Ghostbusters: A Video Game History - Part Two

Welcome to the second part of our look back at the history of Ghostbusters video games. In this installment we visit those titles that took inspiration from the franchise’s second film as well as the new, and somewhat darker, animated series.

Read Part One of Ghostbusters: A Video Game History.

With the success of David Crane’s original Ghostbusters game, not to mention that of the film itself, there was little doubt that gamers would be able to pick up their proton packs once more when Ghostbustes II hit cinemas in 1989.

Sequels, Sequels

Activision was again responsible for these games, releasing titles for home computers and the NES. Of the computer versions most, with the exception of the DOS version, are essentially the same. The game is broken into sections with the first seeing players helping Ray Stantz collect samples from the River of Slime. Ray must collect pieces of the sampler device and then lower to the bottom of the tunnel he is in to collect the slime, and then make his way back up. All the while he must dodge ghosts who try to slime him and cut his rope. This is followed by a recreation of the Statue of Liberty scene in which the player controls a fireball from the statue’s torch to destroy attacking ghosts. Next our heroes must face off against Janoz and Vigo the Carpathian inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Played from an isometric perspective, once Janoz and Vigo are down the remaining Ghostbusters must battle a possessed Ray, as seen in the film.

The DOS version is quite different and begins with the Ghostbusters battling the Scoleri brothers from the film’s courtroom scene. After this players have the choice of busting ghosts at various locations from the film or collecting samples from the River of Slime. Once the ‘Busters have earnt $55,000 from busting ghosts and successfully tested three slime samples players move onto the Statue of Liberty and navigate to the Museum. A map that comes with the game must be used to find the Museum and players must avoid stepping on cars while making their way through the city.

Once the museum is reached players will find Vigo strutting about outside his painting. While he won’t attack players can zap him to weaken him for the coming battle. Once the clock hits midnight Vigo returns to his painting and attacks with fireballs, one hit from which will take out a ‘Buster. Janoz also joins in the fight, getting in the way of your proton beams. If you hit him it’s game over.

Once weakened enough Vigo will emerge from his painting as a giant head and Janoz will collapse. Giant-heat-Vigo will spit fireballs at you while you trade in your proton packs for slime blowers and must hose Vigo down to defeat him. Once defeated, Vigo’s painting changes into an image of Slimer, holding a baby (who we presume is Oscar, Dana’s baby from the film) aloft in the clouds.

Ghostbusters II DOS

The NES version of Ghostbusters II is arguable the worst. Taking the form of a side-scrolling shooter the game’s high difficulty and rather ugly graphics put many gamers off. Taking control of a single Ghostbuster, players must make their way through several stages based on scenes from the film and reach the Museum and the final confrontation with Vigo before a timer runs out. The game’s mediocre gameplay meant that this version of Ghostbusters II was better left on the shelf.

Ghostbusters II (NES)

Activision also created an Atari 2600 version of the game. Probably due to slowing sales and the system’s age this version of Ghostbusters II remained in Atari’s basement until 1992 when it was released by British company Salu under their own name.

Shiney And New

Perhaps due to the poor quality of the Activision game, or perhaps just to get more money, Nintendo allowed another Ghostbusters II game to appear on the NES. Developed and published by Hal Laboratories in Japan and PAL regions New Ghostbusters II was an improvement over the Activision game in almost every way.

Released in 1990 for both the NES and the Game Boy - although both games were original and not a port of one or the other, and the Game Boy version was simply titled Ghostbusters II - this title looked and played much more like one would expect from a Ghostbusters game. At the game’s start players are to choose two of the four ‘Busters - or, in the NES version the four original ‘Busters as well as Louis Tully - to play through the game with. By pressing button B the first character chosen busts ghosts with their proton beam while button A causes the second to send out the ghost trap. Played in an isometric view, the Ghostbusters traverse maze-like locations from the film, busting ghosts. Once all the ghosts in a given room have been trapped the player is shown where to go next via a giant, flashing arrow. Each level features a boss fight at it’s end, some based on monsters from the film and some original. As with the previous games, the final showdown sees you face off against Vigo who has left his painting. Again, his main attack is fireballs which you must dodge while shooting him with your proton gun. After a while Vigo will be blasted back into his painting and Dana will rush in to rescue her son, Oscar.

Admittedly, New Ghostbusters II is something of an easy game. The final fight, as well as the game’s levels, won’t give too many people any trouble. However, the presentation of the game with it’s cute, crisp graphics, wonderful ‘tag’ combat system and midi music that authentically recreated the tunes from the film, this is by far the best of the Ghostbusters II adaptations.

