Microsoft first-party developer Rare interviewed their own Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Xbox) team about making the self-described “Comic beat-’em-up with impressive amounts of hidden innuendo and farting zombies” game on Xbox. Now with the 2003 title having been re-released on Xbox 360 as a downloable game via Xbox Live Originals. The most interesting question came when the team was asked if they had “Any desire to make a sequel if this Xbox Originals release triggers a new wave of Ghoulies mania?” While they respond positively to doing such a project, it’s hard to tell with these people are always joking around.
Their answers are quoted below:
Ed Bryan (artist): “I’d make one tomorrow! I loved making it and loved playing it.”
Gavin Price (design): “Yes, we had plans in place for a sequel which 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. Probably the mildest of all the stuff we were told to change.”
James Thomas (developer): “Personally I love the thought of that. Just imagine how much more we could do with it! All the scenery could be built with Havok to make it truly destructible, the power of the 360 would allow us to put countless scores of Imps on screen and I don’t think there’s anyone out there who wouldn’t want to see Mr. Ribs reprise his role.”
Steve Malpass (design): “I’d be more than happy for there to be another Ghoulies. I might get to be the voice of Cooper, Crivens, Mr. Ribs, Ma Soupswill, Fiddlesworth and the Baron again! Realistically? I’d be surprised but I like being wrong.”
Kieran Connell (developer): “I’d love to make a sequel to Ghoulies at some point in the future; we had 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.”
Gregg Mayles (design): “No. The lack of sales and promise of worldwide fame that I was certain Ghoulies would bring has reduced me to a spiritually broken recluse.”
So if Xbox Originals sales are good, who knows what will happen? Read the full interview over at Rareware.