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:
- Normal – Where you get to live the life of a Ghostbuster, and go bust some ghosts for money in places like Museums, Libraries etc.
- 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. =]
