After fighting through the final scenes last night, I was able to finally beat the end boss on the Ghosbusters game. First, I’d like to say, “What a great game!” Despite its shortcomings, Ghostbusters: The Game managed to keep me interested enough to finish the entire game. The story was well executed and so well suited for the video game genre. Enemies old and new were frequent in the game. It was funny, suspenseful and at times even a little scary; all of the things you’d hope to see in a Ghostbusters feature film. The finale was executed in typical Ghostbusters style, though I’d say it was a better executed story than Ghosbusters II.

The script worked brilliantly on most levels.   I’m sure had it been a feature much would have been omitted while other elements might have been expanded.  For instance, the roles of Walter Peck (reprised by William Atherton) and Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn (Alyssa Milano) would probably have had slightly more screen time.  For the game, this didn’t have to work–those characters didn’t need expansive roles. They served a purpose.  For the game it was all about the “new recruit”…  It was all about you.

There is little to complain about with this game. It gave me a chance to do something I’ve always thought would be fun to do: Bust ghosts. It furthered that by dropping you in with the characters we all came to know and love when they first burst onto the silver screen in 1984. With such an original sci-fi comedy formula and the right developers behind it–they made something extremely fun to play.

Having had a chance to let the hype die down–including my own overzealous fondness for the title, I’d have to rate it a solid 8 out of 10. First it loses a point for the obvious reason that no game of this caliber should be released with such major glitches. The library bug in this game on the PS3 is enough to drive you mad when you first encounter it. But the real tragedy is that there is no planned bug fix. For that I knock another point off. Overall, I’d highly recommend this title to anyone who has the curiosity to find out what it’s like to hold a positron glider and kick butt on some Free-Floating, Full-Torso, Vaporous Apparitions.

Ghostbusters: The Game 8/10 ~Madaracs

P.S. Until the end of the game I had no idea that Alyssa Milano or Erin Gray had done voices.  Erin’s voice is listed as having done “other voices”–I’ve been in love with her since 1979 when she donned the jumpsuit for Buck Rogers.

Though you have to wade through a couple of commercials in the episode below, here’s a great episode with Erin in her Blue jumpsuit: