Ghoul Panic

Overview

Ghoul Panic is a light gun game developed by Raizing Co., Ltd. and published by Namco for PlayStation and Arcade. The game was published in European countries on the PlayStation by Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe.

The game was designed to be played with the G-Con45 light gun, however the option was available for players to use an analog controller or even the PS1 mouse.

Story

The story for Ghoul Panic is quite simple. The evil witch Witchina, along with her evil minions, has taken over the town and turned all of the villagers into yellow cats, she has taken up residence in a local mansion and it is up to the two heroes Kevin and Lisa, two people who were turned into cats but happened to have guns on them at the time, to defeat Witchina and return the town to normal.

When Witchina is eventually defeated, her evil magical spells are undone and the townsfolk, along with Kevin and Lisa, turn back into humans, we also see all of the ghosts and ghouls leaving the mansion and flying off in search of new places to haunt.

Gameplay

The game is set in a haunted house and the main 'Adventure' part of the game took on a first person dungeon-crawling vibe for the most part as players would travel in one of 4 directions from screen to screen along corridors and through doors.

Mini-Games

On most screens, the player would be attacked by some form of ghoulish creature and enter one of several mini-games, which they would have to complete in a set amount of time in order to clear the area and continue their journey. These mini-games varied from the like of having to shoot a set number of ghosts as they flew across the screen, or more precision-based games involving shooting spiders from off the head of an innocent character.

Game Modes

The game featured several modes aside from the aforementioned single player Adventure. There was arcade mode in which the player would have no control over the direction they traveled in, but instead would merely follow a set course through the haunted mansion, taking on the various mini-games and challenges as they went.

Survival mode involved the player trying to clear as many stages as possible before they ran out of lives. Practice mode allowed the player to select from any of the mini-games and practice completing them as many times as they liked.

Finally, Party mode was specifically designed for multiplayer, allowing up to 8 players to compete against each other by going through the different stages and trying to earn as many points as possible.