The 1984 comedy classic that spawned a sequel, a lengthy
cartoon series, and a huge amount of toys- yes, it was just my thing as a
kid. I'd spend day after day playing with my toys until they were so worn down
that they were practically falling apart. I'd run around in my backyard with my
plastic proton pack strapped to my back having adventures and capturing ghosts
everywhere I went. And even though the world's enthusiasm for Ghostbusters
started to fade as the 80's turned to the 90's, my own certainly didn't. I was
definitely one of those people always waiting in vain for a third movie that
would never come. However, in the year 2009, I did get something awfully close.
But let's back up a minute here.
When the cartoon series "The Real Ghostbusters"
ended in 1991, Ghostbusters as a whole almost seemed to end with it. The
original actors moved on with their lives and careers, the toys stopped getting
made, and the brand name just went quiet for a while. Sure, there were minor resurgences here and there- Dan Akroyd dropped rumors about a possible
Ghostbusters 3 all through the 90s, a short-lived cartoon show called
"Extreme Ghostbusters" aired in 1997 and had it's own brief
merchandise run, and of course "Ecto-Cooler" lived on for quite a
while in the lunch boxes of kids all over the country. But for the most part,
Ghostbusters as a franchise went dark as the 90s gave way to the new millennium
and for a while, it seemed like it might stay that way forever. Then, in late
2007, something big happened.
Throughout the mid-2000s I had a subscription to the
magazine Game Informer which I received monthly in the mail. This was back when
I was still hip to the cutting edge of gaming and had all the latest consoles
as they arrived, so I still had plenty to read about as the magazines came in.
I loved seeing all of the latest news and goings-on in the gaming world, as
well as checking out the current hottest games on the market. However, I was
totally shocked when I opened my mailbox in December of 2007 and saw this:
Ghostbusters in a video gaming magazine? I never saw it
coming. I frantically flipped through the pages to get to the article, where I
read all ten pages of it from start to finish. A Ghostbusters video game
was in the works for the latest generation of consoles. It had a script written
by Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd, just like the original movies. It had ALL FOUR
original actors (Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Akroyd, and Ernie Hudson)
reprising their roles as Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and Winston
Zeddmore. Hell, even Annie Potts and William Atherton were returning as well
(unfortunately no Sigourney Weavor or Rick Moranis, but I was still happy with
what I got).
I read the article again and again and again. I scrutinized
every picture and piece of concept art. And then read it one more time. The new
game was set to take place three years after the events of Ghostbusters 2 and would
have the player assuming the role of a nameless rookie who joined the team as
the fifth Ghostbuster. As per the article, the game would have the player
clashing with familiar foes such as Slimer, the library ghost, and even the
Stay Puft marshmallow man himself. It all seemed too good to be true. I
couldn't wait to see how things would play out.
There was a long time of silence between the announcement in
the article and any further news, but the silence was broken in December of 2008 when a trailer was finally released to the public. I remember
jumping on my computer with my face glued to the monitor as the trailer
started. Just like the article I had read earlier, I watched it from start to
finish. And again. And again. It was really happening. There was Murray
delivering his deadpan Venkman lines, Ramis and Akroyd spitting out scientific
technical jargon as Egon and Ray, and Hudson doing his down-to-Earth Winston.
It didn't seem real, but somehow it was. We were going to get as close to the
third movie as we ever would.
Some time passed and while I anxiously waited, the advertising campaign ramped up. Commercials were on TV and various alternate trailers were released. For a short and beautiful time, Ghostbusters was back. It was delayed a bit for some time but eventually was released on June 16th, 2009, nearly coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the release of the first film on June 8th, 1984. I promptly arrived at Best Buy that morning to procure a copy, which I did and rushed home to play.
Some time passed and while I anxiously waited, the advertising campaign ramped up. Commercials were on TV and various alternate trailers were released. For a short and beautiful time, Ghostbusters was back. It was delayed a bit for some time but eventually was released on June 16th, 2009, nearly coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the release of the first film on June 8th, 1984. I promptly arrived at Best Buy that morning to procure a copy, which I did and rushed home to play.
While previous Ghostbusters games may not have lived up to
the franchise's potential (or have been downright awful), Ghostbusters:
The Video Game is just about everything you'd want as a GB fan. It wasn't the
third movie we all wanted, of course, but it was close enough to be it. Picking
up where the story last left off, the Ghostbusters' business is still booming
and they've even started pushing for franchises (much like Venkman mentioned in
the first movie). They've hired a new member to the team, a so-called
"experimental weapons tech" who basically serves as a guinea pig for
the Ghostbusters' many untested gadgets. You assume the role of the nameless
rookie, who also has no speaking lines in the game. Some people might scoff at
this but I think it was a perfect idea because it preserves the interactions
between the four main Ghostbusters that we loved so much from the movies.
Anyway, shortly after the newbie joins the crew a massive spectral energy force
is unleashed upon Manhattan and it's up to the Ghostbusters to figure out
what's going on.
