Yes! Have some!

Just in time for Halloween to be over with, I completely forgot I wanted to say a blurb about this until RazorFist streamed it earlier this week for his Nightmare Arcade. The excellent Ghostbusters video game was (relatively) recently remastered and re-released for it's 10th anniversary.  I love the game and am glad's is been given new life, as I basically had to get it in an underhanded fashion because it was unavailable to purchase for so long. I'm currently installing the remastered version now, so the following will be my experience with the originally released game.

Sheer effing awesome.

Actually written by Dan Ackroyd alongside the late and great Harold Ramis. Both men considered this game the real 3rd movie in the franchise, as they could never get their movie idea picked up by any studio. Also, the game features all the original cast to reprise their roles (with the exceptions of Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver).  It is just a joy to hear them all in top form again. Since we also mentioned the original writers were involved the humor is spot on, as well as having a few actually spooky moments. 

If you haven't tried it, it's everything a fan of the original movies could want. It's set in 1991, and of course, New York, so you will be running around the old firehouse right at the start!  It's great in that you get to fulfill the childhood dream of joining as a new recruit to the team then be immediately thrown into the fray with a proton pack to wrangle 'em up. Heck, if you're missing 'ol dickless over there, you even get to see the infamous Walter Peck again. 

The game is basically a 3rd person shooter with some fairly simple mechanics. Some might complain about this, but I think it's a good idea to rope in people not overly savvy with video games to enjoy it, as well as you don't really need complicated gameplay for it. Why not try to appeal to anyone and everyone who just wants more of the Ghostbusters? 

A common gripe I have with video games is the inclusion of long or numerous cut scenes.  My complaint still stands, but here, you're basically getting more of a great movie to watch with characters I love, so not as much of a problem in this case. The game does sometimes feel a bit low-budget as I would have loved a section in which I would drive the Ecto-1, but that's just nitpickyness on my part. 

Also, it's a nice touch that they dedicated the remastered version of the game to Harold Ramis as well, as he passed not too many years after the game was released. All in all, just get the dang thing already and start busting some heads...in a spiritual sense of course. 

Although, the original trailer is a bit more fun, even if it's not as pretty. Now, I'm off to collect some mold, spores, and fungus. 

Oh yeah, on a related note, one of the best compliments my wife has ever given me was that Peter Venkman was my spirit animal.