Grabbed by the Ghoulies Excerpts (2003)

The following excerpts detailing the development of Grabbed by the Ghoulies was originally published on Rare’s Scribes letter page in 2003. We’ve scoured each edition for that year in order to provide you with every mention of the title to be found in Rare’s posted answers in chronological order below. 
We’ve also included a link above each heading which will re-direct to the original letters page that the question was featured in should you wish to view it in the original context – otherwise you’ll find that the entries below only focus on answers related to Grabbed by the Ghoulies for a comprehensive listing for any fan wanting further information on pre-release content, hidden easter eggs, abandoned features and development secrets:


February 19th 2002:

To the legends at Rare,
Hi, just one question. That’s all. Cause I gotta take a p*ss.
I heard that you guys may be making a sequel to Conker’s BFD, and that you’ve trademarked the names “Conker’s Other Bad Day” and “Grabbed by the Ghoulies“. And if you are making a sequel to the best ever game on the N64 which I couldn’t stop playing and therefore finished in four days, will it most likely be on the Gamecube? I sure hope so… that would kick serious ass!
Thanx
Aidan

Conker’s Other Bad Day falls into the group of reported names that we might use at some point, like After Dark, A Shot In The Dark and all that lot. Nobody ever said that the Ghoulies one was in any way Conker-related…


July 11th 2003:

Dear Dear,
Questions have I to ask of thee, they number not sixteen, but three.
And here they come, those questions three, flushed freshly, from lavatory.
1) Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a game I’d love to own,
Tell me when you plan to port it to my Vodafone?Rhyme ANGERS the Ghoulies. Rhyme at your PERIL.
2) The screenshots of this game are ace – especially number six,
I particularly like the gay lead guy, who clearly grabs the Ghoulies‘ d*cks.
3) I lied about the question count, you see I asked just two,
And one of those a question wasn’t – more a point of view (or ‘pile of poo’).
I must now quit,
Njoinit

Your toilet-originated queries have inspired the head of the Ghoulies team himself…
“1) With buttons tiny and screen so small, on mobile phone you’d see arse all.
“So for now on Xbox it stays, but who can tell for future days?
“2) Evidence of this we do not see, so on this point we must disagree.
“Cooper has his Amber girlfriend, discussion now is at an end.
“3) A smashing attempt at a bit of rhyme, but questions like 2 really waste our time.
Farewell to you, Njoinit, even though you’re a bit of a twit.”


Dear Scribes,
I’ve been a long time Rare supporter but I have to ask WTF is up with Grabbed by the Ghoulies? Conker Live & Uncut, Kameo Elements of Power, Perfect Dark sequel are all good news but shouldn’t you release an Xbox game that has a strong reputation?
I mean if you release GBTG first, I highly doubt anyone would buy that. That game should be the 4th one released. Perfect Dark should be the last because you have to compete with Halo 2, Half-Life 2, & Doom 3 now. Are you forced to change Perfect Dark‘s gameplay mechanics? Can you tell me what order the games are going to come out in? Is Kameo coming out first?
Also note the majority of Xbox owners are over 21+ so that’s almost 11 million of us, the other 2 million are teenagers. Also cel-shaded games don’t sell well with the exception of JSRF/Zelda:WW. The millions out there flopped.
Thanks for your time.
T.E. 7

“Cel-shaded games don’t sell well, except the good ones.” I like your argument. Believe it or not, Ghoulies happens to be a good game, and I’m not sure cel-shaded is really the right term for it anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, I can see where you’re coming from and of course we’re not giving up entirely on established franchises – the current (known) line-up is half established and half original. It just so happens that Ghoulies will be the first to launch. Remember, KI Gold and Blast Corps were our first releases on N64 before the big guns of Diddy Kong Racing and GoldenEye came out. And popular franchises have to arise from somewhere. You’d complain just as much if we spent the next ten years churning out nothing but Banjo sequels.


