I Ain’t Afraid Of No GhostBusters Video Games!

GhostBusters was pretty big when I was growing up, and I loved it. Loved the movies, loved The Real GhostBusters cartoon, loved the toys. Just like countless others, I was all for this series. That puts certain high expectations for any new media related to the franchise, especially when it purports to be canon to the original films. And 2009’s GhostBusters The Video Game has such a distinction.

I disagree with the common sentiment that all licensed games are poor – many are, but certainly not all. I wouldn’t even say that all previous GhostBusters games are bad. Certainly, some are deserving of their infamy but others like the Genesis game and New GhostBusters II on Famicom break the mold. So facing a new licensed GhostBusters game – especially one considered canon and featuring some of the talent that made the original films so compelling – I was more than willing to give it a spin.

You have the classic GhostBusting gear at your disposal – the pack, the trap, and the PKE Meter. You can scan the environment with the PKE Meter – searching for ghosts (often hidden in environmental items) or cursed artifacts (bonus collectables with hilarious descriptions) or the way forward. The game is mostly straightforward – very little roam – and the settings are relatively clean and distinct. You are kind of funneled from one encounter to another, though there is a little room for exploration especially if the PKE Meter indicates there is an artifact nearby. Though there is always a clear path, and any divergence is usually quite limited.

Your pack provides your method of interacting with the supernatural. The proton stream is the main course, of course, but you also get other nozzles. The proton stream damages enemies over time, and fires an explosive boson dart as a secondary ability. The proton stream becomes a capture stream when a ghost is weak enough to be held, letting you and the team pull the phantom towards a waiting trap. There’s stasis stream to slow/freeze enemies with a damaging spread shot as the secondary fire. A slime blower to damage special enemies with a tether as a secondary fire – this tether pulls objects together, even pulling a ghost into a trap without weakening it! And the meson collider which allows you to “tag” an enemy with the primary and then launch a homing machine gun attack with the secondary.

This is balanced by the proton pack’s heat gauge. Using any of the stream functions will cause the pack to heat up, and when it overheats you cannot use it for a few seconds – this could cost you. Knowing when to vent your pack to cool it off, knowing how much heat an action costs, and knowing what nozzle is most efficient against which ghosts keep players on their toes in the thick of it. You can upgrade all of your equipment on the fly with money you earn from busting ghosts – and it’s recommended. This increases stream stability and reduced heat costs and so forth. The proton stream can feel a bit wild at first and I didn’t mind that – they’ve never been depicted as accurate weapons. Some folks might disagree with me on that, but hey – that’s what the upgrades are for.

I think the biggest difficulty I had with the stream was cutting it off with the floor when trying to wrangle a ghost into a trap. This is mitigated by moving back, it’s just a learning curve. A more pressing concern is that sometimes the camera angles are absolutely horrid. And when there can be so much going on at once in this game the camera flaws did make for a few irritating encounters. Thankfully they were in the minority, but were are a few that really stood out.

The ghosts are mostly satisfying. They come in a few varieties – those that must be trapped and those that must be dispersed. Corporeal entities must be dispersed – or damaged until they are destroyed. These are often golems or small flying critters or the like. There is some redundancy here, an I wish there was a little more variety but at least they are cosmetically different and vary in weaknesses. Ghosts that must be trapped are very akin to the movies – translucent floating spectres, many of which look like exaggerated humans. These require the most effort to defeat and are generally the most varied in abilities. Some encounters can be surprisingly tough, and you can’t always use the same tactics.

And of course each level has a big bad boss for the ‘Busters to burst. Boss encounters are pretty solid. Many of them have classic video game elements so there are no huge surprises. Some are more puzzley, some are more straight up battles. There are a few I think could have been more creative. Not for lack of being decent battles mind you, but the designs could be more “wild” you know?

So which GhostBuster do you play as? A new, nameless rookie. This isn’t a bad choice really. Kids liked to pretend they were new GhostBusters recruits and this helps you project yourself into the game and play out that scenario, while freeing up the developers and writers to move the original GhostBusters where the script needs them to be moved – it lets it play out more like the films this way. But it’s a real missed opportunity not to include even a rudimentary character creator or even the option to play female. This would let more people have an easier time of projecting, and most of the dialog referring to you is very gender neutral stuff like “hey rook!” or “the newbie.” Apparently the Wii version included a female avatar, so again a character creator could be really cool.

Where this game really shines is the flavour. If you are a GhostBusters fan then you are in for many treats. The same sarcastic dark humour that permeated the films and cartoon is more than present here. I was concerned that it would just be a repeat of all of the jokes from the films but my concerns were quickly put aside. The original talent was involved with this game, from writing to voice acting. There are references to the movies, amusing (though sometimes monotonous) banter, and yes – the novelty of fighting alongside the GhostBusters.

There was a concern that too many ghosts would be repeated from the movies. Some of the most famous phantoms have returned, and they have some new tricks up their sleeves to avoid making them complete repeats. They ultimately add to the flavour and help tie the movies to the game. Between some missions you will also return to the firehouse to kick around for a bit – and while this is not a huge area it’s full of more flavour and fan service. A certain character from GhostBusters II is here, inexplicably, and has a ton of dialog as well. I was feel very, very smile. So very smile.

Do you need to be a GhostBusters fan to like this one? No, but it certainly helps. As a GhostBusters treat it certainly excels. As a game it’s decent. It’s a bit short, and trapping ghosts works well and is a fun concept. There’s a multiplayer mode, but since the PS3 servers are shut down I could not try this. This game also varies quite a bit based on platform – the Wii version has different aesthetics and enemies, and is more puzzle oriented – I wouldn’t mind trying that sometime.

As an action game with elements of dark comedy, GhostBusters does okay. It has fun enemies and it controls well and its problems won’t ruin your day. But to a fan, this can be a real treat and its clear this is where it’s targeted. Harold Ramis passed just a month ago, this past February 2014. And it’s good to hear that one of the last projects he had a hand in, even reprising his role as Egon, is legit. GhostBusters The Video Game is a licensed game done correctly. It defies the stereotypes and although it seemed at first it would repeat too much of the films it breaks away and becomes its own entity yet remains cohesive to the series. If you’re a fan of GhostBusters you should definitely give it a go.