Ghostbusters videogame review

I've decided to review the game here today even though it came out last year. I bought it on a shopping spree with my sister and my niece, 13 year old supa diva, right after I got back from having some asshole asian dude shove a broom handle into my butt crack down at lackland, what fun.

It's a fucking ghostbusters videogame the first ever made for consoles, well that's not true, they made some ass fest of a game for the nintendo, then they made extreme gb for the ps1, both sucking cock. This game however is the first attempt at making a good gb game.

I was thrilled to see the original cast was back. The only thing that kind of irked me was that it's just random, there's no cartoon anymore, no comics, no nothing, but for the hell of it, they made a game. But whatever, right, something's better than nothing.

It does however leave a bitter aftertaste knowing this game SHOULD have come out at least during the early 2000s when toon disney aired both the rgb and extreme gb toons for kids to watch and still get a taste of gbs. Releasing it now really is just late, as if they were to make a truly badass great rendition of a star wars game when no movie was coming out or anything.

In fact that's exactly what we're seeing now. Releasing star wars games is kind of lame without a movie to anticipate in conjunction.

So onto the game. It's full of interesting ideas, and surprisingly good humor and writing. I'd say it's about on par with ghostbusters 2 storywise, both stories being like decent episodes of the cartoon series, but no where near the excellence on display in the first movie. They certainly spent a lot of time creating cool level designs. But the whole kind of 3rd person shooter perspective thing is dissapointing. I'd like to walk around like in GTA, do flips and rolls, jump into the ecto 1 and drive it. After being able to fly a plane under a bridge, then parachute out into the ocean and swim to shore, these guys got to step it up. Looking past that, just the nostalgic walk through memory lane is fun. You get to chill in the fire house, slide down the pole, all of this stuff taking me back to the early 90s when I'd see commercials for gb ecto cooler and of course the gb2 movie itself which I saw at 5 years old forever cementing gb as brilliant in my mind. That movie changed me.

It's good stuff, in fact the only stuff in the game that works are the parts that are directly related to the first and second film. The whole new recruit thing should have been left out. There's only 4 gbs, the way it should be, 5 counting luis who is sorely missed. Such a staple of the first 2 films just suddenly poof gone in the official semi-sequel is jarring. No one even acknowledges his absence, nor danas. Which makes the game seem even more like an episode of the cartoon than an actual sequel to the films.

And here's where the game kind of flops. there are episodes I can name of the cartoon made 2 decades ago that are more interesting, dramatic, memorable and fun than the game's story. How does that happen? Ragnarok and roll completely owns this game's storyline. Not even to mention Night game, which is just incredible creative writing. Not a proton pack used in the whole episode yet it's one of the best. So many more that delve into who the gbs are as people trying to keep their business afloat. The game introduces an interesting problem. Every time the gbs go out for a bust, they get into more and more debt to the city, which would have been an interesting aspect to explore as you as the player try not to go overboard, yet nothing's done with it. You see the money accumulating, but whatever, blow up as much as you want, no one's going to give a shit.

You get equipment upgrades throughout the game though that are cool as hell, similar to how the guys built slime blowers in gb2, and in the Extreme gb series, egon had to overhaul all the equipment since the old stuff didn't work on newer ghosts. Same kind of applies here except that the game could have done more with the concept of purchasble upgrades. Make it random busts that give you money, not money earned from just going through the storyline. I like how the nintendo gb game gave you a fixed budget on equipment and proton packs and traps. Couldn't afford all the shit you needed to bust ghosts and make bank? Tough. Just like in the real world, you either play it smart and strategize or you fail. Here you can prettymuch succeed in the game with nothing more than the slime blower and the proton pack. The ice blower and the nuclear blast thingy don't really matter in the grand scope of the game. And if they're going to add wacky new equipment, why not put in something that doesn't come out of the proton pack. The fun thing about gb is that it's like they're soldiers/exterminators, who are so damn smart they can whip up a badass gadget in a moment's notice. Level after level of shoot this with your proton pack stream got boring, sorry. Even in the cartoon they got bored with nothing but zap and traps and decided to have the gbs tackle ghosts without them at times, using nothing more than their vast knowledge of the supernatural or in winston's case his spiritual beliefs. None of that in the game. And what's up with them calling winston the slow one?

Overall, it's a decent start. Not the most complex game, ain't no metal gear ghostbuster, but it's not completely stupid and simple fluff either. Being stuck in one boring looking position the whole game is lame, my biggest problem with it. If it were a pilot for a new cgi series, that'd be even more appropriate. I can definitely see a lot of love and care taken in at least trying to live up to the original films, but it's all superficial. The story doesn't necessarily work as a true sequel though it's as if you were to actually honest to god take the original characters and bring them to life in a new way, like a time capsule kind of thing. That was cool, but man, it's still kind of like ironically watching ghosts of the past walking around as plastic looking cgi this time. Why not just have the same story using the actor's current ages, I wouldn't have minded. It's not like the cartoon didn't say fuck it and totally change the character's looks.

In short. Good enough game, late to the party, definitely one for long time fans to add to their collection...