Grabbed by the Ghoulies E3 2003 Preshow Report

Microsoft and Rare have announced Grabbed by the Ghoulies, a new platform game for the Xbox. In the game, you'll play as Cooper, a kid trying to rescue his girlfriend from a haunted house called Ghoulhaven Hall. As you might guess from the plot summary, the game has some horror elements, but the graphics are rendered in a lighthearted, cartoonish fashion, giving it a much lighter atmosphere than games like Resident Evil.

As you explore Ghoulhaven Hall, you'll battle more than 25 different kinds of enemies, including vampires, imps, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and haunted furniture. Each of the game's monsters has a unique fighting style, so you'll have to be wary of being bitten, beaten, burned, cursed, electrocuted, and even mummified by the creatures of the haunted house.

You'll also have to avoid Ghoulhaven Hall's many traps and environmental hazards. The house includes more than 50 rooms filled with a variety of puzzles and dangers. Some of the tricks include scary events such as faces appearing in windows or mirrors, disembodied heads materializing from thin air, and monsters leaping out from hidden areas. The scary events do more than just add atmosphere--if Cooper suffers too many scares in the game, he becomes petrified with fear and could faint from the fright.

In order to battle the game's ghoulies, you'll use more than 100 different weapons and household items. Chairs, pool cues, paintings, and other objects lying around the house come in handy for bludgeoning pesky enemies. Break a table over a monster's head, and you can pick up the broken leg and use it as a club. You'll also find some NPC characters in the house to help you out with special weapons, such as a garlic-firing gun for vampires, a fire extinguisher for flaming imps, and a water gun to use against other monsters.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is slated for release in October of this year. We'll have more information on the game as it becomes available.