As stated above the NES and Game Boy versions are not ports but original games. The two games differentiate in that the NES has more levels, better music and alternate versions of cut scenes. WIth the Game Boy only having three levels, the NES version is the one to get.

New Ghostbusters II (NES)

Going Extreme

In 1997 a second Ghostbusters animated series, Extreme Ghostbusters, debuted. Set several years after the second film and acting as a semi-sequel to the Real Ghostbusters series, it saw Egon, Janine and Slimer put together a new Ghostbusters team consisting of young college students. Each of these students represented a minority. There was Eduardo Rivera, the street smart Latino slacker; Kylie Griffin, a goth girl genius and expert on the occult; Garrett Miller, a young white paraplegic athlete who uses a wheelchair; and Roland Jackson, a studious African-American machinery whiz. Despite the somewhat cringe-worthy PC-ness of its characters Extreme Ghostbusters was a rather dark take on Ghostbusters, especially when compared to the earlier animated series. While only lasting 40 episodes the series was successful with fans and inspired a decent number of games.

The first of these, simply titled Extreme Ghostbusters, was released in 2001 for the Game Boy Colour. Originally planned to be released for all popular systems of the time, the game was developed by Light and Shadow Productions (L&S herein). Set in New York players could control any of the four young ‘Busters, switching them in and out at any time. Each character had unique abilities so choosing the right ‘Buster for the job was important.

Extreme Ghostbusters (Game Boy)

L&S released a followup in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance entitled Extreme Ghostbusters: Code Ecto-1. This time players could only control Kylie and Eduardo as Roland and Garett had been kidnapped by the game’s big nasty, the half-demon/ half-human Count Mercharior. Kylie and Eduardo set out to free their friends, following the trail of ghostly activity that Egon is tracking back at Ghostbusters HQ.

Spread across four locations of three sectors each - making a total of 12 levels - the game took the form of a platform shooter. Again, players could switch between the two Ghostbusters on the fly and each had their own attributes. Kylie is the fastest and most maneuverable of the two possessing a handy double-jump and carrying ghost traps that will clear the screen of spectral nasties. However, this is balanced by her relatively weak weapon. Eduardo in comparison is much slower and can’t jump nearly as high meaning he’s pretty much useless for anything but the most basic of platforming stunts. However, he uses the much stronger proton beam weapon and also carries bombs which can destroy slime walls, enabling access to the game’s many collectables.

Separating the four locations are short driving sections in which you pilot the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters HQ to your destination within a given time limit. Unlike David Crane’s game there are no ghosts to contend with here, but you do have to avoid obstacles such as other cars, barriers, witches' hats and going off the road. All of these will slow you down and if you don’t reach your destination before the timer stops you lose a life.

The actual gameplay is fairly standard fare. You navigate the various levels by jumping from platform to platform and climbing ladders, all the while busting various spooks. Exploration will reward you with weapon power-ups, extra lives and more traps or bombs. While the graphics are quite nice and the animation smooth, it does always feel that you can never quite see enough on the screen at any one time and it is possible to attack - and be attacked by - enemies you are just out of vision. The combat however is where the game really shines as it’s a lot of fun to learn how to use Kylie and Eduardo’s weapons to their best ability, especially once you’ve powered the up a bit. Extreme Ghostbusters: Code Ecto-1 may not be the best Ghostbusters game, but it is fun.

Extreme Ghostbusters: Code Ecto-1 (GBA)

The final Extreme Ghostbusters game, again by L&S, was 2004’s Extreme Ghostbusters: Ultimate Invasion. Very different from the previous two games, Invasion left behind the platforming and instead took the form of a Time Crisis-like lightgun game. Choosing from one of the four Ghostbusters players would work their way through shootouts with ghosts throughout New York. Players have two firing modes at their disposal; the proton shot which acts like bullet fire and the more powerful proton beam which recreates the classic blasts from the films.

Appearing on Sony’s Playstation at a time when 3D was all the rage, Invasion uses a mix of 2D and 3D graphics. The environments one visit during the game and all objects within them are rendered in 3D while the character sprites are flat 2D images. Presumably this was done to keep the look of the characters as close as possible to their TV counterparts.

Extreme Ghostbusters: Ultimate Invasion (Playstation)

And thus we conclude the second part of our History of Ghostbusters Video Games series. Be sure to catch the third and final installment when we look at the game that brought all the original Ghostbusters back together as well as all other Ghostbusters games released to date.

Read Part One of Ghostbusters: A Video Game History.