Ghostbusters: The Video Game
PS3/Xbox 360/Wii
Jul 02, 2009 Web Exclusive
If you grew up in the ’80s, then Ghostbusters: The Video Game is up there on the anticipation scale with James Cameron’s Avatar, any upcoming Pixar project that doesn’t have the word Cars in it, or the Arrested Development movie. The game’s finally here, and it’s mostly solid, but doesn’t quite live up to the Ghostbusters III experience that many of us have been waiting for. The story takes place in 1991, two years after Ghostbusters II, as the four Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson) are working for the city and its new mayor (Brian Doyle Murray), answering to Walter Peck (the great William Atherton), and seemingly dealing with the return of Gozer from the first film.
Many of the original actors have returned to voice their characters for this incarnation, (including Annie Potts as the receptionist, Janine), but Sigourney Weaver as Pete Venkman’s on- and off-again lover Dana Barrett and Rick Moranis as the spastic Louis Tully are not among them. And aside from the painting of Vigo adorning the lobby of Ghostbusters headquarters, the game largely ignores the events from the second film. This really burns when Venkman horndogs all over the severely lacking new female love interest played by Alyssa Milano when you know that he was just bonding with and saving Barrett’s son Oscar’s life just two years prior in the Ghostbusterverse.
As far as plot goes, you’re playing as a new recruit who’s testing out experimental ghost-catching weapons as you work side by side with the fantastic foursome. The game works best when you are immersed in the world of the films, but it places too much emphasis on reuniting you with events, places, and ghosts from the first film. While it’s cool to hunt Slimer in the Sedgewick Hotel, it makes little sense story-wise and compromises what could have been a great opportunity to tell a new and unique tale. The overwhelming strong fan service succeeds more successfully in the score area, with Elmer Bernstein’s great and often overlooked score acting as the aural background with a strong assist from the actual sound effects from the films. The gameplay is a smidge complicated at first, but will eventually feel like second nature. It remains largely repetitive throughout, even though there a few cool puzzles to solve.
The Wii version of the game mostly keeps the same story but will have you controlling more cartoonlike versions of the main characters with the Wiimote. Geared toward a younger audience, the Wii version is less intense, has more puzzles, and will allow you to play with a friend side by side whereas the next-gen versions only allow you play co-op online. Overall, the game succeeds on nostalgia value, but will probably not appeal to those that aren’t fans of the films. But if you’re missing the Ghostbusters, strap on your proton pack next to Pete, Ray, Winston, and Egon, and get ready to bust some ghosts! (www.ghostbustersgame.com)
Author rating: 7/10
Average reader rating: 4/10
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