Ghost Rider

"Screaming for vengeance!"

I had no idea there was such a Marvel character. When I saw previews of the movie, I was amazed; I knew it would get mediocre reviews, but who can't resist a franchise with a flaming skeleton riding a motorbike that looks it was pulled right from the infernal depths of Hell? That character and that bike was the epitomy of badass and looked just like something from the minds behind Judas Priest's artwork, so at that moment I couldn't care less if I was going to see an average movie.

At the same time, the game was announced, and it struck me instantly as a God Of War and Devil May Cry rip-off. Plus, it got pretty mediocre reviews itself. Nonetheless, I wanted a GOW and DMC hybrid on my PSP, because up to then not a lot of games on Sony's portable beauty caught my attention.

So I bought it, hoping for the best as the amount of replay value sounded promising. Ghost Rider is a fantastic, frenetic actionfest that throws plenty of slick sequences and moments, especially once you get into the thick of the game. Some aspects of the gameplay are unashamedly based directly on ("ripped-off" seems too harsh) on some aspects of GOW's gameplay, namely pressing "O" when it appears above an enemy, and the progress gauge has definitely been ripped right from DMC. Nonetheless, it's a working formula.

The PS2 version of Ghost Rider looked too much like an excellent looking PS1 game, but with better scale. Though the game looked quite ugly. The PSP version's graphics look exactly the same, but the textures and glare go easier on the eyes. In fact, the game looks dazzling on the PSP; white-hot vortexes of hellfire engulfing enemies mixed in with some great slow-mo sequences make for some spectacular visuals.

Combat is broken up into small sections of equally small levels with challenges to add to the replay value. These manage to reduce the level of repetitiveness you will find in the gameplay, though it will try to throw as much variation as it can at you though. You do of course get to use the Hellcycle; running down demons, attacking enemy bikers and making some impressive jumps. Though sometimes this mightn't be as fun as it sounds, fortunately, there is usually only two motorbike levels in each of the five portions of the game.

Completing the Challenges allows you to upgrade, which comes in the form of strengthening or unlocking pages from the comics and interviews with the design team.

Completing the game unlocks more content, such as the option to play as Blade who makes for sword-based and blood-drinking combat, though from what I've seen him playing as him means some Challenges are impossible to complete, which means reverting to the Ghost Rider if you want to clear up the last few Challenges. Fortunately, completing the game also unlocks, pretty much, an alternate costume for him, which is the original Ghost Rider's outfit and the original bike. At the end of it all, there's a multiplayer mode which involves the motorbike sections of the game.

It'd be wrong to end this review without making mention of the sound; sound effects are your typical fair of "FWOOSH"'s and chains being swung and pulled, as well as grunts from the enemy. The soundtrack is Heavy Metal fair, thankfully it sounds pretty good and isn't some Nu Metal crap (I can't resist listening to "Freewheel Burning" and "Wheels Of Fire" by Judas Priest during the Hellcycle moments; puns intended). For better of for worse, none of the actors from the film do the voices of their characters; the soundalike for Sam Elliot is excellent though, and he does some great narrating. The Rider still retains his demonic voice, though it's more decipherable than the one heard in the movie and it's clear different methods have made this voice. Mephisto and Johnny Blaze sounded very different from their movie counterparts, but it's hard to tell for the likes of Blade, Roxanne and Blackheart, simply because I couldn't really remember their voices. There are some new voice actors for the likes of Scarecrow, Lilith and Vengeance who did not feature in the movie. All in the all, the voice acting is either great or acceptable.

If you've been waiting for a port of God Of War or Devil May Cry on the PSP for a while now, you may as well pick up Ghost Rider as it offered me more than I imagined I would get.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/07