With a third person point of view, you guide the rookie in
and out of situations where you trap ghosts and solve puzzles throughout
levels. Ghosts aren't entirely uniform, however- there's a wide range of types
that have different strengths and weaknesses and must be dealt with
accordingly. For example, many ghosts require the typical method of blasting
them with the proton stream and then sucking them into a ghost trap, but others
require you to freeze them in place with a different type of beam and then
disintegrate them with a shotgun-like blast. Trapping ghosts earns you money,
which you can then use to purchase upgrades for the four different proton pack
weapons you switch between. There's the regular proton stream and the stasis
stream which I just mentioned, as well as the slime tether and the meson
collider. The slime tether is pretty much exactly what it sounds like- you use
it to shoot a tether of slime at at object, which you can then attach to
another in order to move it out of the way. You also must use the good slime to
neutralize the effects of black slime which you'll encounter throughout the
game, as well as defeat certain enemies. Finally, the meson collider acts sort
of a like a powerful machine gun version of the regular proton stream.
By far though, the most fun I had in the game was by
trapping ghosts using the regular proton stream, just like in the movies. It
works a tad differently however, as they needed to add some extra layer of
challenge to the game. In order to be able to trap a ghost, you need to first
substantially weaken it by slamming it around using the proton stream. Holding
onto it for longer charges the "slam meter", and once that is high
enough you can deal greater damage to it, thus making it easier to drag into a
trap. It sort of feels like fishing, except way cooler because, well, it's
Ghostbusters.
As you progress through the game, you can also use the PKE
meter practically to locate ghosts and also find hidden areas (usually that
lead to an achievement or trophy for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions,
respectively). You can also use it to scan different ghosts, which gives you
more info about them that you can read about in "Tobin's Spirit
Guide", which was mentioned by Egon and Ray in the movies. It's
little tie-ins like that to the lore of both movies that made it such a fun
experience for die-hard fans of the movies like myself. There's tons of little
references everywhere if you look hard enough. There's also so-called cursed
artifacts all around, which can be picked up and examined to even further
expand the Ghostbusters lore. There's even a few nods to the cartoon shows for eagle-eyed
players, such as the PKE meter at the workbench in the basement that looks
suspiciously like the one from the Real Ghostbusters. Also, there's a reference
to the hilariously badly translated ending screen of the first Ghostbusters
video game for NES on one of the computers in the firehouse. Like I said, I
couldn't get enough of it all.
The appearance of the infamous ending text from the NES Ghostbusters game was just one little nod to a franchise with as rich of a history as Ghostbusters.
As you play through the game, you learn that the spectral energy surge has been the result of Ivo Shandor, the servant of Gozer who was discussed at length in the first movie, attempting to break through to our world and take control. You visit many familiar locations such as the New York Public Library and the Sedgewick Hotel, which all tie into the story nicely. You also get to sit back and let the four Ghostbusters work their comedic magic together again. For instance, one part that cracked me up was when Egon and Winston are assessing a giant machine.
"What if we try locking those things down?" asks Winston.
To which Egon replies- "I can calculate 54 likely outcomes...we'd survive three of them."
Winston then nonchalantly responds- "That beats our usual odds."
Aside from the comedy, you also get to experience a lot of the strange and mystical spirit world qualities of Ghostbusters, the kinds that were only alluded to in the movies, most likely because of a lack of production budget to bring them to life. For example, one chapter has you crossing through a dimensional portal into a nightmarish "ghost world" version of the New York Public Library. Also, there's a boss fight with a "giant Slor," which was only briefly mentioned in passing in the first movie. And of course every Ghostbusters fan wondered what the hell a Slor was! After this game, we finally knew- and it was just one more indication that the developers clearly recognized the franchise and its fanbase, treating it with the due respect it deserved.
Ever wonder what a giant Slor is? Well, there you go! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you.
The game mostly felt, to me, like a big combination of both
the movies and the cartoon show. For example, in the chapter where you follow
the Stay Puft Marshamallow Man through Times Square in an attempt to suck him
into a massive trap mounted on top of the Ecto-1 called the "Super
Slammer," it reminded me very much of some of the plots to episodes of The
Real Ghostbusters. To further illustrate that point- in an episode called
"Cry Uncle", the climax has the Ghostbusters chasing Mr. Stay Puft
through the city in order to trap him, very much like in the video game. Also, in another chapter the Ghostbusters are riding a boat
around that Ray refers to as "Marine Ecto-8." That had to be a direct
reference to the cartoons, in which the Ghostbusters often used a helicopter
called Ecto-2.
From an episode of The Real Ghostbusters...
...and the second chapter of the game. Once again, you can clearly see the influence with the right set of eyes.
This was all perfectly fine with me because I love the
cartoons, probably just as much as I love the movies. Seeing them both mixed
together and thrown into a video game was just about everything that could've
made me happy as GB fan.
