Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Pros • Highly destructible environments, great designs • Sound effects, music, everything from the movie • Features voices of almost every major character	Cons • Very busy screen can get confusing • Your character is a bit of a nothing
Bottom Line Who you gonna call?

"Everything a fan of the movie could want."

Jason's Score: 8.5

I have no trouble calling Ghostbusters one of the greatest blockbusters and comedies of all time. Extremely funny even now, it's full of lovable characters and incredible (for the time) special effects that served the story and the humour. Today's filmmakers could learn from it. In fact, if it were released today, there would be a lot more memes based on the infinitely quotable dialogue. ("Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say 'YES!'") Gotta say, even the cartoon spinoff, The Real Ghostbusters, was pretty cool too. Until they gave Slimer his own show, but that's neither here nor there.

Flashforward 25 years later to the videogame. If you're a Ghostbusters fan, the video game is absolutely essential to your collection. No question. It was obviously made by people who loved the movies and scoured every detail of them, and just got it. There are levels and ghosts right out of the series, such as the firehouse, the library where they encounter "The Grey Lady" and the hotel where they caught SIimer. You'll use tools seen in the flicks, such as the PK meter (used to detect hidden ghosts, analyze spectral phenomenon and unlockables), the proton packs, the "mood slime" from GB II... and yes, you get to battle Mr. Stay Puft.

Essentially a third person shooter, gamers play a new Ghostbuster joining the team, just in time for their old pal Gozer to flex his muscles. So you'll accompany the four Ghostbusters as they scour New York, busting the minions of the Destructor.

The game couldn't possibly look any more like the movie. The major cast has been rendered in fantastic detail, and the environments look great, whether they're showing Times Square under siege from marshmallow minions, or parallel realities where the laws of physics don't apply. The game's environments are highly destructible, and so you'll experience one of the great joys of the movie: watching the Ghostbusters trash everything with unlicensed nuclear accelerators.

Speaking of which, the game's means of catching ghosts is also faithful to the movie. You use the Proton Pack gun to reduce their health, then fire a capture beam in order to yank them into a trap. It's a bit like using the gravity gun of Half-Life 2 against squirming, living creatures (except for the living part). You can also slam them against objects when caught in a stream in order to stun them. The Proton Pack gradually gets new functions and upgrades, both by progressing through the game and by spending in-game cash. You'll eventually get beams that fire powerful single charges, slow ghosts down, and more.

The ghost battles are very entertaining and even manage a few funky tricks. For example, one ghost keeps ducking in and out of mirrors. What's the best way to stop that? You're a gamer, you figure it out. My only complaint about them is that sometimes the screen gets very busy with flying minions, furniture, ghosts and the proton streams of the AI companions. Expect to be blindsided and knocked down a lot. Sometimes I think a target lock-on system would be helpful. A homing beam introduced later in the game makes up for this somewhat.

Ghostbusters also features a few light environmental puzzles which are also enjoyable. Your slime gun has a tethering firing mode which can string things together with elastic green goop. It's pretty fun to fool around with.

As to the authentic Ghostbusters experience, it certainly doesn't hurt that the script is written by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis and is packed with nods to the flicks. (Here's one for Ghostbusters fanatics. Slimer is at one point referred to as "onion head"). While the dialogue isn't as funny as the movies, it does capture the characters perfectly. Their banter, their personality quirks... and the voice work is great. The scriptwriters of course provide the voice of their characters, as do Bill Murray, Annie Potts, even William Atherton (Walter "This man has no dick" Peck). The actors fit right back into their roles and give pretty good performances, with one exception. That would be Alyssa Milano, as a new character named Doctor Ilyssa Selwyn. Milano delivers her lines like she's addressing the kids at home in an episode of Romper Room.

The game does offer a variety of difficulty modes that really help. The Casual mode is really easy, and should be okay for noobs. The more hardcore fans can be ripped to shreds in Professional mode, or try the multiplayer battles for real fun. In this mode, up to four people can hunt down and trap a ghost. Just don't cross the streams. It would be bad (although you do get an achievement/trophy out of it).

As a game Ghostbusters is pretty good. As a tie-in to the movie, it's excellent. In fact, it raises the standards for licensed games... which other titles are probably not going to bother to live up to. However, if you are a fan of Ghostbusters, you couldn't ask for more, short of Ecto 1 personally delivering it to your house.

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