Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family ever seen a spook, specter or ghost?
If the answer is “yes,” the professionals, the Ghostbusters, would recommend that you call them right away. Thankfully, they’re very accessible these days, with their multiplatform game, Ghostbusters: The Video Game. We’ve read some thoughts on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, but what if you want or need to exorcise evil spirits through your Nintendo Wii?
Have no fear, because rookie Ghostbusters Ashley Davis and Anthony Burch are ready to believe you. They’ve played through the entire game to help you in your time of need. The first reviewer gives her take on the game without influence from the other versions (though she is working on getting through them), while the second examines how the different versions stack up, having played both home console games in full (he has way too much time on his hands).
Hit the jump to see their thoughts, and whether or not they continue to constantly quote the movie throughout the review (they can’t help it, they’re nerds).
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Wii)
Developer: Red Fly Studio
Publisher: Atari
Released: June 16, 2009
MSRP: $39.99
Ashley Davis
All the various versions of Ghostbusters: The Video Game is about the closest thing we’ll ever get to a Ghostbusters 3, and fans of the property ought to rejoice its presence, as it is one of the more solid movie games to have ever been made. Although the Wii version feels more like a five hour long playable Ghostbusters cartoon than anything else, that does not make it any less deserving of the franchise name.
It gives off a lot of the same nostalgic vibes that its source material has for the past 20 years, with some great dialogue and a new storyline that could have been ripped directly from another movie sequel. There are several visits to familiar locations, and many of the faces to be seen are ones that we’ve all seen before, but because we’ve never had the chance to fight alongside the Ghostbusters before, it all feels somewhat new again. The AI behind the Ghostbuster crew isn’t the ideal ever, but they’re pretty good about helping out with huge crowds of enemies and not getting in the way. The game is separated into several small chunks of story, with a boss fight and a trip back to headquarters each three levels or so. This makes it all very easy to pick up and put down at one’s leisure.
The controls are as simple as simple gets. You move with the Nunchuk, aim with the Wiimote and press B to shoot. The D-pad scrolls through the three different weapons (Blast Stream, Slime Blower, Shock Blast) and the PKE Meter. Each of these has a secondary function that can be performed by pressing A. The learning curve needed to become a great Ghostbuster is not at all steep, which makes it simple for anyone to jump right in and play like they’ve been busting ghosts all their lives.
Perhaps the best part of the game is that the whole thing can be played cooperatively. A friend can join you for some split screen action whenever you start a new game, continue a saved game, or go back to play a previous level. Running around, trapping ghosts and solving puzzles with your various guns is pretty fun, especially if you have a friend to do it with. In addition to helping each other out, you can slime one another and cross your streams (this, of course, results in instadeath) just for kicks. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t let the second player stray too far from the first, making it hard to split up and do more damage. on bigger maps. Otherwise, the game is very well-tailored to fit in two players, with enough enemies and things to do for everyone. It even gives turns to each player when they’re slamming around the same spook.
While Ghostbusters is generally good times, the game does have its flaws. There were a few slight problems with the game’s otherwise great control scheme. As is common with Wii games, these problems concern the few actions that are mapped to motion controls. I had some problems getting the game to register my flicking up and down. Left and right were quite a bit superior, but the down motion is needed to get through some puzzles near the end of the game. My problems with getting the flicks to pick up made these portions a lot harder and frustrating than they needed to be, but thankfully, there were only one or two situations where this issue tested my patience.
One very small issue with the gameplay itself is that there is never much of an incentive to use anything other than the Blast Stream in most combat situations, and the puzzles that do use the others aren’t terribly varied. For the better part of the game, I used the Blast Stream and its secondary, the Boson Dart. The latter weapon is a bit too powerful, knocking off a good chunk of health off of any enemy you may encounter. I would have liked a tiny more variation in weapon usage both in and out of combat, if only to help keep the combat from growing stale.
From the lowly (in regards to power) Slimer to the biggest specters, all of the ghosts in the game must be weakened, slammed around, and then roped into a standard ghost trap, thrown by a press of the Z button. Some enemies do need a little dousing in slime or dark matter to begin off with, but the other weapons are never used for more than a few seconds before switching back to the old standby. There are a scant few cool puzzles using the other two guns, but they really could have done so many more neat things to integrate them superior with the gameplay. The PKE Meter, on the other hand, is very intuitive and useful. When equipped, it simply leads you to the nearest supernatural activity. A press of the A button will equip you with PKE Goggles, enabling you to clearly see the paranormal goings-on around you. This can be a hidden ghost, items that can be interacted with, the weak points of a boss, and even invisible platforms that are poking into the real world through the Ghostworld.
The boss fights lend a huge hand in keeping things interesting too. Sure they’re all dragged into a trap at the end, but the weakening process differs wonderfully from one to the other. In one boss fight, the player must shoot the boss’s projectiles back at it, and then rip out one of its many tongues with the capture stream while it is recuperating. In another, one can only injured the boss by destroying the safety net under it and knocking it off the wall, causing it to hit the ground hard. Every one utilizes a different weapon as well. Most of the boss fights are a great reward for getting through an area, even more so if you find yourself getting tired of the same old song and dance on the way there.
The biggest annoyance by far is the game’s collectibles, which are pages from Tobin’s Spirit Guide that are strewn all over each level. Each time you pick one of these pages up, regardless of whether or not you’re in the middle of a fight, the screen switches over to the Guide to show you what’s on the page you just found. There’s no reason for this screen to pop up each time you get a new page when you can access the guide at any time from the pause menu. It jolts you out of the action for nothing. I eventually started to avoid collecting the pages altogether, as they aren’t much use other than for 100 percent completion.
On the graphical side of things, there’s nothing too special here besides the nice, cartoony style of the characters (although the designs have questionable origins). At best, the game looks enjoy it belongs on the Playstation 2, and that’s really a shame, as much better can and has been done on the Wii. There’s also some noticeable slowdown while fighting lots of respawning, flying enemies, which happens a few times near the end of the game. The score is taken straight from the movies, but isn’t too varied. On the other hand, the dialogue is humorous and the voice acting top notch (with the exception of Alyssa Milano’s work, which is rather uninspired). Some of the lines differ from what’s spoken to the subtitles, assumedly to keep the game safely nestled in its E rating. There are enough references and familiar lines grouped with some great new quotes to make any fan delighted.
The Wii version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game is by no means the perfect game, but it is a great movie-to-game adaptation, and a very fun and pleasing way to spend some time with some old friends if you’re a Wii-owning Ghostbusters lover. As this is a very character and story driven videogame, if you’re not a fan of the movies or the humor within them, you may not be as tolerant of the easy and somewhat repetitive gameplay as those who dig the characters and story might. The intuitive gameplay, interesting boss fights, and ability to co-op are plusses for all gamers, while the simple difficulty level and short game length are some of the negatives. It could be a buy for the biggest Ghostbusters fans, but I would definitely advocate this game as a rental first for most.
Score: 6
