Ghostbusters

Normally this is where the obligatory "Who you gonna call" joke would be made, but I am better than that even though just mentioning the joke is kind of the same as making the joke itself.  Oh well.  Ghostbusters marks another incomplete game for me.  It's the risk you run with rentals, there is sometimes not nearly enough time to finish it all.  But it's not for lack of wanting.

I freakin' love Ghostbusters.  I loved them as a kid.  I love them now.  I had the crazy toys that morphed into weird things, i watched the cartoons, I have the special edition DVD's, and a lot of my comedic inspiration comes from that movie.  So when I saw that not only was there a new Ghostbusters video game, but that it was written and voiced by the original creators and cast, I was pretty stoked.

Ghostbusters the video game operates as a sequel to the first two movies.  It picks up a couple of years after the fact, with the Ghostbusters business booming.  A bit too booming in fact.  There seem to be more ghosts than ever lurking around and causing havoc including a few old favourites from the movies.  It's all tied to a young woman and her study of an ancient script and...well, it's pretty classic fare from there.  Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis are sadly missing, plot holes that just sort of don't get mentioned which is sometimes the best way.

You play as a newbie ghostbuster, which is present in many franchise games as it's the simplest way to include the main characters without making them playable.  Sure enough, you're often joined by the Ghostbusters themselves, sometimes one who will aid you in a particular mission when you all get separated, sometimes all four when the big battles come about.

Stay Puft SMASH

I have to say, the AI in this game isn't too shabby.  More often than not I would flailing hopelessly with my pack and then turn around and find that all of the busters had taken care of the rest of the room themselves.  This was a pleasant surprise.  There were times though, when one guy would just be standing next to me while I got the living slime beat into me.

Combat's kind of so-so alas, but only in that it gets a bit repetitive.  On the plus side, there you are, with your proton pack, blasting away at ghosts, demons and even furniture and it's pretty damn satisfying to do so.  Being the Wii, there is some motion control in there to aim at the ghosts, which can get a bit frustrating when the ghosts are zooming about at a far faster rate than your remote can find them. 

Just...freakin'...stay STILL

You will end up using pretty much all of the equipment you saw in the movies and then some.  The P.K.E. meter becomes pretty invaluable, able to scan information about certain enemies and objects as well as point out paranormal traps along the way.  You'll also get some other fun gadgets, including some sort of sonic blast thing and a slime dispenser (that's about as far as I got anyway).  These at least keep things fresh, although I kind of ended up defaulting to the original recipe of blaster simply because it was the most effective...which can be problematical when you keep getting supposedly improved weapons only to give them up five minutes later. 

There are several puzzles within the levels that, while not horribly mind bending, do keep you entertained.  I enjoyed searching for clues to a civil war themed puzzle or another one involving a mayan sport display in a museum.  These were well woven into the game and made for some fun times.

After that, it gets a bit repetitive.  There are different levels with the same goals: find ghost, scan ghost, blast with stream/sonic/slime/whatever it's weak against and then whack them against a wall until they go into a trap.  Rinse, lather, repeat with varying degrees of ghost ass-holishness.  That's not to say it isn't satisfying though.  The more assholish the ghost, the more satisfying it is to slam him into a wall and bag him.

What the game lacks in combat though it more than makes up for in witty reparte.  These are definitely the Ghostbusters we know and love, and the game script has been given just as much attention as any movie script would be.  During certain parts of the game I realized I was barely moving anymore because I was just enjoying Venkman's one liners and Egon's quirkiness far too much.  Having the original cast involved definitely helps and it was a really nice touch.




Ghostbusters: Hilariously open mouthed worry since 1984

 The story too, or at least what I saw of it, was just as solid and I would like to see where it goes.  It actually seemed far more epic than even the movies, and the  movies had ancient demons and magicians posessing mortals and a giant freakin' marshmallow man.  There's also a more of a sense of mythology behind the ghosts of the game.  Each scan you do has the history of the ghost.

I personally would like to finish this game at some point.  I don't think it's going to get much better in terms of combat, but I think what draws me to this game is the fact that I finally get to be a Ghostbuster.  No more am I holding my imaginary proton pack making my own sound effects!  Now I'm doing it with a Wii remote...which may not seem better, but at least I'm also seeing the efforts on screen.  It's Ghostbusters.  What can I say?  If you like the franchise, you'll love the game.  If you've never watched, well you'll probably even like the game because who wouldn't be able to resist Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis' writing?

****Edit- I just thought I'd mention this because it struck me as an interesting artistic move.  This is the Wii version of the game.  There is also an XBox version, which as far as I can tell differs only in that it looks like this:

It strikes me as interesting because of the sheer design differences.  One goes for the uncanny valley, the other pretty much makes it a cartoon.  Which one is the preferred one?  I can't really decide.  Of my four or five readers (looooove you), I thought maybe it'd be interesting to take a sort of poll.  Do you prefer the more cartoonish style which also supports the cartoonish humour while also being a bit graphically weaker?  Or would you prefer the more realistic to live action version, which looks fantastic but also has less to play with in terms of experimentation with?  Curious minds want to know!