C64 ~ Ghostbusters Review

Overview

Ghostbusters!

If you're bored at home without a thing to do,

Who you gonna play?

Ghostbusters!

If you've lost the faith in playing computer games,

Who you gonna play?

Ghostbusters!

Gameplay

Oh yes, for such an old game there is such good gameplay. Ghostbusters is a game about saving New York city from destruction by ghosts and subsequently saving the world from destruction as well. Sounds like a Hollywood movie? Well it is. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I suggest you do. It's a very good movie. Anyway, this game starts off with you starting up your Ghostbusters franchise. The bank is kind enough to give you a loan of $100,000 for purchasing your ghost busting equipment. First up, you have to buy your car. There are 4 cars to choose from, with different speeds and equipment capacities. For starters, its best to go for the Hearse or the Station Wagon seeing you can't afford the High Performance and the Mini is so crap, it's not worth buying even for free.

Next you'll have to equip your car. This is a fun part of the game where you get to turn your car into a ghost busting machine. Items that you have to buy are ghost traps. You use these things to catch your ghosts. The other items are optional, but Ghost Bait is a must have for reasons I will describe later on.

After you've equipped your car, you're ready for ghost busting!

When the game starts, there is a map of the city. This is where you plot your course on where you want to go using the joystick. Then you push the fire button with the joystick in the direction of which building you want to go to, and hitting the road.

The objective of the game is basically to make more money than what you started off with before what's called the 'PK Rating' reaches 9999. Coming from the 4 corners of the map are these yellow ghosts called roamers who are trying to get to the ZUUL building. Every time a roamer reaches ZUUL, the PK rating rises faster. And the higher the PK rating, the faster these roamers move. You can stop these roamers temporarily by sucking them up with a ghost vacuum if you bought it.

Also floating around the map are the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper. You can pretty much ignore them.

To make money you have to do what they do in the movie, bust the ghosts!

The map will tell you where ghosts are by marking buildings red. Once you reach your destination, this ghost that looks like Slimer from the movie will be flying around the air. This is where those ghost traps come into play. To catch the Slimer, put down the ghost trap, position your 2 guys, then your ray guns are off! You've got to try and get the Slimer in a good position so that when you release your ghost trap, it can catch the Slimer so you can lock it up for good. Each Slimer caught makes between $300 - $1000. However, if your ghost trap misses Slimer, he will slime one of your guys! If your traps are all full or you got 2 of your guys slimed, that'll mean going back to Ghostbusters HQ for a recharge.

When the PK rating gets pretty high like over 6000, the roamers will start forming together to turn into Marshmallow man! The only way to stop Marshmallow Man, is to lay out your Ghost Bait. If you can successfully stop Marshmallow Man, you make $2000. However, if you can't stop him, you lose $4000.

If you can manage to make more money than what you started off with by the time the PK rating reaches 9999, the Gatekeeper and Keymaster will meet at the ZUUL, giving you a chance to save the city. You've got to get 2 out of 3 guys past Marshmallow Man and into the ZUUL building. If you can do that, you've saved the New York City and the rest of the world from destruction! If you fail, it means you'll have to start all over again. But the bright side is, you'll be given an account number which starts you off with the money you made when you start the game again giving you a better chance next time. As you can see, this is a very busy game with many things happening at once that should provide a couple of hours of fun in one sitting.

8.5 out of 10

Graphics

Overall the game looks quite good back for it's heyday. You can't really ask for more. The map of the city does look a little ugly though. There is excellent use of the Ghostbusters logo used throughout the game, doing the movie justice.

4.25 out of 5

Sound and Music

There aren't many sound effects in this game. Most noticeable are the nicely done voices "GHOSTBUSTERS!" at the start of the game, "HE SLIMED ME!" when you get slimed, and "MUAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA" when you lose the game.

Doing the movie proud is the Ghostbusters movie theme playing over and over throughout the entire game. It's great music, and even though I've heard it hundreds of times, it never tires out. Want some karaoke? This game gives it to you at the title screen, complete with lyrics for you to sing along with. Classic!

4.75 out of 5

Game Design

Playing the game isn't that hard. As long as you consistently bring down those Slimers and lay down the bait when Marshmallow Man comes to party, you should make it to the part where you try to get into the ZUUL building. Problem is, getting past Marshmallow man is very error prone, since he can kill your guy even if you aren't touching that fat white puff. With only 2 out of 3 tries, it's pretty dam tough. It's also dam tough to swallow defeat, where you have to start the game all over again after all that hard assed ghost busting.

3 out of 5

Longevity

Depending on how often you suck up those roamers and get slimed, the PK Rating takes about 15-30 minutes to reach 9999. So if you get pretty good at this game, you can finish it in less than 30 minutes. But this is a good game to come back to every now and then if you've got an account number.

3.5 out of 5

For: original style of gameplay, emphasise on the Ghostbusters logo, Ghostbusters theme song, Ghostbusters karaoke.

Against: can be finished real quickly, trying to get into the ZUUL building can be stressful.

Overall, Ghostbusters is quite an original game that manages to be pretty playable for first timers. It proudly does the movie justice by sticking to the storyline of ghost busting, saving New York City and bringing Marshmallow Man into the mix. If you're not going to play this game, then at least check it out the Ghostbusters karaoke! Trust me, you'll like it!