Just about. Now, I've said this to many people before and
also alluded to it in a previous review, but I'm always quick to defend
Ghostbusters 2 from the many people who claim it's a bad movie (many of which, by the
way, seem to have suspiciously emerged within the last year or so. Wonder
why that is?). Firstly, no, it's not a bad movie, and if you think it is then get out
of my life. Secondly, as a fan of the second movie just as much as the first
one, I would've liked to see more references to it throughout the game. There's
a few minor ones here and there such as the discarded firehouse sign outside
the window that can just barely be seen, or the cursed artifact of the
"hot beverage thermal mug and free balloons for the kids," and even
the painting of Vigo the Carpathian that's hanging around in the firehouse, but
for the most part it is much more strongly connected to the story of first movie as opposed to the second. The closest the game comes to having a tie-in with the second movie
is during the chapter on Shandor Island, in which you run around in a
sewer-like area following a flow of dangerous black slime, which was quite
reminiscent of the river of slime in GB2. However, that's about it as far as
references. Personally, I would've loved to have seen a return of the Scolari
Brothers- I mean, what a perfect opportunity for a boss battle would that have
been? We got to see three of the big monsters from the first movie return to play prominent roles in the story,
so why not the Scolari Brothers? Seemed like a missed opportunity to me.
The chapter which has you following an underground flow of black slime was about the closest the game got to a Ghostbusters 2 feel.
Anyway, beyond my gripes about the lack of Ghostbusters 2 references, there really isn't much I had to complain about while playing through. Just some minor things- for instance, sometimes the dialogue becomes noticeably unsynchronized with the character's mouth movements during cutscenes, something that seemed a tad amateurish even in 2009. And speaking of dialogue, it's pretty obvious in his voice acting that Bill Murray was not that into the project. You can tell almost every time he was speaking that he really phoned in his performance. In fact, sometimes you can't even tell what he's saying at all because he's mumbling his lines so much. It's a bit of a shame that he couldn't muster up at least a little more enthusiasm, especially since he didn't even have to do anything besides speak into a microphone, but I can look past it because at least he did it at all. At the end of the day, I don't even care if he decided to speak in a pirate accent the entire time, I'm just happy he was on board enough to be a part of it and step back into his role as Peter Venkman one last time. And lastly, the game is generally pretty short. It's fine because it gave it more of that authentic movie feel, but I only complain about it because I didn't want it to end. I wanted to see the Ghostbusters keep going forever.
Alas, nothing gold can stay. After the game came and went,
it seemed like Ghostbusters was primed for a comeback. Talk of a third movie
once again reared its head on all corners of the internet. Both Dan Akroyd and
Ivan Reitman, the director of both movies, repeatedly stoked the flames for
several more years. It was all speculation, but there was talk that a script
was in the works. Would the world actually see a bonafide Ghostbusters 3 in the
theaters? For a short period of time, it seemed plausible.
However, the end finally came on February 24th, 2014, when
news broke of the death of Harold Ramis, the original actor for Egon Spengler
and writer of the scripts for both movies and the game. With Ramis went the
original Ghostbusters, and it seemed that now, once and for all, it was over.
But you all know what happened next- shortly afterward, the "reboot"
of Ghostbusters was announced, and despite all the doubt surrounding the
franchise and the finality of Ramis' death, it continued to build steam and was
eventually released in the summer of 2016. I have many mixed feelings about the
reboot that are pretty much beyond the scope of this post, but suffice it to
say that I think the whole thing was unnecessary. I actually enjoyed Max Landis' pitch for Ghostbusters 3 that has since surfaced on the internet and
wouldn't have minded seeing that movie, but it's not what we got and
unfortunately will never be. I also thought it was bitterly ironic that the original
cast did a reunion for Entertainment Weekly magazine just 9 months after Ramis'
death. I remember seeing it and thinking to myself "why couldn't they just
put their differences aside like this when Ramis was still alive? He should have been there with them." We'll probably
never truly know why.
Anyway, all of this only serves to illustrate how much the
game meant to me as a fan. It is, for all intents and purposes, the
Ghostbusters 3 that we all were waiting for. It was all of the Ghostbusters
back together again for one final encore and it was the last sweet sendoff to a
franchise that went away a little too early, as far as I'm concerned. Some
might say that Ghostbusters has never really gone anywhere, but I'm in the camp
that I would've liked to see all of the guys strap on the proton packs one last
time on the big screen. However, I'm very happy with what I got in the game. As
a video game it's a blast, as a continuation of the Ghostbusters franchise it's
fantastic, and as the last remaining testament to the true fans, it serves its
purpose well.
The future of Ghostbusters is somewhat of a huge question mark right now. After the reboot had a mediocre showing in theaters, plans for a sequel were most likely scrapped. There doesn't seem to be anywhere left to go now, but I'm confident that the franchise will find a way to live on. It's my sincere hope that another cartoon series makes a return for a new generation. Hell, even as an adult you can bet I'd be parked in front of my TV every Saturday morning ready to watch further adventures of Peter, Egon, Ray and Winston. One can only hope. However, despite what may happen, the originals will always live on as unforgettable classics in the eyes of every nerd and geek who hoped they could build their own positron collider as a child. And right next to the two movies, you can add the video game to that list. Thanks for reading.
I can't possibly describe to you how great it was to see the Ghostbusters back for one last ride.