“Ghostbusters: The Video Game” by Mr Riddler

Posted by Mr Riddler on October 20, 2010 · 8 Comments

Riddle Me This: What do ghosts do when they want to start up a computer?

They BOO-t it up! HAHA…

What I Expected:
When I was a young Riddler, my parents took me to Universal Studios for my first vacation. Did I say that loud enough for you Batman? MY PARENTS took me to Universal Studios for a vacation. This was probably 1992 – 93. At that time, before they replaced it with the god awful Twister Ride, the red bricked building that stood near the entrance of the park was for the Ghostbusters Spootacular the Show/Ride/Badass Experience. Now at this point in my life I hadn’t see Ghostbusters. I think I was maybe 4 – 5 years old and my parents were defiantly not movie people enough so to expose me to films at that page. This show was amazing though. Don’t believe me? Youtube it. In fact I’ll do it for you
http://www.youtube.com/v/YCUY9E1cV_M&hl=en_US&fs=1

Amazing right? Ok well I was 4 and it was the 90s so it amazed the hell out of me. When I got back I watched the cartoons I watched the movies. I really loved the franchise and when I got older I built proton packs for myself and Ragdoll so we could goto conventions and Halloween parties as ghostbusters. When I heard about the ghostbusters videogame, I was ecstatic. Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis wrote it. They said that it will be a direct sequel to the films. It still fits in the mythos with the Real Ghostbusters and the Extreme Ghostbusters cartoons. This couldn’t fail, I said as I sat outside a gamestop for hours in protonpack and costume, oblivious to the fact that this game was actually not getting a midnight release…

What We Got:
The Story from Ghostbusters the Video Game is exactly what we would expected from a scripted written by Dan Akroyd and Harold Raimus. Heavy on the development of new weapons, Paranormal Studies and of course Humor. You play as a new recruit of the Ghostbusters. The newest of the new recruits since the last one was someone horribly fired… or killed. they weren’t really too clear on that. Anyway you test out all the equipment that Egon and Ray develop for the Ghostbusters to use. Things get real early on in the game when Slimer escapes the containment unit that you of course break and Gozer makes a return in the form of the stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the same night. Not at this point in the game I was having a hard nostalgia trip and that’s probably the same reason that I returned to play through the story of this game time and time again. It’s seriously like mixing the older movies together and then adding more to it like this installment is to be like a third movie. (It is a third movie according to Dan and Harold unless they can convince Hollywood to make an actual third movie.) The story continues on with the ghostbusters again having to defend the city from a major ectomorphic entity and Walter Peck that threatens the safety of New York City. Also all the ghosts are released from the Containment Unit again and I’m convinced that this happens on purpose. It’s happened in every movie and the game and I think this is how the Ghostbusters stay in business. It’s on some kind of end of the world timer when the world will end in 1 hour BAM all the ghosts are released. All the original Actors are back for the game and they’re surprisingly good for voice actors. Especially surprisinng is that Bill Murray is good and you know what I’m talking about if you think back to the scene where he was first slimed. Really the only complaint that I have story-wise is that I want to play this co-op mode on my PS3. I hate that I needed to buy the Wii version so I can Co-op the story with my friends. at least 2 player co-op would have worked out great. There is almost always 1 other ghostbusters with you that a second player could play as.
The controls are typical for a third person shooter for the most part. look around, jump, change weapons with the D-pad, Fire stream with the trigger, change to grapple stream, throw trap. Keep the ghost in the trap light until it gets sucked up. OK maybe it’s alittle different but if you’re used to the idea of ghostbusters then really it’s not too much of a stretch. The game goes like this. Blast the ghost with the proton stream or any other proton weapon that you have. Then grab it which the game will do automatically when the ghost is weak enough. Then thrown out a Trap and hold it over the light to catch the ghost. And this happens for every non-peon Ghost in the game. Some people have said they find it annoying but I love it actually. For the pure sake of being immersed in the game it does give you the feel of being a ghostbusters and doing what a ghostbusters does. The infinite amount of traps that you can pull from your belt takes away from the immersion a bit but really after a while it stopped getting to me. the Levels are all beautifully designed and the ghosts of course still have their cartoony undead flair. God What I would have paid for a Beetlejuice crossover level DLC, though.

Multiplayer:
Ghostbusters The Video Game seems to be made for the multiplayer. Sadly, however there is no co-operative story mode. in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. In the Wii version, however, they did include a split screen co-op story mode, so this is one of those games where I shelled out the extra cash and bought 2 versions of the same game. Yes playing ghostbusters is that important to me. I played through this one during my ghostbusters bash which I have every now and again. The story is exactly the same however you can see that they used some different voice acting and to accommodate for the Wii’s graphical capability, the characters are a lot more stylized. They’re actions are also changed to match the cartooniness of the animation. Also because this is the Wii, the controls have to be jumbled around the remote and nunchuk. The aiming on the screen seems to be well enough and it doesn’t interfere with my partner when we play. However there just seems to be a lot missing when playing on the Wii. It’s not as crisp. It’s still fun but the capabilities of the Wii just make it feel like it’s being dumbed down for me. Like watching the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, it’s still fun but it’s just not the same as the original movies. The PS3 and Xbox360 versions do have a multiplayer mode, even though they aren’t story oriented and are only online. I find myself playing this more so than I do the Wii. (thank Nintendo you huge waste of money!) It takes certain scenario from the game and places you back into them with a team of 3 other people. it’s an interesting game to play and it does have a money level from game to game, ranks you on how well you bust ghosts, but there seems to be something missing. The part of the game that keeps you coming back. It’s fun for a while but you quickly get the feeling that you’re doing the same thing and only unlock different colored flight suits to wear when playing online and even then you don’t have the option to switch between them or even view them outside the game. None-the-less, hardcore fans should have fun going back to this to play with your friends online but others may just want to stick to the basic story.

Overall Rating:

I want to say buy this…. I really do… so I will. If I sound biased it’s probably because I am. I loved this game despite it’s flaws and I still play it to pass the time since it’s short enough for me to beat a campaign in 1 sitting. The multiplayer is still alot of fun on the PS3, the co-op is fun although difficult to control in the Wii version (but I blame the Wii for that no the game) and the story is still a great addition to the Ghostbusters Universe. This is a winner in my book and if anyone says otherwise they can eat a proton stream.

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Feel Free to leave me a comment down below and let me know what you think, if you enjoyed the game or what you want me to review next. I’ll pay attention. After all, you are my only reader.