Ghostbusters The Video Game

"Who are you going to call? Your local video game store to buy this game that's who."

Ghostbusters could have been an absolutely atrocious game..just like it's old school NES/Atari attempts... it was made by a more obscure developer, had horrible publisher cancellation/delay issues and in the end was published by atari of all companies not to mention the curse of movie based games...

Well let your worries melt away. If you were a fan of the movies at all you really, REALLY need to play this game. It not only broke the curse of movie to game, games but shattered it. The games plot takes place 2 years after the 2nd movie. Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis (Ray and Egon) actually wrote the script for the game and all the original actors returned to reprise their roles. Akroyd, Ramis, Ernie Hudson (Winston) and Bill Murray (Venkman) Janine and even Walter Peck (the lame ass environmental protection agent from the first movie) their voice actors even return. Only Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis are missing but their characters are left out of the story.. except for a few references to them. (Moranis retired from Hollywood and I dunno why Weaver declined) but Alyssa Milano plays a new female target for Venkman.

The game is pretty much "Ghostbusters 3" the plot/script/voice acting holds up to the movies and is hilarious. The gameplay is very challenging but incredibly fun. You really get the fun feeling you always thought you'd get as a ghostbuster blasting things with your proton pack causing untold mayhem and destruction while bagging ghosts. When your not blasting things you are searching and investigating each room and building you are in for clues, for items and this is when the game can get eerie as you wander through darkened areas with your meter out and not you proton pack not quite sure when something is going to pop out at you. Be prepared to see a few old ghoul faces again while you play along with a bunch of new ones. A couple of ghouls that had light parts before really get fleshed out into full backstories for this game.

The developers did an outstanding job recreating everything down to the smallest detail and easter eggs and tributes are everywhere to the movies, cartoon show and even the old really bad ghostbuster games. When watching the movies were we too busy laughing at the crew to be spooked by any of the supernatural stuff but the game goes 1 up on the movies by capturing eerie and spooky moments quite a bit better. The graphics and sound of the game is incredible and the physics engine in the game is just down right fun.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game could have been an abysmal failure.. but it's not. Besides some off lip synch voice acting at times, and some very sporadic difficulty spikes. it triumphs over all, and persistence and hard work by everyone involved seems to have created something very magical in a game here. As a ghostbusters fan I couldn't be more happy as someone who enjoys a well written script and great voice acting I also couldn't be more happy. If you are a ghostbusters fan you can't go wrong with this purchase.

It's definitely a new favorite of mine and most certainly one of my top favorites of this gen.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/09

Game Release: Ghostbusters The Video Game (US, 06/16/09)