Ghostbusters (NES) Review
System NES
Developer Activision Publisher Activision Genre Driving, 2D side scroller # of Players 1 Release Date October 1988 |
Pros
Lets you kind of act like a Ghostbuster Cons Bland graphics Dull gameplay Short game |
Review
by Thonos
4/29/2016
Video games that are licensed on a movie property are usually poorly received. While there are some exceptions, most movie licensed games end up being cash grabs. Ghostbusters very loosely follows the movie. Your ultimate goal is to go into the Zuul building and defeat Gozer. Getting to that point can be painful though.
Gameplay starts you on a one screen map of with a bunch of generic buildings and some named ones. You move around the map looking for buildings to flash red signaling a ghost is present. You then you have to do a driving section to get to the building. Once there you drop a trap and try to catch the four ghosts that are on the screen. You rinse and repeat this until you get told you are able the Zuhl building which leads to a tedious scene where you dodge ghosts while you go up stairs. Once at the top you have to fight and beat Gozer before the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man reaches the top of the building.
Capturing ghosts gives you money which you can use at the shop to buy new gear. You can buy proton packs, traps and other items to help you out. Some items, like ghost food are only used at one part in the game so knowing what each item is for is helpful to push through the game. One problem I had was that some of the items they sold were completely useless. For example, if you buy a normal trap you have to drive back to your base to empty the trap every so often. If you buy a super trap, which you can buy right from the start, you do not have to go back to your base to empty your trap.
Gas is also a factor to look at. When you drive from building to building during the driving scenes you have a gas gauge that goes down the more you drive. If it hits zero, you end up pushing your car to the gas station. There is a gas station that you can drive to on your own along with barrels of gas that when you run over them put gas back into your car. While driving, if you hit other vehicles (or more often that not when they hit you), you get money taken away from you. Also, with a vacuum you can capture a ghost on the road while you are driving.
There are three ways that I know of to lose the game. The first way is if the PK reading on the bottom of the screen hits 9999. This meter starts at 0 and is constantly going up. I never had it go that high, highest I think I got to was about 4000. Also, when climbing the stairs in the Zuul building if you are hit by ghosts 9 times you lose. Mostly when I played the game I lost on the stairs. You can also lose if you take too many hits from the final boss or if the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man reaches the top of the building. If there are other ways to lose at this game i never found them.
This game suffers from multiple issues. The main gameplay is boring and monotonous. The stair scene is probably the hardest part in the game, but if you spent enough time grinding the main part of the game you probably gained enough money to buy the best gear to help make this part easier. The final fight can be trivialized fairly easily. These issues separately might not be a big issue, however when you combine them all together you get a fairly dull and boring game.
The graphics in this game are bland. They are functional, but even for the NES I was expecting more. Music is a little better, however sound effects are very basic. While I am a proponent of not being too harsh on NES games for there graphics and sounds, most games on the NES look decent compared to this.
While the game does have you going around capturing ghosts, it feels bare bones and not that fun. I remember growing up spending some time with this game trying to beat it. When I finally did beat it a few years ago I was pretty underwhelmed.
by Thonos
4/29/2016
Video games that are licensed on a movie property are usually poorly received. While there are some exceptions, most movie licensed games end up being cash grabs. Ghostbusters very loosely follows the movie. Your ultimate goal is to go into the Zuul building and defeat Gozer. Getting to that point can be painful though.
Gameplay starts you on a one screen map of with a bunch of generic buildings and some named ones. You move around the map looking for buildings to flash red signaling a ghost is present. You then you have to do a driving section to get to the building. Once there you drop a trap and try to catch the four ghosts that are on the screen. You rinse and repeat this until you get told you are able the Zuhl building which leads to a tedious scene where you dodge ghosts while you go up stairs. Once at the top you have to fight and beat Gozer before the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man reaches the top of the building.
Capturing ghosts gives you money which you can use at the shop to buy new gear. You can buy proton packs, traps and other items to help you out. Some items, like ghost food are only used at one part in the game so knowing what each item is for is helpful to push through the game. One problem I had was that some of the items they sold were completely useless. For example, if you buy a normal trap you have to drive back to your base to empty the trap every so often. If you buy a super trap, which you can buy right from the start, you do not have to go back to your base to empty your trap.
Gas is also a factor to look at. When you drive from building to building during the driving scenes you have a gas gauge that goes down the more you drive. If it hits zero, you end up pushing your car to the gas station. There is a gas station that you can drive to on your own along with barrels of gas that when you run over them put gas back into your car. While driving, if you hit other vehicles (or more often that not when they hit you), you get money taken away from you. Also, with a vacuum you can capture a ghost on the road while you are driving.
There are three ways that I know of to lose the game. The first way is if the PK reading on the bottom of the screen hits 9999. This meter starts at 0 and is constantly going up. I never had it go that high, highest I think I got to was about 4000. Also, when climbing the stairs in the Zuul building if you are hit by ghosts 9 times you lose. Mostly when I played the game I lost on the stairs. You can also lose if you take too many hits from the final boss or if the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man reaches the top of the building. If there are other ways to lose at this game i never found them.
This game suffers from multiple issues. The main gameplay is boring and monotonous. The stair scene is probably the hardest part in the game, but if you spent enough time grinding the main part of the game you probably gained enough money to buy the best gear to help make this part easier. The final fight can be trivialized fairly easily. These issues separately might not be a big issue, however when you combine them all together you get a fairly dull and boring game.
The graphics in this game are bland. They are functional, but even for the NES I was expecting more. Music is a little better, however sound effects are very basic. While I am a proponent of not being too harsh on NES games for there graphics and sounds, most games on the NES look decent compared to this.
While the game does have you going around capturing ghosts, it feels bare bones and not that fun. I remember growing up spending some time with this game trying to beat it. When I finally did beat it a few years ago I was pretty underwhelmed.