The Haunted Hoard: Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Xbox 360)

For many years, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis had hoped to create a third movie in the Ghostbusters film franchise, but thanks to various problems in getting the project off the ground (many involving Bill Murray’s stubbornness), it never came to fruition. While Ghostbusters: Afterlife is now often being referred to as Ghostbusters 3 for continuing the story of the original Ghostbusters, there was something that came years before it that wore that unofficial nickname. While Aykroyd and Ramis might never get the chance to see their ideas for a third Ghostbusters story appear on film, Ghostbusters: The Video Game still allowed them to finally be shared with the world, and they even managed to get Bill Murray on board for it so those three and Ernie Hudson could reprise their role as the famous four Ghostbusters.

 

However, Ghostbusters: The Video Game introduces a fifth character to the mix, that being the player’s participant in the game’s plot. While no name is given for this fledgling Ghostbuster, the other four are happy to whip out plenty of nicknames for the novice, Rookie and Newbie perhaps being the most common. This particular rookie has joined the team two years after the events of the second film, the team of ghost-hunters spurred to action when unusual pulses of paranormal energy cause more spirits to appear all around New York City. The rookie ends up getting a crash course in learning how to bust ghosts as the team heads out to deal with a variety of spectral foes ranging from simple hauntings to city-wide threats. Much of what fans of the first two films would hope to find is present here, an interesting mix of constant comedy broken up by moments of actual spookiness and some scientific grounding for the high tech equipment the Ghostbusters use. The rookie is routinely used to test dangerous new volatile tech that works well into a fluid way of introducing equipment upgrades, and while you’ll spend pretty much equal time with Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Ernie Hudson, and Egon Spengler overall, you’ll often have segments where you split off with just one or two of them, allowing for different situations to emphasize things like Venkman’s wisecracking or Spengler’s devotion to understanding the scientific side of paranormal phenomena.

Things begin with almost too many references to the original film’s iconic spirits, but it would be a shame to make what is meant to be the definitive Ghostbusters video game and not include a fight with green glutton Slimer or the fearsome food mascot The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. By the time you reach the section where you hunt down the Librarian ghost it can almost seem like you’re playing a highlight reel of old battles rather than a new story, but this is the exact point the game begins its pivot into truly original content. You do have some moments before then like dealing with a sea captain specter and the fights with the recognizable faces have many different aspects to them to make them entertaining encore performances, but once you begin pursuing the new mysteries of New York City and its relationship with the supernatural, that’s where it feels like you’re truly playing something meant to be Ghostbusters 3. New ghosts are haunting interesting locations like the Museum of Natural History and some mundane areas like a hotel end up twisted into ethereal realms by the influence of the new spirits, and while some things like the romance subplot feel tacked on, for the most part the game delivers on the comedy you’d hope to find with a heavy dose of action so that the gameplay portions of the plot don’t feel out of place.

 

When it’s time to pick up your Proton Pack and start firing beams at evil spirits, Ghostbusters: The Video Game does show that authenticity can sometimes be less exciting than it sounds on paper. The ghost catching hardware in the movie is good as a narrative device, but the process of wrangling a ghost with your rope-like plasma beam and slamming them into a trap can be somewhat plain at first. You point at your quarry and hold down the right button and you’ll gradually weaken it until it can be captured properly, and those early moments of the game rely pretty much on the traditional and simple ghost catching experience. By the time it does start to get a little old though, the game wisely begins adding to your arsenal, one of the biggest additions being the ability to fire a burst of power through the Proton Stream called a Boson Dart that can deal some quick significant damage. However, overuse of the Proton Pack will overheat it, and managing its use requires being careful how often you use the dart since it eats up much more energy than a regular beam. Upgrades can help you use your skills more often, and soon you’ll get more options to use against your ghostly foes. Slime can be used to clear away the dangerous black ectoplasm that would otherwise damage you, but it can also play into puzzles by forming gooey tendrils that pull objects together or out of the way, and the Shock Blast can deal heavy damage to foes in a matter similar to a shotgun, a good tool when certain ghosts call in small and quick accomplices. Some ghosts battles will still drag, especially when later in the game you’re dealing with more durable foes who might not have major gimmicks to exploit, but the game doesn’t truly stagnate because it remembers to engage with your kit often enough to make up for the weaker battles.

The new tools let the ghost battles continue to stay interesting in regards to your input, and new enemy types and boss ghosts continue to add interesting battle styles to the affair. The sea captain who floods the hotel and the spider woman who covers a building interior in silk both provide distinct and sometimes scary places to explore, but the trips to a spirit realm parallel to ours are definitely the strangest with their warped physics and malleable architecture. Exploring these places, destroying important items with your Proton Pack for kicks, and finding little secrets between ghost battles keep things fresh, and the small enemies come in many forms like library spirits who wrap themselves in paper and haunted exhibits at the museum. However, quite often the game does want you to pull up the PKE meter and try and hunt down a ghost on the run, and the process is often slow and the radar too touchy to enjoy. In some of the larger areas like the graveyard where there are many paths forward, it can be easy to get lost even with the meter’s help, especially if there isn’t a fellow Ghostbuster guiding you around.

 

The good news is that battles can often be pretty difficult without being overwhelming, and that’s because the presence of other Ghostbusters can directly impact your ability to handle them. Your health is displayed on the back of your character’s equipment, and if you end up knocked out, you can be revived by your partners. They are fairly decent at picking you back up as well, the camaraderie of the Ghostbusting team coming through when you’re all working together on the same ghost hunt. You might have to save their bacon often on tougher battles, but they can also keep other ghosts busy, and when you are alone or only accompanied by one member of the team, you can definitely feel a good degree of pressure to be careful. The now defunct online mode let you play the story missions with human players instead and they would no doubt be on the ball better than the four characters from the film, but it’s nice to see that the original team isn’t just standing by and letting the newbie do all the work.

THE VERDICT: Ghostbusters: The Video Game certainly deserves its unofficial status as Ghostbusters 3, with plenty of fan service, fun banter, and a new story about some schlubs having to tangle with powerful supernatural threats. Actually handling the Proton Pack can feel a little bland at times, but by mixing up your ghost hunting tools and presenting spirits new and old in creative battle concepts, the action remains an enjoyable part of this ectoplasmic package.

 

And so, I give Ghostbusters: The Video Game for Xbox 360…

A GOOD rating. While it relies on the PKE Meter a bit much and late game ghosts are sometimes a bit slow to take down, most of Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a good mix of fun ghost battle concepts and the same style of humor that let the first film become such a classic. It integrates aspects of the two movies well once it is done trotting out the expected references and callbacks, and the path of the game’s plot provides interesting areas to explore and creative ghost types to take down. The game did come out twenty years after Ghostbusters II so it can seem at times like some of the energy has left the cast or other details were forgotten, but it still manages to be an entertaining ride even for those with little nostalgia to pull from thanks to its comedy and the frequent mix-ups to how you’ll be taking down the latest ghost. The Proton Pack did come with its limitations in how people would expect to capture ghosts, but the game finds new ways to spice up the fights so that you can push past the tolerable but slow moments where you just gradually lasso a ghost.

 

If you come to Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the story, you can definitely get your fill of it, and the difficulty at points is appropriately challenging. The special twists to ghost fights help busting make you feel good, so whether you wanted to experience the technology of the Ghostbusters or simply see the four actors reprise their roles in new comedic situations, it’s easy to be entertained by perhaps the most faithful video game based on this franchise ever made.