October 13th 2003:

Golden Feather Dude,
You guys make great games. You rock. I was going to dump on the audio aspects of your last two games, but forget that. I just got questions. Here they are, in chronological, not numbered, order. It may seem numbered, but it truly isn’t. Your eyes deceive you. It’s an illusion.
DKC) It’s another sound effects-related thing. Being a huge fan of the arcade Cruis’n and KI series (but never getting to play either), I came up with this WILD and crazy theory based on the fact that the sound effect for Glacius’s Liquidize and Uppercut move is the same as the effects for changing the camera in the Cruis’n games. It’s not a common one, you realize. I know that a Midway audio programmer worked on the sound system for KI while designing the SFX on Cruis’n USA. Is this how the similar sounds came to be? And if I am right, do I deserve a clean kick in the nuts?
DKC2) The RPA of Diddy and Banjo’s console biases tells it all. Wait, that’s not a question…
DKC3) What was the worst bug that your QA team ever found in a recent (1994-present) game? I’m especially curious if it made the graphics or sound go screwy.
DKC4) Will Ghoulies have any multiplayer modes, like your last bunch of N64 efforts?
DKC5) Do you think you’ll ever do a sports game again? ‘Cuz Winning Run kicked a$$.
DKC6) Which license would be your favorite in the world to tackle, provided it wasn’t James Bond?
DKC7) Did you notice that some of these chronologically arranged titles I’m using for the numbers don’t exist? I know, can you believe it???
I guess that’s all, so continue with your crazy Xbox productions. And put Toots in Ghoulies with a speaking role.
Crazy Devotion,
JetDogQuarter circle forwards, kick – camera change! No, wait…

Your unorthodox numbering method looks doubly untidy now that I’ve had to make some of them green and italicise the rest. I hope you’re happy.
1) I could try to make up something clever here, but the simple fact is that I’ve asked the musician, he doesn’t know what you’re talking about and neither of us can be arsed playing Cruis’n USA to find out.
2) RPAs including characters that don’t belong to us any more? qUIcK prES teH DELetE# kEY!!!!~!1
3) Hah – you just want us to pick one out so that you can say it’s not as good as the one you found that made the graphics and sound go screwy, don’t you? No dice, chum.
4) ‘Fraid not. Why, did you want to wait till this time next year to play it?
5) Dunno. There’s been talk of a ‘realistic’ racing game at various times over the last couple of hardware generations, so that’d probably be the most likely candidate if it ever did happen (and if you class that as a sport).
6) Personally I think we could knock out a fantastic 3D action game based on the film version of Shaun Hutson’s Slugs. But that’s just me. Rare as a whole isn’t all that big on licences, especially not godawful 80s B-movie horror licenses, so it probably doesn’t apply.
7) Yes. And yes.


Scribes,
I might very well be asking the obvious here, but do I detect a slight resemblance between Grabbed by the Ghoulies and the all time Ultimate classic Atic Atac? OK, so the story’s a little different but the setting is so much the same! Therefore, if you don’t mind, I will pretend it’s the same house and relive all those childhood memories of fighting off nasties whilst searching for key sections before my turkey becomes nothing but bones! Oh the joy!
Thanks guys,
The Drunken Serf

You’ve been reading CVG again. They’re obsessed. Let’s get the lead designer to respond to this allegation once and for all:
“Well, the resemblance is uncanny I think everyone will agree. Both are set in a house. Both have a character you can control. Both have barrels with ‘1881’ on them. Both have, err… that’s about it.”


Dear Scribes,
I must say I wasn’t overly impressed when the first promo material for Grabbed By The Ghoulies was released (sorry! I just didn’t really much like the look of Cooper), but with some of the new footage I’ve seen since X03, I think I may be starting to come round. I quite like what looks to be a homage paid to Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, with the inclusion of the Grim Reaper, playing the air guitar. So I think I might be looking to pick that one up now, as for Kameo though I’m very much looking forward to her and Meepo’s arrival!
Anyway, time for the obligatory questions and comments!
1. Being a native to the PAL format (instead of NTSC), and having an XBOX, I much prefer to play XBOX games in PAL 50, instead of PAL 60 as I feel that PAL 50 has superior image quality. This always can’t be as fun as I would like due to games not having a very well done PAL mode in 50hz. With yourselves at Rare also being native to the PAL format, I hope you agree with me, and have made sure your games run quite well under 50hz.
2. I’ve heard rumours of Kameo having a multiplayer split screen mode for up to 4 players. Any truth to this being included?
3. With Conker: Live & Uncut, the multiplayer mode isn’t just confined to those with XBOX Live is it? Those of us without it will still be able to play with a couple of friends around the TV, right?Voice not supplied by Chris Rea (if only we’d thought of it)
That’s it, I think! So I hope it’s not too much trouble for you to answer those.
Thanks,
Luke Peterson

