
- Microsoft
- Price as reviewed
- £35
- The good
- Great Comic-book styled graphics
- The bad
- Too adult for kids and too childish for grownups
- Quick verdict
- Fails in its attempt to be Shrek for gamers – should have been either for kids or for adults, but mixing the two helps neither market
- Score
-
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