Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Where Do These Stairs Go? They Go Up.

If you are having a problem with pesky ghosts in your house or business who ya gonna call? Obviously you would call the Ghostbusters. Now if you are looking for a summer game based off a movie that doesn't suck what are you gonna play? Well, you could give the Ghostbusters The Video Game a spin. The Ghostbusters game takes place after the second movie in 1991. Instead of getting a rehash of the first or second movie, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykryod wrote an entire new script that is more like a 3rd Ghostbusters movie in video game form than some random cash in on an old movie. You play as a new recruit for the Ghostbusters who is basically there to try out Egon's new and untested equipment. During your training exercises the team realizes that this seemingly normal ghost catching is more than meets the eye. What follows are some catchy one-liners from the team as well as some frantic moments and events that are done so true to Ghostbusters that if they wanted to make a third film they could just add a few more cut scenes and call it a day.

The game play is the standard for third person shooters now a days. Run from room to room, catch some ghosts, pick up collectibles, watch short cut scene, rinse, repeat, dry. It is a fun romp none the less but it still can't really get out of the shadow of the movie it is portraying. Fighting the ghosts in the game are a blast and there are even some times when you feel you could be playing some type of goofy horror game with the sound effects they use and little jump out spots. One room that was exceptionally creepy was the kid's room in the library. Walking into a room filled with little chairs and storybooks isn't too bad; but, when you add giggling and crying from kids that aren't there and hand prints on the wall...yea you have something going. Kudos to Terminal Velocity for sticking true to the movies and not making it more goofy just to appeal to the kids of today. As much fun as it is to run around as a potential Ghostbuster...It seems that with all the time the developers took to recreate the feel and look of the movies, they forgot to add A.I. to your teammates. Taking on one or two ghosts at a time and you have no problem. It's just good, clean, fun wrangling ghosts. Throw in three or four more ghosts and you will probably want to start throwing controllers at your wall in frustration. The Ghostbusters are about as dumb as rocks and seemed to get themselves knocked down about every five seconds during the more intense fights. This would be okay if they knew how to revive each other....and they will....after like three minutes of someone being down, which doesn't really help your cause when you have five ghosts chasing you down and the other busters are just throwing off bad one-liners and getting knocked out. The game play is fun, don't take it the wrong way. You will just notice the frustration especially on higher difficulties but it shouldn't stop you from finishing the game.

The graphics are more of a mixed bag than the game play is. Sometimes the likeness of the busters are incredible and you feel like you stepped through time to when Bill Murray was a lovable actor. There are some wonky sections though with in game cut scenes that are kind of weird. When first stepping off the boat in a later level, Egon was supposed to be talking to us but for some reason decided to look over in a corner and proceed to finish his story. This wouldn't be that big of a deal but when he is making gestures like he is talking to someone in front of him then you kind of go...huh?

All in all this game is a blast if you have any recollection of the two films or are a die hard fan. It'll be more of the die hard fans buying the game and enjoying every little movie tie-in they throw at you. For the rest of us, a simple weekend rental should do the job.