PREVIEW: Ghostbusters – The Video GameWritten By JonnieHL
It’s rare for anyone in the videogame world to get excited by a movie license, and that pessimism is not without reason. We’ve had a few well thought out, even classic games come from movies such as the N64 masterpiece, Goldeneye. However, generally movie licences are tacked on, throw away rubbish that run through the movie’s plot while half attempting some sort of banal gameplay in the process. They are designed not as games but as money making endeavours and movie promotion tools. Most gamers steer clear of games that involve all but their favourite of films, and are often still disappointed even then.
Because of this, the coverage on the new Ghostbusters game is quite strange. Even stranger when you consider the development team behind the game has already made one terribly average movie to game conversion for the film Aeon Flux. You might argue that the film itself wasn’t exactly the best starting point for any developer, but Terminal Reality used all of the usual boring clichés and developed a game that nobody really enjoyed playing. Aeon Flex received an average score of around 40% from games journalists.
This time, Terminal Reality has just about all the help it can get. From many of the original characters voice acting to the creators of the franchise themselves penning the story, the licence has the best possible start in life. It’s not a guarantee for success by any means, but it certainly can’t hurt.
The game itself continues directly from the films and is set during thanksgiving in 1991. You join the Ghostbusters team as a rookie rather than playing as one of the original cast. This is a unique decision in terms of movie licences which nearly always cast the player as the lead character from the film. It’s easier this way for people to instantly connect with characters, although playing alongside the original Ghostbusters team rather than as one of the ‘classic’ members certainly has its appeal and it does explain why you are given all of the experimental weapons to ‘test’.
Along with these new weapons, many not seen in the films, you’ll also get a standard proton pack which you can use to trap various ghosts throughout the game. Special attention has been made by Terminal Reality to get this part just right as it’s such a massive part of the movies themselves and right now, it’s looking good. The idea of controlling the fine balance of the different proton streams does seem way more suited to the Wii control system than analogue sticks of the 360, however.
Graphically, the game is looking very impressive with some very realistic and engaging environments both outdoors in New York City and in the games highly detailed interiors. The Wii and PS2 versions developed by Red Fly Studio are understandably different visually; although rather than scaling back the graphics the game takes a different style that’s cartoonier and less realistic. Little is known about the DS version of the game although the developers have stated it’ll be more like the Ghostbusters games from the 80s and 90s rather than attempting to emulate the main game on the smaller screen.
It’s clear that Terminal Reality is approaching the licence carefully and with a great degree of common sense. However, the track record of the company isn’t great and there have been plenty of games in the past that tried to tread carefully – even those with the original creators and cast involved – that have been just as bad as the majority of movie licences. Let’s just hope it’s not another Superman 64.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game is out in June, 2009.
The News Release was written by: JonnieHL who produces professional