Who y’a gonna call? Ghostbusters!

This is the second game i got to play from Red Fly Studio, and to be honest i didn’t know what to expect. Such a big franchise developed by a not so known studio. I’ll try to make this review as short as possible, due to the fact that Ghostbusters don’t need any introduction.

The game came out for every platform that’s active, but it’s developed by different studios. Wii; DS; PS2 and PSP versions were develped by Red Fly.  I got my hands on the DS version, and i’m having a blast with it. Red Fly took a different aproach form realistic, to cartoony and it was well accepted.

You play the role of the original ghostbuster crew, not a new comer. You have the whole firehouse at your disposal, from base to top. You have lots of places to visit in there like Research, Repair, Missions, Diary and so on. Once you’re ready, you g to the blackboard, and press A. Then you get the chance to seelect a mission.

Missions are divided in two categories:

1. Normal – Where you get to live the life of a Ghostbuster, and go bust some ghosts for money in places like Museums, Libraries etc.
2. Story Related – These missions are related to the story. There are about 6 of them. But before you can do them, you need to do a few normal missions.

No matter which mission it is, you get to drive the Ecto-1. Now, driving it should be ‘’short and sweet”.  Well, that doesn’t count here. The city is weakly built, all in dark, there are about 4 types f vehicles in total: Police, Ambulance, Taxi and a black car. The more you damage the Ecto-1, the slower you will go, which presents a problem since you always have a timer. Driving is probably one of the worst parts of the game. Luckly, it’s only available on the Nintendo DS.

Missions on the other hand, is what makes this game highly enjoyable. You always start at the entrance and go through the building fighting ghosts, monsters, dead Cooks looking for revenge, library monsters and other creatures. There isn’t much fighting in normal missions. There are a few objectives: Get all artifacts, get all citizens out of the building, and of course – capturing all ghosts.

Capturing is done amazingly well. You use the D-Pad to move your character, you move your stylus across the screen on the ghost and hold it there. You can click on a comrade icon so they can ”unlock” and ”lock”. When they’re unlocked they’ll follow you. If they’re locked, they will be zapping the ghost with proton beams, while you throw the trap under it, and capture it.  Shooting beams is also one of the fun parts of the game, since it’s done flawlessly. You can switch different characters anytime, you can equip the team with different weapons and gadgets. By pressing Y you get a map of the building, and by pressing R you can see the P.K.E. meter which helps you find ghosts.You can als end days from the firehouse. Now this isn’t preffered, since the whole story is in days. So every time you skip a day, the less time you have.

Positives

• Fun playing with the original team
• Proton beams = best part of the game
• Great control over characters

Negatives

• Very, very short story
• Driving basically ruins the whole game

Overall

• Even though this game has a lot of things that make it bad, it’s actually quite fun and entertaining. The main concept works, with bustin’ ghosts and all. If your having doubts look at some hameplay videos before you make your decision, but it’s worth the money. Even for people who never heard of Ghostbusters.  =]

Need for Speed: Undercover

Need for Speed is a long running racing simulation, known around the world. Even though the series got more and more worse with the release of ProStreet.  The latest NFS tittle that was released in 2008 is Undercover. It released for every single platform, including every active portable handheld.

Nintendo DS got the worst racing game i ever played, while the PSP version was fairly acceptable. Now i got to test it out the iPhone/iPod. In short, it’s amazing. I was just starring at the graphics which were at the PSP’s level. I don’t know how EA managed to squeeze such visuals to a small device from Apple.

The story is the same as in every Undercover version. You’re an undercover cop, which must race in order to take down car dealers.  It’s quite normal to get a weak car at the beginning. There are 28 licensed cars in total, which You can use on several tracks.

The gameplay is phenomenal. Everything is either handeled using the touch screen ( Nitro, Brakes, Camera). Your car accelerates until it reaches maximum speed. Moving your car is done using the accelerometer.  The concept works at its best.  The whole campaign is divided into tree cities, each filled with about 12 races, running from the police, or taking a stolen car to a warehouse. The more parts of the campaign you finish, the more cars and accesories you will have available.  The last thing in the game is car upgrading, which is not watered-down. You can upgrade the inside of your car (engine, speed, nitro) as well as the outside (color, addons).

Positives

• Fantastic gameplay/graphics
• Excellent overall concept
• Great use of all iPhone/iPod features
• Good weapon creation system

Negatives

• Too hard sometimes

Overall

• EA made the best damn racer on the iPod/iPhone. Enough said.

Mafia Wars Zynga

Full Review coming tomorrow. ‘Till then, Adde. =]

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Super Monkey Ball

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Metal Gear Solid: Touch

Metal Gear Solid, one of the worlds most recognisable names in the video gaming industry recently got made for the iPhone/iPod. It’s not exactly a stealth game, more like a touch-to-shoot mechanism.

You play the role of an aged Solid Snake. That’s basically the most noticable thing I got to see. There was some text and a few screens from MGS:4 – Guns of Patriouts, but other then that nothing.

The Main Menu is constructed with tabs.

• Start – The game campaign is divided into Acts, like Act 1: Liquid Sun; Act 2:  Solid Sun.
• Special – MGS History
• Deblins Shop – A shop where the player can buy Wallpapers, Concept Art etc. in excahnge for points earned in-game.
• Options – Change settings which effect the game.

Every Act is divided into Missions, sometimes over 5. The main goal in the mission is to defeat the required number of NPC soldiers. At your disposal is a riffle, as well as a sniper which you can acces by using ”the pinch” on the soldier.

While not touch the screen Snake hides behind the cover, often a couple of bags, a car or a wall. Once you touch a soldier, Snake stands up and shoot him. Sounds simple, eh? It is. So simple that it’s actually fun, as well as it presents a challenge. There isn’t much variations when it comes to soldier-types, so far I’ve only encountered a few different soldier uniforms.. While you progress in the Story, new enemies show up such as a giant legged mech which you can only take out by shooting it’s legs.  Supposedly, Raiden shoud take them out, but he doesn’t.

Soldiers have a circle-shapped meter above their head, which when filled up they start shooting You. Once they finish, they dissapear. Often you can shoot a barrel which explodes, thus killing a few soldiers on that side of the screen.

Positives

• Fantastic Visuals and themes
• Excellent overall concept
• Great soundtrack
• Good weapon arsenal.

Negatives

• Empty combat
• Too simple
• Same concept throughout the game
• Not much replay value

Overall

I don’t know how much this game costs, but i think it was under $10 which is an acceptable price. Not exactly a must have, not for a newbie, and not for a MGS veteran. You won’t miss anything too special.

6/10

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