The Grim Reaper’s accomplished air guitarmanship is just one of his many talents (his ability to raise the hairs on the back of your neck just by wheezing has to take first place).
A couple of Kameo team responses:
“1) Just for you, we’ll see what we can do.
“2) We’ve been waiting for this one… no, the ‘multiplayer split-screen’ confusion was down to the way the X03 video was edited. Multiplayer probably won’t feature, but you never know what could happen between now and release.”
3) I dunno. You’d think so, but it remains to be seen one way or the other, and the Conker boys’ lips are sealed.


November 20th 2003:

Dear Scribes,
First off, congratulations on Grabbed by the Ghoulies. It’s so easy to get into and the presentation is slicker than George Clooney’s hair. Even the wife likes it.
However, it raises a couple of questions:
1> How come the game action supports widescreen but the story book and the game menus don’t?
2> Is there any actual way to get a Game Over message (other than finishing it, I suppose)?
On another subject, while I’m one of those who would love to see the return of KI, please can we have a collection of visually updated Ultimate games for Xbox a la Zelda on Gamecube. It’s got to be worth it development time/money wise. Or, if you’re feeling lazy, an official collection of the original code with a Spectrum/Amstrad emulator. We can live without the C64 titles.
Yours truly, 
Ultimate/Rare fan who’s old enough to know better

Even the wife likes it, eh? You should talk to Rich (see next letter).
Right then: first of a whole load of actual team responses this edition! Amazing – it’s almost like a proper letters page.
“1) The game menus use 2D graphics and ‘would look stupid if stretched’ according to one of our software types. Not much of an answer is it? (Well, I did ask him on a Monday morning.)
“2) No, I don’t think there is.
“3) Fantastic idea, we’ll start work on it immediately. Out of the 100 people that can remember these games, 10 are probably dead. Another 60 don’t play games any more as they are old enough to know better. Out of the 30 remaining, half of these have already played the originals via dodgy emulators and don’t want to see them again. 13 of the last 15 wouldn’t be willing to pay more than about £1.99 for an update, leaving just you and me. I reckon I can stump up around £10 for the development costs, leaving you to fund the rest. Send us a blank cheque and we’ll start tomorrow, OK?”


It’s me again Scribes,
I’m on a mission to weasel out more Conker info from you but unfortunately I can’t think of many intelligent questions regarding Conker right now so I’ll throw in some Ghoulies questions as well since I’m not sure what think of it currently. Maybe some info will help me reach a decision. Right now, let’s just get the inevitable out of the way shall we?
1) Just what is the music quality like in Live and Uncut? Will they be remixes of the originals or just newly synthesized versions of the original songs?
2) I noticed you’re redesigning the characters to make them look more Xbox-ish. (If that’s even a word.) Might I ask if the weasels will have any dramatic changes or will they still be having their teeth clenched in the whole dang game again?
3) Any word if there will be other little bonus extras other than unlockable characters? Like say oh I don’t know, little cartoon shorts like the ones the old Conker site used to have? Maybe some new weapons for Multiplayer or a behind the scenes type thing?
4) On to the Ghoulies questions. Any word on any type of Banjo references? I’d love to see Grunty have her picture posted up in Ghoulhaven Hall since she’s so ghoulish herself.
5) I noticed the Grim Reaper as an enemy in one of the screenshots. Just how do you beat back Death itself? You can’t kill Death, can you?
6) Any idea why the Ghoulies took Cooper’s girlfriend in the first place? Aren’t there any ghoulish girls to date in that mansion?
That’s everything I can think of. If I missed something then those DKVine guys who keep swamping you with E-Mails will probably ask it instead.
Ness554

