Ghoul Panic

Ghoul Panic is a light gun shooting video game, often compared to the Point Blank series which also runs on the same arcade hardware. Players use lightguns attached to the arcade cabinet to fire at enemies in a series of minigames. These minigames feature a quota that must be fulfilled before the time limit ends, such as shooting a certain number of enemies or protecting small, yellow cats from projectiles. Completing minigames will allow the player to progress, while losing will cause the player to lose a life; losing all lives will result in a Game Over.

A life will also be lost if the player shoots the yellow cats or "bomb ghosts". The game is divided into three different stages, each featuring eight minigames to play that become gradually harder as it progresses. Finishing all the minigames in a stage will have the player face off against a boss, including: Frankie, a Frankenstein's monster that will toss projectiles at the player; Vladie, a vampire that launches a barrage of deadly bats; Witchina, a witch that attacks with her spell-casting broomstick; and Mama Mia, a massive dragon-like monster that hurls fireballs.

Ghoul Panic, titled Oh! Bakyuuun in Japan, was released for arcades in July 1999 in Japan and later that year in North America. It was developed by Eighting/Raizing, and published by Namco. The game was produced by Raizing artist Shinsuke Yamakawa, whose works include Battle Garegga and 1944: The Loop Master, who recalls the game being developed at a time where Eighting/Raizing's staff had grown considerably.

The game was directed by Manabu Namiki, who primarily worked as a composer at Raizing. As Namiki was busy working on designing the game, the music and sound effects were created by former Namco composer Masahiro Fukuzawa and former Westone composer Jin Watanabe. However, he created the waveform data and also composed additional music for the PlayStation version.

Ghoul Panic was met with a mostly mixed response from critics. The lack of major additions to the established formula of the light gun shooter genre was the primary source of criticism, with Consoles+ saying that it doesn't add much to the genre compared to games like Time Crisis. In a preview for the PlayStation version, IGN had a similar response, saying that Ghoul Panic does not add many new additions to the light gun shooter concept. The additional gamemodes added to the PlayStation home conversion were also seen as being mediocre by some.

Famitsu said the RPG Mode was not well-designed, feeling heavily rushed and difficult to control. By contrast, Gamers' Republic said that Ghoul Panic made for one of the best light gun shooters on the PlayStation, concluding that it was "bags of fun".