Hey everyone! Because of the fact that games like Guitar Hero have been stupidly easy to the point that people no longer feel the need to use them in tournaments anymore, I have decided to start picking up some random games from Video 94 and writing about them. Just because I’m a “rhythm gamer” doesn’t mean that’s all I play, it’s just what I specialize in and I really enjoy ALL games, so this is a chance for me to take a break from the competitive scene and enjoy some of the great games that I’ve been missing out on this year! I’ll keep these short, but real… basically no one is paying me $ to give this game or ANY game a good review so I’m going to be honest… if the game sucks, I tell you it sucks! If the game rocks, I’ll tell you why it’s a must have. IGN, Kotaku, 1up…. whatever… this is MY point of view.


The game: Ghostbusters!
System: Xbox 360
Publisher: Atari
Game Type: 3rd person shooter



Since a child I was always a hardcore fan of the Ghostbusters. I watched the movies, put up the posters, and collected everything Ghostbusters that I could from shirts to lanyards and the coveted ECTO-1 license plate. For this reason, and the fact that I had to wait FOREVER for this damn game to come out, I had HIGH expectations for the game.

I start the game and am immediately happy to hear the original Ghostbusters theme song, see the Ecto-1 and the Ghostbuster house looks just like in the movie. All characters have the voices I remember and of course Slimer is there to be a pain in the ass. After the opening cinematic I sat down and said… “this is going to be an awesome game”. I see I’m playing the role as “the rookie”, some random dude who is being trained by the Ghostbusters. I was actually pretty happy to see this is the route they took since I was wondering if I’d have to pick one of the Ghostbusters P.O.V.’s or something at first.

I start the training and find that this game is a lot different from your normal FPS. Instead of having a gun which fires a shot, you are now shooting a stream which means that instead of needing precision aim you can fire away and find the enemy then you’ll have a pretty easy time staying locked onto the target. The other weird part in the beginning was learning how to trap ghosts since you can’t just shoot them then bag them… you must first weaken the ghost with your normal stream, then wrangle it in with a capture stream, then throw the trap, then pull the ghost into the trap’s area forcing it in. All of that is hard enough to do but you’ve also got Walter Peck  on your  ass telling you not to cause too much damage while busting ghosts which makes the game that much more difficult if you actually care about trying to stick with keeping the cost low.

So… I’m running around, I’m scanning ghosts, I’m finding cursed artifacts, I’m mastering the proton pack… it’s all good with one exception. One of the things that bugged me about this game is that I’m having to use my PKE meter to coax ghosts out of their hiding spots A LOT. I spent a lot of time running around chasing ghosts and telling them to GTFO of this or that so I can bust their ass, which caused me to get a bit frustrated and lose interest at times. Every time I see a cinematic or I’m busting a ghost I’m as happy as can be, but when I spend 10 minutes wondering around with a PKE meter I tend to get a bit pissy. Hey, I can only look at a level in 5 shades of green for so long! In total, each level took me less than one hour to complete, and after each level I’m rewarded with an achievement… seems easy enough.

As the game goes on the level’s get progressively harder, the ghosts become more difficult to capture, the bosses more violent (and you have to start finding out their weaknesses in order to defeat them), and there are added puzzle type elements to the game. Sometimes You’ll have to use a specific beam to grab/ move something or capture something in order to continue your venture through the level which can add even more frustration if you’re not an “outside of the box” type of thinker. The story line progresses to tell you that the reason for all the trouble is that there are Nodes in the city which must be destroyed so that the ghost world and real world do not merge. It’s a pretty Ghostbuster-ish type plot which makes sense and gave me some good locations to go bust ghosts. I also like the fact that the bosses MADE SENSE! I mean, I’m in a library and I’m fighting a crazy librarian and her book monsters and in a museum fighting civil war ghosts… good stuff!

In total it took me about 6 hours to complete the game, although I know if I went through the game again I could beat it in about 4 since a lot of time was spent scratching my head and using my slime tether on objects trying to open doors and solve puzzles. Aside from the normal career mode there is also a multiplayer mode that I didn’t get to really check out.  This mode is seperate from the game and includes capturing as many ghosts in a limited period or attempting to defend ghost disruptors as they are charged up.  Players are rewarded an amount of career earnings for their performance but the earnings online do not carry over into the normal offline career.  If I get the game again I will try to go online and see if there are enough people still playing the game to get some rounds in and see how online multiplayer works.  The bad part, there is no local multiplayer mode for 360, so if you wanna bust ghosts with a friend you either have to do it online or man up, hand over the controller, and take turns locally.

Some things that made me all giddy and made me literally want to throw my hands up with glee…

• The cinematics made me feel like I was really a Ghostbuster, busting ghosts.
• I LOOOOVED that they got the original actors to do the voices in the game.
• The ECTO-1 … perfect!
• I got to fight Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!  That dude is a Ghostbuster legend… he’s so cute too! I felt bad that we had to whoop his ass.
• When running around the Firehouse I saw the talking painting from the Ghostbuster movie, and yes, he actually TALKS too!
• Achievements for this game are easy… maybe TOO easy? I mean hell, you get one just for sliding down the fire pole or busting a ghost.
• This is a biggie… NO HUD!  Yeah, your health meter and proton pack heat level is all located on the proton pack itself so there’s nothing extra on the screen!
• Multiple difficulty levels so the casual players can play and have fun and the hardcore can get man handled by the ghosts. (It’s not fun, trust me)
• There’s a TON of funny lines/ parts in the game.

Some things that kind of bummed me out

• Why didn’t Slimer hang out more? I think maybe I was expecting some elements from the Ghostbusters TV show to be implemented. Oh well.
• No local multiplayer? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY???????
• Too much down time looking for ghosts
• An achievement for total damage cost <$100k I deemed impossible.  I racked up a total $220k damage being careful! Sheesh! Why should I have to pay for that stuff anyways?
• When I pushed the button to open the containment unit in the basement a bunch of lights and sirens went off but then it all went away and I couldn’t push the button again. WTF was that? Why didn’t all the ghosts come out of the unit? I was honestly expecting to have to re-catch all those ghosts and WANTED to!

Overall  I would give this game an 8 out of 10. If you’re a Ghostbusters fan I say this is a good buy since there’s good replay value and an online multiplayer mode, and if you’re not a huge Ghostbusters fan, I still say it’s at least worth a rental at your local video  store!