I’m reliably informed that everything (including the soundtrack) is being “revisited”, which seems to mean treated like a brand new project rather than a quick port.
2) It’s a little-known fact that real weasels can’t actually unclench their teeth, and are forced to live off a diet of soup and intravenous protein injections – the team was just striving to accurately represent the myriad wonders of nature. In other words, I don’t know.
3) No. No word, that is. Happy to help. 
4) If there’s any team you can trust to sneak a few references to past glories in there somewhere, it’s the Banjo boys.
5) Just because you can’t kill him doesn’t mean you shouldn’t mash his face in with flowerpots or smack him to buggery with a toilet brush.
6) Watch the intro and all will be revealed… it’s an elaborate story with many levels of symbolism and allegory, but ultimately we feel that the subtle nuances they bring to the gameplay were worth the effort.


Dear Mr. Loveday,
I’m writing concerning the history of Grim Reapers in your games. I’d like to know why a new one has been hired on for the role in Grabbed By The Ghoulies, over poor old Gregg’s head? He has the ability to carry out the Duty on Xbox just as well as he managed on the N64, so long as cats aren’t involved. His extensive knowledge of reaping would even serve him in a Duel to the Death (ha ha!) against the new guy, as this RPA shows.
Yours,
Stephen Cosgrove
P.S. I know it’s different artists and all, but Gregg really does rock.

I think the Ghoulies role could only be properly filled by a scary Reaper. While Gregg undeniably has a lot of things going for him, it’s hard to say he excels at gut-wrenching terror. On the other hand, of course, the Ghoulies Reaper probably isn’t much cop at swearing, so it just depends on what qualities you want from your anthropomorphised soul harvester on any given day.
Insider information from the Ghoulies team, however, suggests a different reason: “I’m afraid that Gregg’s appearance in Conker turned him into a bit of a diva – demanding a solid silver scythe, new silk robe and a limitless amount of souls to claim. The new guy is much cheaper, willing to manage with a cheap floating movement and a nice little effect on his finger.”


Dear Scribes,
I can’t help but grin the most delightfully evil grin ever. Here I am playing Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and what do I find? A Killer Instinct 3 art box. Are you guys serious this time? Are you finally gonna give the KI fanbase what it’s been desperately crying for since KI2? Is Killer Instinct 3 coming!? If it is, it’s about time. Nothing, I repeat, nothing compares to KI. I don’t care about playing Conker again with pretty graphics, nor do I want another generic FPS starring Ms. Dark. It’s time for Fulgore and Co. to return and show today’s pansy fighters what a fighting game is all about.
Later, 
Taku

I suppose those young rascals on the Ghoulies team think that’s funny. Let’s see:
“Who knows? Maybe it was just a cruel joke that builds up false hope in avid KI fans like you or maybe it means KI is in production right now! What do you think?”


To Mr Scribe Man,
As you know Grabbed by the Ghoulies has just been released and I must say it is a great game. However I am puzzled with one little bit. On a white board I’ve seen a homework assignment. It says: 1) Collect Secret Eggs, 2) Collect Ice Key, 3) Activate Secret Level. However in GBTG I haven’t been able to find any secret eggs or an Ice Key. So here are my Questions:
1) Where do I get those secret Items?
2) What is the theme of this secret level? (Forest-like, snowy, etc…)
and
3) What are those pictures with the homework assignment of?
Thanks,
Gaming Master 2000

I suppose they think that’s funny as well.


