Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Grabbed By The Ghoulies - Grasped

Posted by simoniker on from the meat-and-two-veg-hurting dept.

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?

9 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Of Course Not by redune45 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    --
    redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
  2. Rare never had it by gamgee5273 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Rare never had it by Mike+Mentalist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What, apart from the fact that they were the darlings of the Spectrum back when they were called Ultimate Play the Game you mean?

      People who say that Rare have lost it aren't looking at the whole picture. When they first went from developing for the Spectrum to the NES they had lots of employees leave and everyone said the same thing about them back then.

      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.

      Every developer releases 'bad eggs', but that doesn't mean they are going down the pan at all.

      --
      I put my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Demonoid, ISOHunt and Pirate Bay. Search for 'Michael Cargill'
    2. Re:Rare never had it by jherekc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

      --
      "lack of quality control is one of the pillars of slashdot"
    3. Re:Rare never had it by mausmalone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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 still hold up today (at least the arcade versions).

      So Rare definitely had "it," but they have a very distinct style, and not all people like it. Even if they make good games, there's a portion of the gaming public who looks at their stuff and goes "well, it's just not for me." Still, like Nintendo said when they ended the partnership... huge investment, little return. Mostly due to extremely long development cycles.

      --
      -=-=-=-=-=
      I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
  3. Re:Remake? by Froggie · · Score: 2, Funny

    And if that didn't help, bollocks is a collquialism for nadgers.

  4. Horsepuckey by ChibiLZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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...

    --
    Don't buy WoW Gold! Make it yourself!
  5. It's still just a beat 'em up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    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 at bad guys and moving to the next room. Oh, there's the "scary" moments where you have to waggle the stick as fast as you can to regain your composure. This is a dull game, doesn't matter what platform it's on. All the pretty character models in the world can't save this from ending up like Whacked!, Cel Damage and Blinx.

    1. Re:It's still just a beat 'em up by rhuntley12 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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?