Went in expecting scary, was pleasantly surprised to find spooky instead. It's got the goofy charm of Rareware's other titles, and it actually carries a vibe similar to Luigi's Mansion. It's a lighthearted kind of horror, with British "humor" mixed in for good measure. The Grim Reaper shreds on his sycthe like an electric guitar, it doesn't get much better than that.

Despite taking place in a sprawling manor, Ghoulies is completely linear. Door locks behind you when you enter a room, only way out is the other unlocked door in the room. Approach that door, and you're locked into a challenge, which is the main gameplay loop. Each room gives you an objective, usually along with some restrictions. Complete the objective, and the door unlocks. Break the rules, and the Grim Reaper shows up. Get touched by him, and face erasure. You attack by pointing the right stick in the direction of your enemies and picking up stuff with A. There are soup cans lying around or hidden within breakable objects that you can down for some extra boosts, and you will need these.

So, I like the setup that Ghoulies has going here, but they muddy it up in a lot of ways. First off, your health is "randomized" upon entering a room (I'm pretty sure this is always scripted, but it's presented like it's random), usually limiting your approach right off the bat. No need to be concerned about your health, it'll just be fucked over in the next room anyways. Second, there is usually NOTHING denoting if an object is breakable or not. You're just gonna be smearing your face up against walls while swinging at ghosts, and not the tangible kind. Certain objects contain those coveted soup cans though, which are often necessary to finish the more difficult challenges. Actually, scratch that. The powerups provide a solid opportunity to avoid engaging with the challenges. You'll probably die once or twice in most rooms, and knowing exactly where each powerup is located is a necessary piece to solving each room's combat puzzle.

I call each room a "puzzle" in the sense that you're gonna need to find a consistent method to break through this game's undercooked mechanics. It doesn't take long for each rooms' challenges to double and even triple down on failure conditions. The Reaper can be used to your advantage (there's some light enemy infighting mechanics in this game), but most of the time, the reaper showing up is quite literally a death sentence. These systems are so annoying that the game's "easy mode" doesn't necessarily provide a smoother experience to those who're struggling (or just want to get it over with). Doubling your health doesn't mean a damn thing when breaking the rules spawns an instakill hazard. It also doesn't mean diddly-squat in rooms where your health gets randomized to like, 1 HP.

Man, for Rare's first project on Xbox, I'm just kinda sad at how prototype-y it feels. It left me feeling equally charmed and frustrated. "Fun horror" is a genre that deserves more than a green man with a vacuum, or a gang of mystery-solving teenagers and their dog. Still, at about five hours in length, I don't really regret playing it.