Dear Scribes,
Having just picked up Rare’s newest title, Grabbed By The Ghoulies, and having a great time with it, I have just a couple of queries:
1. I’ve read in a few reviews where they’ve criticized the game for being linear. As it’s been put together by the Banjo team, I’m guessing this is a deliberate move to make things more simple and straightforward compared to those games. Would I be right in saying this?
2. In the Ghoulies manual credits, there is list of voice actors for the characters but doesn’t say who did which voices, as it did in the Starfox credits. This is really annoying! Me and my friend Tom reckon there must be some doubling up on voices as there are fewer actors than chracters. We think we can tell which characters are voiced by the same actor, but it would be nice to put names to each one so we can see for sure. We reckon for definite that Steve Malpass, who was Fox McCloud is also Cooper and at least one other character.
Thanks,
George & Tom

Steve also does ‘Voice of Welsh Peasant’, but not in any actual games.
1) That’s the fella: less sprawl, more focus. As the team put it, “you’d be just about as right as possible. Ghoulies was always supposed to be an easily accessible, easy to play game that allows players to have simple, straightforward fun without having to worry about getting lost in a huge house by going the wrong way.” 
2) The GbtG team are very liberated in their ideas of recognition under staff credits, hence the generalised listing. A bit of clarification for you, though: “Tom and you are right again! Most of the voices were done by a handful of people – most of whom were on the team. We did actually manage to get a few new ‘talents’ involved, but most of it was down to the old regulars. ‘McCloud’ Malpass was indeed Cooper, but also look out for Cooper’s artist as the Mummy and our musician as just about everything else (as usual).”


December 24thth 2003:

Dear Scribes,
Hi… long time reader, first time complainer.
Why hasn’t Bottles the Mole gotten his own action game? You know… “Hole Digger 8000”, or sommat. Or even “Offer advice to cheeky game stars while secretly loathing them for edging you out of the starring role”.
That aside, I’d like to congratulate you all on a job well done. What am I on about? Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Fantastic gameplay, best graphics on the Xbox, and scads of hot, tied up girls. Besides, it’s the first recorded instance of a game in which you can throw hamburgers at mummies, and I approve of that.
However, there was one small disappointment… couldn’t you have made Satan the last boss? I rather think I’d like to see Cooper, a 16 year old boy, beating the everloving crap out of the Prince of Lies with a hock of ham, or pool cue. Or the swordfish… Yes, the swordfish.
Oh and one last thing… Cooper waded through a mansion full of monsters to save his girlfriend and all he got was a few hugs. I can understand if being in a haunted mansion didn’t exactly put her in the mood, but she really owes him a little o’ the good stuff, you know?
Bob Averill
P.S. I’m serious about the Bottles game, don’t think I’m not.

I’d rate ‘throwing toilet rolls at Death’ higher on the list of good stuff than ‘throwing hamburgers at mummies’, but your point stands. Here’s Ghoulies’ team leader.
“Bottles can’t see very well, which makes a starring role in most games unlikely. Unless it’s a game set in complete darkness. Which means you wouldn’t be able to see then.
“As for Satan, I don’t think the ESRB (games rating board) would have been too impressed with ‘Old Father Nick’ making an appearance in an E rated game. The Baron was originally nasty and sinister, but that made him like every other video game boss in history. So we made him a complete imbecile who thinks he’s a plane instead. An obvious transition, really.
“Again, the ESRB would have frowned upon anything more than a few hugs for Cooper, so I can’t possibly comment on what happened in the bushes further down the road…”


Dear Scribes,
With the release of Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, I have yet to take it out of my GBA. But this game has also led some questions into my mind, which I’m redirecting towards you.
1.) Will there be a sequel to Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge? Like a Banjo Tooie: Grunty’s Revenge?
2.) In Spiller’s Harbor in BK:GR, is the Mr. Drippy stand supposed to be a reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds? The guy’s name is Alfred P. Cock and he is being attacked by birds. Was this intentional or just a coincidence?
3.) What are the Squits in that game supposed to be?
Also, with GbtG being released soon, I’m sure you’ll stun us once again with imaginative characters and gameplay. 
Dustin Demon

Ghoulies has been out for ages, you fool! Don’t try to tell me you sent this months ago and I’m just rubbish at doing Scribes. Er…
Look! Over there! The GBA team!
“1) It all depends on how well Grunty sells. So hopefully it will sell loads and we will get to do the sequel.
“2) It is indeed, can’t believe anyone other than the game’s designer spotted that.
“3) Poo. A bit of Banjo trivia: the mother was originally named Sloppy Squitter, but she never made it to the final version.”


