Developer: Terminal Reality
Publisher: Atari (North America)
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Audio Recap:
 

Review:

“Too hot to handle, too cold to hold.  They’re called the Ghostbusters and they’re in control.”  The boys are back and they’re still the best trio (or quadruplet) in the business when it comes to bustin’ some ghosts.  I’ve waited a long time to get my hands on Ghostbusters: The Video Game to live out my fantasy of one day becoming a Ghostbuster.

I promise to keep the classic lines to a minimum throughout this review.  Today is June 16, 1991 and it’s time to bust some ghosts.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

Ghostbusters: The Video Game nearly captures everything I loved about the films.  I have to send praise to both Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd for coming up with a storyline that really made sense for the game.  You’re cast in the role of the “Rookie”, the fifth member of the Ghostbusters team and an Experimental Equipment Technician.  It’s been two years since the last catastrophic event and things once again start to get strange just as you come on board.  The story is pretty simple.  You have to team up with the original Ghostbusters and save the world from being destroyed by ghosts and the supernatural.

You revisit many of the old stomping grounds from the film.  You have to catch Slimer in the hotel again.  You have to visit the library and kill the librarian.  And you even have to fight against good old Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.  To help you in your duty, you have all the tools essential for being a quality Ghostbuster.  Your PKE Meter, Para-Goggles, the Proton Pack (all juiced up) and the ghost trap are all there.  Using the particle accelerator, you could fire off a primary and secondary wave of energy from the Proton Pack.  Over time you gained Dark Matter and even Slime to use as weapons.  I loved the Proton Pack and all the upgrades that you could purchase for it.  You could even upgrade your PKE Meter and trap.  Capturing ghosts and completing jobs gets you money to use on upgrades.  It’s a good thing that property damage isn’t deducted from your earnings because I destroyed a crap load of property.

Was it fun using the equipment to destroy property?  Yes.  Was it fun using the equipment to trap ghosts?  Hell yes!  Each ghost had its own health bar that you had to weaken before you could trap it.  Once the ghosts are weak enough, you can catch them in your blast stream and slam them (Left trigger).  Once they’re wrangled, you can toss your trap out (X button) and trap them.  “Two in the box! Ready to go.  We be fast and they be slow.”  If you happen to be incapacitated during the fight don’t worry because your teammates can revive you or you can revive them.  Just press the A button while standing near them to revive them.  You’ll be doing a lot of reviving because Egon and the crew aren’t very efficient teammates.  I know you’re not supposed to cross the streams but they’re always in the way.  The AI isn’t quite as sharp as you’d expect from a well-trained Ghostbusters squad.

Terminal Reality did a wonderful job with the character models.  Venkman is a dead ringer for Bill Murray.  Stantz is a dead ringer for Dan Aykroyd.  Spengler…the whole team, from their suits to their packs, looked great.  I think Ernie Hudson was a little slimmer than usual but overall, the characters looked great.  The ghosts in the game were also done well.  The lady librarian was picture perfect as well as Stay Puft.  One of my favorite battles in the game was during the Civil War exhibit and seeing the soldiers come to life.  Classic.  I can’t say such good things about all of the environments and levels.  Some of them had some pretty amazing detail (the firehouse) while others were a bit bland (in particular some of the hotel).  It was nothing to cry about but the character models clearly outshine the places in which they travel.

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