Modern Classix 1

By Sam Leitch

Unloved? Underrated? Or just plain ignored?

Modern Classix digs up the diamonds in the rough you may have missed.

Grabbed By The Ghoulies is a fantastic game to kick off our new column. Whilst it may not be a best-seller, or a life changing experience, it manages to tap into some ancient gameplay dynamics and make us keep playing in much the same way as Smash TV, Gauntlet and Zombies all did back in the day.

Buy My Beef!

Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Grabbed from now on) is a goofy title. It’s quirky and fun, which mirrors perfectly the game itself. Unfortunately looking at reviews of this game online and offline, you're mostly looking at 60 – 70% scores. According to current review trends, this suggests an average or good but faulty game. Whilst I won’t go into the merits and negatives of review percentages, I will say that the score has scared more than a couple of people away from this game, and that really is a shame.

What you have to understand is the hype that surrounded this game. Rare, had been promoted to superstar status when developing for the Nintendo 64. Making some of the most critically acclaimed and best selling games for the system such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and the Banjo Kazooie games, fans expected every Rare game to redefine the gaming experience. Grabbed is not life changing, it won’t give your life meaning – it’s a simple, silly and fun game and that’s all it was ever meant to be.

A lot of Rare’s games back on the Nintendo Entertainment System were a bit hit or miss with gamers at the time. Usually the games were pretty off the wall, featured simplistic gameplay, and were a hell of a lot of fun to play. If you’re a fan of these old school games, you will most probably love Grabbed as well.

Crunch My Carrots!

Grabbed is definitely old school. You have to defeat all the enemies in the room before moving onto the next room, over and over and over again. It’s not intellectual, it’s not state of the art, but it is fiendishly addictive.

Controlling your character is a breeze. One stick moves Cooper, the other is the direction to punch and kick in, depending on how far away enemies are and their position relative to you will trigger different moves. There is no Devil May Cry or God of War style combo system, there are no upgradeable moves. You can see how some people were turned off already can’t you?

What this game DOES have in spades is slapstick silliness. All the rooms feature a huge amount of breakables. After finishing a room, it’s usually trashed more than a motel room The Who have stayed in. Even better is the stupid amount of weapons available, you can pick up brooms, plates, chairs, stools, pool cues and almost anything else you can lay your hands on and use them in self defence. The results are often hilarious, hitting spiders with the spade and sending them across the screen into other enemies is simply a ball. Hitting enemies into shelves and other breakables causes them to break as well, which sounds obvious but adds a lot to the game play.

And hit monsters you shall. There are a good amount of enemies on offer here and unlike a lot of games each enemy looks and behaves very differently. There were the brilliantly hilarious ninja’s, mummies that could only be burnt, vampires in coffins that need to be hit when the coffin door is open and medusa’s that turn you into stone if you stand immediately in front of them. Some enemies just involved a bit of biffo but others had to be beaten in a slightly more strategic manner.

What really makes things interesting though are the rules that some rooms add to the mix. Breaking the rules brings in the brilliantly funny take on Death who kills your character with one touch. However Death can sometimes be used to your advantage as he also kills other enemies he touches and can sometimes be knocked back temporarily. Watch out though as he is faster than you and can’t be killed.

Rules are sometimes simple and sometimes a bit tricky. Often later on in the game more than one rule is in play at a time. Rules range from not killing certain enemies to beating all the enemies within a time limit or not destroying any furniture in the room. Whilst not changing the game play dramatically this does keep you on your toes and spice things up a bit.

Peel My Potatoes!

Rare are well known for having high production values and that is obvious in this game. The graphics are cartoonish, which again put off a lot of people but really are excellent if you can get past this. The animation is excellent, each enemy moves with character and some of your own attacks look deliciously devastating. The mansion itself is the real star though, it’s designed brilliantly. Each part of the Mansion or its grounds is distinctive and reeks of character. You’ll go through a huge greenhouse, kitchens and walk in freezers, bathrooms and all manners of corridors and other rooms. I haven’t been so compelled to see what’s around the next corner in a long, long time.

You may be disappointed that in this day and age Rare haven’t recorded voices at all and instead play a lot of random noises over the text. Really though this gives all the characters in the game more personality. The enemy noises are fantastic though, each enemy has its own distinctive recordings and the noise of hitting a ninja or spider with garden equipment often inspires a case of the giggles. The music is also atmospheric, even if it’s more or less ripped from Banjo Kazooie.

The game is ridiculous throughout, Rare always manage to sprinkle their game, no matter how serious or ridiculous with some obscure humour. I feel this really adds to the experience and some parts of this game are just so stupid (in a good way) that I almost fell off my chair. In fact one of my flatmates watched me play the whole thing and asked me to fetch him whenever I had a play. He’s now playing through himself (when I’m not playing) and loving it.

Trample My Turnips!

If you are in the mood for something light and silly then this is the best game to put into your Xbox. If you play this not expecting a revolution you may be pleasantly surprised. The main game won’t take too long to beat but it’s so much fun that I have played through it again and as well as this there are hidden goodies to find on your way through the mansion that unlock some fun little extra challenges.

Recently game stores were selling off this game at $30 so check the nearest bargain bin, you may still be able to get it for this price, it still turns up for around this price every now and again. Otherwise you should be able to get this game second hand in good condition for around the same price.

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