Greetuns,
No droning this time, straight to the catechism.
1) Whilst playing CBFD, I (and I’m sure many others) have found a little tube-type thing containing a piece of chocolate, blocked off by a grate in the sh*te hole of the bull-pen. Was this a section that the team couldn’t be bothered getting rid of, and will it be extended on in CL&U;?
2) I couldn’t be bothered going down to the local shopping mall to check, as it would require effort, so has GbtGbeen released in Aussie-land yet? I’m looking forward to being part of the RareRevolution.”I think I’ve found out what the funny smell is – look at all those Scribes readers.”
3) What’s one little image with a quirky tag you’ve always wanted to post next to someone’s message, but have never got the chance? For the hell of it, and for humour’s sake, use it now.
4) Are we still sending messages to Mr. Loveday? I’ve seen evidence which has led me to believe you’re an impostor… or possibly someone who’s filling in for him… *shrugs*
5) Seeming as everyone dribbles on to you about the games they like, how about you tell us which games you prefer?
6) Keeping with the theme, are you anticipating StarCraft: Ghost as much as me? It looks pretty good, eh?
7) Can you send me a complimentary free Xbox for Xmas (pardon the ‘coincidence’)? I have to work a few more shifts to have enough moolah to purchase one, but I wanna get GbtG crankin’!!
8) Hey, that’s my chicken sandwich! shakes fist menacingly
Well, OK, maybe that was droning, but have fun with my Qs anyway… oh, yeh, Merry Christmas, guys. Keep up the “good” work.
Later,
Benn Charlton

1) “Probably, and probably not”, is my uninformed guess.
2) Should be out by now. The release date was pretty close to the Euro PAL release date.
3) There you go. It’s a shot from Druids, which is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen and totally undeserving of the publicity, but it does allow me to get a gratuitous picture of Christopher Lambert into Scribes. Cheers.
4) What evidence is this, then? Why would anyone who wasn’t me bother pretending that they were? It’s hardly instant fame, is it? 
5) I’m hopelessly behind the times since having sprogs, but I do like me a bit of Final Fantasy. Best game ever: either Chaos or The Sentinel on the Speccy. Yeah, you can laugh.
6) Er… I dunno. Probably?
7) Oops – missed the Xmas post. No point sending it now, is there? I mean, ‘Xbox for January’ doesn’t alliterate at all…
8) Ah, that would explain why there aren’t any crisps in it.


Dear bstrds who told me to change my name to Arse because it would fit well with my last name,
I know I’ve been on Scribes 3 or 4 times, and you should give the space to someone who sent an email that was clever and/or entertaining in some way instead of me… but c’mon!
1. Can you answer emails in Flash like Strong Bad does? I think it would be funny because we could all hear you speak with an English accent, which us North Americans find amusing. Also, we could hear you groan when you get a bad one, like those other e-mails you get… you know, the ones that aren’t sent by me.
2. Remember back in the good old days when all the e-mails you got was sent by fools who didn’t have any relevant and/or coherent questions to ask? Do you miss those days?
3. Will Kameo make a Cameo in any other Xbox games? Seems natural to me…
4. According to Rare’s site, Conker Live and Uncut will have never-before-seen weapons, which leads me to the question: what could these weapons be? My running theory is that they have something to do with shooting crappy cereal such as Wheatabix at enemies, forcing them to eat it and making them succumb to the poison inside. If you don’t tell me what the weapons are, I’ll assume I’m right on the Wheatabix assumption.
5. What up with Grabbed by the Ghoulies? As of my writing this, if you average all of its review scores it is the 186th best game on the XBox. Is this because the reviewers are bad, the XBox has a lot of great games, you suck, or a combination of these? Ugh, that’s enough. If you think I’ve wasted a lot of your time, keep in mind I wasted more of my own. 
Greg “Arse” Head (bstrds)

