Ghoulies 2 would have had an open-world setting
“You can trigger a sequel,” says Rare
Earlier this week, Grabbed by the Ghoulies breathed fresh life again as part of the Xbox Originals line-up. Surprisingly enough, Rare updated the site a few days after that with a retrospective interview with a few members of the Ghoulies team: Designers Gregg Mayles, Steve Malpass and Gavin Price, Software Engineers Kieran Connell and James Thomas, and artist Ed Bryan.
Let’s start with the most interesting bit first. When asked by… themselves (a little odd, but whatever works) on the chances of a Ghoulies sequel, a lot of them expressed interest in doing so. Gavin Price even went on to say that Ghoulies II “was actually quite different and probably would have had an open-world setting. It would have been set in the nearby village of Ghoulsville-in-the-Gloom, which was actually going to be called Neede-in-the-Nuts but we were told to change it.” Kieran Connell adds that there were “some really cool ideas for co-op play that we never got to explore properly and it would be great to have multiplayer mayhem and Ghouly-bashing across Xbox Live.” Needless to say, the team definitely some interesting prospects there.
The team reminisces about how different this game was compared to their previous title, Banjo-Tooie, back in 2000. They “wanted a change from the huge wide-open world adventuring of Banjo,” as well as “something that was more linear in nature and immediately satisfying… just good old-fashioned fun with lots of Rare humour.”
As players of the original know, one of the love it or hate it reasons was due to the dual-analog gameplay. Originally, the camera was supposed to be automatic, but didn’t turn out to be that way. The team felt that “one of Ghoulies‘ core principles was accessibility,” without requiring knowledge of tons of button controls and combos: “You could tweak the camera with the triggers and pick up weapons with a touch of the A button, but 99% of everything you did was based around just those two inputs meaning it was ever so easy to pick up,” says Thomas.
For new players, there are definitely some interesting things to look forward to, such as the Snooker Table in the third room that can be destroyed, just as almost anything in the game can.
About those interesting prospects for a sequel, Mr. Price was right on the money when answering why you should get Ghoulies: “you could trigger a sequel.” If that isn’t the best reason to download Resident-Not-So-Evil, then I don’t know what is. I did my triggering, and I’m sure you can spare 15 dollars to do your own triggering too instead of getting a used copy. It may be a little more expensive, but when Ghoulies 2 comes out and becomes the most-played game on Xbox Live, you’ll be thanking your fellow trigger-happy consumers.
For the entire interview, plus some hilarious anecdotes on the game’s development, you know the light blue site to go to.
Somehow related news
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- Get your Ghoulies grabbed on President’s Day ()
- Xbox Originals may get Grabbed by the Ghoulies ()
- Coming features will allow garden visiting in Piñata ()
- Conker’s Xbox outing not reloading for now ()
9 Comments
i really dont care about a sequel for this, so ill pass
Comment by billy — 21.Feb.09 @ 2:18 am
A sequel would be nice if they were to improve in the problems of the original. The wit and humor was good but the gameplay was mediocre.
Comment by saicambanjo — 21.Feb.09 @ 5:07 am
Eh I wouldn’t care less for a sequel for this game at all ;O
So Imma passing this :/
Possibly they’ll do all those soon Elias. Though I’m interested in seeing a survival horror,(grabbed by the ghoulies is not a survival horror btw just in case anyone asks) or an rpg from Rare. That would be fun to see.
Comment by saicambanjo — 22.Feb.09 @ 5:47 am id love to see a new IP or just a sweet ol’ platformerrrr
Comment by billy — 22.Feb.09 @ 6:26 am
Why!? Why do a sequel to this when they should do “Conkers other Bad fur day”?
Comment by Chris Leonido — 15.Apr.09 @ 7:18 pm
well i already have ghoulies so i think ill pass on the download, plus im stingy about my storage space
Comment by harry — 20.Feb.09 @ 3:31 pm