Videogames based on movies are usually not that great, but what happens when you release a game based on a movie that came out 25 years ago? You might think they’d have had more than enough time to get it right and give us a game that’s true to the movie. Ghostbusters that movie came out in 1984, and now 2009 they give us Ghostbusters the videogame, sure there have been others, but this is new, on newer, more powerful consoles.

Today I’m taking a look at Ghostbusters the videogame for the Xbox360. The game picks up a few years later after the events in the movies, at first we find our good friend Gozer, think Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, is back to cause some more havoc, and the Ghostbusters have to save the city once again, but as the game progresses you find that there’s someone, or something, more sinister behind the appearance of Gozer .

You start the game as a new, unnamed recruit to the team and are thrown into the thick of things, learning on the job. You first mission is to capture our old friend slimer. Everyone from the original movies is here, Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Janine Melnitz and even Winston Zeddmore, and the actors have all come on to do voice overs for the characters to add a bit more realism to the game. The original Ghostbusters movie was one that will be remembered for it’s great special effects, and of course the comic stylings of Bill Murray, it’s still a great movie, even 25 years later. My kids are off for the summer of course, and watched me play Ghostbusters, they of course wanted to see the movie, so I qued it up on Netflix and we watched it via Xbox Live, and yes it’s still a great movie. Ghostbusters the videogame will bring back many fond memories for a lot of us and will introduce a whole new generation to the thrill of ghostbusting. It’s a great game overall, though it’s not without it’s faults.

As mentioned you start the game as an unnamed new recruit, and Gozer has come back to try once again to take over the world, and the Ghostbusters of course have to step in and foil his plans. You’re thrown into the thick of things to go and catch our good friend slimer who escaped, so you’re getting on the job training.

Here’s a video of the intro, and the first couple minutes of gameplay, and I believe I got our HD video problems fixed, so the video is done in 1080p, so it looks good now…

Here’s just a bunch of screenshots of gameplay:

Specifications:
Ghostbusters

The Ghostbusters are back in Ghostbusters: The Video Game! With Manhattan overrun once more by ghosts and other supernatural creatures, gamers take the role of a new recruit joining the famous Ghostbusters team. Equipped with a variety of unique weapons and gadgets, you will hunt, fight and capture a wide range of uncanny phantasms and demons in an all-new, funny and frightening battle to save New York City from its latest paranormal plague.
The real Ghostbusters return in this videogame sequel to the Ghostbusters movies. Stars Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray reunite to reprise their roles as Spengler, Stantz, Zeddmore and Venkman. Supporting the ghost busting crew are the talents of Annie Potts, Brian Doyle Murray and William Atherton.

Features:
* The Authentic Ghostbusters Experience – Delivering a distinctive, definitive gaming experience to worldwide Ghostbusters fans, Ghostbusters™: The Video Game features the original cast from Columbia Pictures’ classic Ghostbusters films, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson – together again for the first time in over 20 years. Supporting the original Ghostbusters crew are the talents of Annie Potts, Brian Doyle Murray and William Atherton.
* The Supernatural Spectacular Meets Unrivaled Ghost Busting – Like the films before it, Ghostbusters™: The Video Game is allnew classic adventure with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis returning to helm the script and creating a new storyline that leads gamers through the trials and tribulations of the world’s leading paranormal ghost busting team. Players experience a variety of frightening new ghosts, even some based on ideas from Aykroyd and Ramis that never made it into the original feature films..
* Cool Tech, Extraordinary Equipment & Fearsome Enemies – Ghostbusters™: The Video Game features ghost hunting, wrangling and trapping game mechanics with upgradeable gadgets. Gamers can wear ghosts down into a weakened state with the Proton Pack’s Blast Stream and use the Capture Stream to wrangle them into the trap, execute different strategic tactics with the new Slime Tether and scan and analyze targets using like the P.K.E. Meter and Paragoggles.
* Ghostbusters – Jump on the PLAYSTATION Network or Xbox Live and play as the original Ghostbusters with up to three other players in a variety of different game modes set in iconic movie locations, including the Museum, Library and Times Square, in a competitive co-op mode where players work as a team to bust ghosts but compete with one another for the highest score. Further, the Wii version offers split-screen co-op mode allowing two players to suit up and play through the entire single player story.

After trying to catch slimer and have him slip through your fingers at Ghostbusters HQ, you’ll end up revisiting a familiar location, the Sedgewick Hotel to capture slimer, this is essentially a re-enacting of the original movie where they capture slimer and destroy the ballroom all the way down to Peter getting slimed. I’m guessing this was put in to give players a familiar location to train in, during your time at the Sedgewick you’ll get to learn the basics about your PKE meter as well and how to use it to scan for ghosts, capture scan of them and even find hidden haunted artifacts. Collecting things is a rather large part of the game, you’ll collect scans or ghosts and artifacts.

Here’s the next video of going to the Sedgewick:

During the game the PKE meter will be used a lot, and I mean a lot, on screen will be cues to tell you to pull out the PKE meter to find the ghost, and the cues will also tell you to pull out the PKE meter if there’s something of interest nearby. Many times during the game you’ll have to use the PKE meter to navigate with, you’ll use it to find the ghost you’re chasing, it can get annoying at times and you’ll find yourself going in circles as well.

The Proton pack features prominently of course in the game, but as you progress you get upgrades to the pack like a Meson Collider or Slime pack, each of the different types have two shooting modes as well. While playing you can also purchase upgrades for your pack, the PKE meter and your traps, like fast trapping or a better cooling system for your proton pack.

Ghostbusters is a lot of fun and whether you’re a fan or not I think you’ll enjoy the game, but it’s not without it’s drawbacks. It can be repetitious, you’ll find yourself running up and down hallways many times, sort of roaming around aimlessly, but a lot of the game is spent walking through hallways and corridors tracking down ghosts.

The A.I. can be rather stupid at times, you’re supposed to be a team, and work together but there are times when you’ve got to wonder where they are and why they aren’t helping you.

One, I guess, good thing about the game is that you basically cannot die, I played all the way through and truly died only once, this is because of reviving, your teammates can come and revive you if you are down. This can be a good thing and a bad thing as it works both ways, you’ll need to revive them when they’re down as well, they might not be the brightest teammates but you’ll need them to complete the game, and even on casual you’ll spend a bit of time reviving them. When you move up to a harder difficulty level expect to spend a lot more time reviving your teammates, it can get annoying at how often they fall down.

There’s not too much replay value to the single player part of the game, unless you want to go back and try and collect everything, but there is a an online part as well that can add a bit to the overall value.

We put up an article over the weekend about Xbox Live achievements, and the ones in Ghostbusters are fairly easy, one pass through the game, without even collecting everything, will net you about half of them easily. You can get 5 points for just sliding down the pole in the Ghostbusters HQ, but I’m sure this was put in the game as a tribute to the original movie, and it’s fun of course…

Conclusion:
Ghostbusters is an above average game that is fun to play and will bring back a lot of memories for many of us, while it’s not perfect it’s still a good game that I can recommend you picking up. Whether you’re a fan or not it’s worth a play through a time or two. It does have it’s bad moments of course but the good outweighs the bad really.

Pros:
+Funny and fun to play
+Fairly easy achievements
+Gives a feeling of being a Ghostbuster
+True to the series of movies

Cons:
-Can get annoying at times
-Not much single player replay value
-A.I. isn’t the smartest
-Lots of repetition

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance