In · The · Life · Of · CD

There’s been a number of flop games based on the franchise. Perhaps the biggest being the original NES game. And ironically, it took the company that brought us that bad game to bring us this golden jewel.

Graphics (Xbox360): Graphically, this game looks amazing. When it came to the cinematic of this game, it was like watching a whole new movie. Even in game looked darn good and almost cinematic itself.
Every character looks exactly like who they are supposed to. Egon, Ray, Winston, Peter, Peck, Janine, Slimer, Stay Puft…The list goes on and on. But I want to point out some very special ones:
A.) the Proton Stream – I was worried how this might be pulled off. Again, previous game sin the franchise left it to be, well, hideous to dull. This game got it right and actually felt like a nice blend between the first and second move effects. To me, GB II beams looked a little fake when compared to GB 1, but the first movie wasn’t holding up quite as well to today’s time. This game balanced the 2 amazingly well. Also related would be the capture stream and this looked equally beautiful.
B.) The Ghost Trap – Specifically, how it looks when pulling a ghost in looks really amazing and I love how the ghost stretches out, just everything. I will note I’m a little disappointed with the fact that the ghost trap doesn’t have the wire and foot pedal to go with it. However being that equipment has been slightly updated from the movies (and continues through the course of the game), remote activated ghost traps didn’t seem at all out of character/uniform to me so it worked well in tangent with the gameplay.
C.) Slime – Specifically, when you or the veteran Ghostbusters are slimed or marshmellowed, it looks really good and I’m glad to see this was done well. The Slime Blowers look good too!
D.) Stay Puft – When he comes raising above the building’s side and screams at you, pissed. ‘Nuff said.
E.) Ghostbusters II – For anyone like me who was wondering where all the Ghostbusters II logo stuff would have gone, don’t worry. There’s a nice storage room in the back that has the GB II Firehouse sign, the doors from Ecto-1A and so forth. It was nice to see them there. Vigo the Carpathian is also in the game and interactable!
F.) Easter Eggs – There’s a nice number of them and are worth checking out. Real Ghostbusters PKE Meter, Extreme Ghostbusters ghost Trap, Slimer’s name origin story, a kid drawing to “Uncle Egon, From Ed” (which is a Freddy Vs. Ghostbusters/Return of the Ghostbusters fan film reference), and the End Game screen from the original NES GB game. Have fun finding them all.

Graphics (Wii): The Wii graphics worried me at first. I was worried they wouldn’t do the game justice. I’m very happy to say I was wrong. While it’s true the graphics sport a more cartoony feel, the story/dialogue actually manages to work with that which is something I wouldn’t have given much though about if I hadn’t played the 360 version as well.
The characters move fluidly and there are some amazing things to look at even in this rendition. Ecto-1B still looks good, as does the proton stream. The colors as well lend themselves to a more Real Ghostbusters feel. It’s interesting to note that some characters look nothing at all like their 360/Ps3 counterparts, but that’s okay.

Sound (xbox360): I don’t even know where to start with this.
The music is great and really captures the feel of the franchise. All of it comes form the movies which is a great plus. However, this can also be a downside too. The main theme in its entirety is not in the game. Also, because all the music came from the 2 movies only, there’s nothing original to here musically and that in a way was a let down to me. If Star wars can have some great music written for it in its games, then I think Ghostbusters could have pulle dit off too.
The sound effects were as equally brilliant as anything else you will run across. All the true and original sound effects are there, from the PKE Meter and Ecto 1 to the Proton stream and ghost traps. It’s perfect. Nothing more need be said.
The voice Acting. This requires special attention from me as I have some feelings I’ve yet to see anyone else mention. I’ll be the first to admit, when they announced the original movie cast coming back to voice their roles, I was giddy as a school kid. I couldn’t be happier. You have Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Alyssa Milano and great returning supporters and other voice actors. It was set to be perfect. And while I’m happy with what I got, I’m afraid to say that perfect it wasn’t. And I really need to point out the whys.
A.) Alyssa – You’d think she’d have been better. I mean, she’s a great actor and you know she can do emotional acting if you’d ever seen her on Charmed. But when it comes to her performance her, she’s a little flat at times. It’s a little too over the top or just not convincing. Just a shame since I know she can do better.
B.) Bill Murray – Bill Bill Bill…where did you go wrong? Peter didn’t have one serious thing to say in the entire game. While this is certainly in part due to script reasons, Bill is known for adlibbing his fair share. But this characterization just felt so off to me. In either movie there were at least moments when Peter was serious. When it came down to the write, Peter was someone you could count on. And that wasn’t here either. I felt like Bill was too used to doing voice acting for Garfield and that’s why things came out like they did.
C.) William Atherton – If anyone was off more than Bill, it was the voice behind (and previous face of) Walter Peck. If anyone remembers the first movie (and you all should), Peck was a quiet, threatening man. He was smart, dangerous. He had political power. He had his way of manipulating the system. In short, you didn’t mess with Peck. In this game, he’s a joke. When I listen to him talk, I shudder because you can’t take him serious. He’s a nobody and actually seems to know it and acts it. He actually speaks the line, “…you cool guys!” while making a threat. Um, Peck wanted nothing but revenge on Peter and by association the Ghostbuters. Now they’re cool guys? The acting was good, but just all wrong for the character.
Everything else sounded right on, From Winston and Egon, to the Mayor and ghosts.
D.) Easter Eggs – Yes, there are some. There’s an Indiana Jones reference on the answering machine, and Vigo makes a President Bush and OJ Simpson reference.
Very satisfied.