1) British accent, Arse, British accent. Anyway, no. That would be a terrible error.
2) In some ways, Arse, it’s as if they’re still with us.
3) She’s not in any other currently-in-development games, as far as I know. Your best bet is probably to wait for the Kameo team’s next project. Wait a minute, Arse – their current project isn’t even out yet! Stop making me talk rubbish!
4) We’ll have less of the Weetabix-bashing, thank you very much (and you can get the spelling right while you’re at it). You’ll see the new stuff when the team’s ready to spill and not before, Arse.
5) To be honest, Arse, I feel it was just treated more harshly than it deserved because it was Rare’s First Big Xbox Project, and it wasn’t exactly what the critics were clamouring for (i.e. Banjo, Conker or PD – basically, something tried and tested). It’s by no means a bad game, you nonce, just an unknown quantity at a time when such things are easily criticised. We weren’t completely unaware of that beforehand, but it was the first game we had ready for release following the acquisition, so frankly, tough titty.


Hello,
Hello, I just bought Grabbed By The Ghoulies and the whole family loves it. I am so glad to see you good folks are still making the best games out there. I have only one question… although in a few parts. How can I get my hands on the entire music from the game? Is there an unlockable feature in it somehow like DKC?? If not could you please consider making a soundtrack on CD PLEASE??!!! My wife and I got married on Halloween as it is our favorite holiday and I have quite a collection of related music and such. It would be great to have all the music from the game to play when trick-or-treaters are coming around! Even if you guys could send me a copy of it somehow. Please!! I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks,
Joseph Heer

You scary people. It’s generally the publisher/distributor that makes the decision on things like soundtrack CDs: I don’t think MS did one for Ghoulies, and it’s a bit late to be hoping that they’ll change their minds, but at least there’s the growing selection of MP3s on the Ghoulies Downloads page to ease your frustration a bit. I’ll see if I can pester any more out of the relevant people.


Dear Scribes,
No pre-pubescent salivations and salutations from this 36 year old gamer I’m afraid. But I do want to say a big thank you to all the team at Rare for Ghoulies. Yes yes, I’ve been playing Rare games since those heady days of the C64, and you guys are the greatest and I just can’t wait until more of your stuff comes out, and are you going to do a Banjo for the Xbox and if so when do you think it will be out and… Hold on – I’m doing it aren’t I? I’ve slipped back about 25 years…
Seriously, I was starting to miss the “Rare polish” and was going through some serious withdrawals. You guys in particular as well as Naughty Dog and Insomniac are the only mob making games worth playing (although Prince of Persia SOT was pretty good). Anyway, Ghoulies was the reason I was looking for to keep my Xbox and it came just in time. Mind you, now we’re at the harder end of the game the “c” word is flowing fairly freely in the Taylor household.Santa baby, scare the living sh*t out of me…
So, have a good Xmas and a happy New Year. Please pass on my thanks and praises to the team. Yeah right, like you’re just going to get up and wander around the office saying “there’s a rugby-nancy tosser from down-under who wants to say thanks for Ghoulies“.
Have a good one.
David

I’m afraid the last bloke beat you to the Aussie stereotypes, so I’ll just have to do what you said and meekly pass on your thanks to the team. Or at least the two or three of them who still haven’t gone home for Xmas.
You’ve got me intrigued by the “c” word: it can’t be the one I immediately suspected, as the game never gets hard enough to warrant that kind of talk, unless you’re a natural filthmonger. You should have tried playing some of the proper ‘untamed’ versions in the last few weeks of development, before the difficulty was toned down… now they sparked the invention of some brand new compound swearwords, let me tell you.


Dear Scribes,
Right now it is December 14, 2003, so that means by the time Scribes is updated it will be sometime in March, 2005. I will assume It’s Mr. Pants has been out for some time now and has been a commercial and critical success. So I am wondering when can we expect a sequel? Will it be for the Xbox or GBA? On an unrelated note, do you like pirates? What about this picture of Mr. Pants as a pirate? 
Dannyaq

Everyone likes pirates. Especially the Banjo/Ghoulies team, who even found a way to crowbar them into the haunted house scenario. But we’ll have to save the hearty cutthroat image for when we’ve finished toying with the current concept of Mr. Pants as gritty urban gang war poster boy.