Sound (Wii): There’s not much to say about the music and sound effects that I didn’t say about the 360/Ps3 counterpart, so I won’t go into that. My gripes about certain characters remain in place as well, but I want to expand on that here.
While the overall characterizations seemed off, the Wii did a much better job at balancing it and making it work than the 360/Ps3 versions. I believe this is strongly due to the cartoony, Real Ghostbuster look to the game. It actually plays with the constant stream of Peter jokes and how Peck is portrayed. Interesting to note as well is that there’s a lot of unique dialogue to this version of that game that adds to the story. There’s even certain lines that, while said by one character, is actually spoke by another in this game which seems to balance things out as well.
I guess all I want to say is that what seems out of place in one version isn’t always wrong. Just needs a different perspective.

Gameplay (Xbox 360): this is perhaps the biggest thing of all to fear with this franchise. The problem for so long seemed how to pull off the feel of a Ghostbusters game. When the commodore 64, or NES versions of these games came out, first and third person shooters weren’t around (or weren’t really worth mentioning) back then. And even now with the shooters we have today, I didn’t quite picture Ghostbusters as a shooter.
But this game changed my mind. This game did everything right while keeping it a true Third Person Shooter (TPS). From how the capture/proton streams work, to the slime blowers, ghost traps and the other weapons, I couldn’t help but feel right at ease like I was really a ghostbuster.
There were some really beautiful touches too, like struggling to get a ghost into the trap. I loved how this was done, how you had to pull sometimes back and forth to keep the ghost in line, or slamming him around.
The PKE Meter was used beautifully as well. Not only as a “spectral compass” but also really neat in how it served as a treasure sniffer type device and a way of “scanning ghosts”. They made the tool important and relevant and that’s what I liked.
I also want to state that I love how health bars, overheat bars, etc are all kept form clogging the screen by being a part of your equipment, small, unobtrusive, but easy to read. Very very well done.

Gameplay (Wii): Being on the Wii, the system lends itself to some unique gameplay. Of note was throwing out a ghost Trap. This was done pretty neat and made you feel like you really had to throw one out. Slamming a ghost to weaken him was a nice touch in this game as well. While a simple trigger in the 360/Ps3 versions, you actually have to slam the Wiimote in different directions to weaken the ghost and it gives the game a much more interactive feel.
However, I think the downside to the wiimote is that it made getting a ghost to the trap a little broken. Because the cursor moved on the screen with the Wiimote to aim the weapons, I didn’t have any real sense of control on where to move the ghost to get him to the trap. The ghost kind of just comes to you and then you can semi move him around. It works but it’s a little awkward.
But that’s the only downside! Overall the game plays nice.
Also want to make note that I like the interactive copy of Tobin’s Spirit Guide that’s downstairs in this game as apposed to the simple menu to read through on the Next Gen consoles. Nice to see something get one-upped by the Wii!

Storyline: This is where I think the game shines brightest. The storyline manages to tie in both movies while still keeping you in suspense as to what’s really going on. The main villain isn’t at all who I was expecting and I was glad for that. I love the rich background information you get throughout the game as well on the main villain and these were things I was missing in other games and even other Ghostbusters related items (cartoons, book, etc).
I can’t say too much without spoiling the game.

Multiplayer (Xbox360): The online is a nice mix of short to average bouts online with up to four other players. You have your choice of Ranked or Player matches, doing just specific job related bouts (Slime Dunk, Protection, Survival, etc) or campaigns, which gives you 3 random jobs in related locations. I think these are really nice for those who are limited on time or not one for long extended online play.
With the ranked system, you get to Rank up (which gives you a different uniform to wear every couple ranks) and a new title.
However, there are downsides to this.
First, there’s no online co-op with the story campaign and I think that’s perhaps the biggest oversight in the entire game. This game would have been great had they introduced that option.
The second let down is that you can’t choose between the uniforms you unlike during ranking up online. There are some really nice look’n jumpers I’d like to go back to, but I can’t. That seems kind of pointless to me. Yeah, I get to unlock a jumper, but they relock as soon as I change clothes. Uhg.

Multiplayer (Wii): Haven’t played it yet, can’t say.

Overall, I don’t have much to complain about on this game. I love almost everything about it and I can see it being a game I play online and story wise for a good time to come. For anyone who is a fan, I definitely recommend this game.

Emotional Undertone:

very tired