Developer: Activision Publisher: Activision Released: October 1988 Genre: Action
I love, love, love Ghostbusters in nearly all of its forms. The Real Ghostbusters cartoon was my introduction to the property before I saw the movie and was a childhood staple. I even sort of liked the Filmation Ghostbusters cartoon based on the original TV series from the 70s. But I do not like the vast majority of the video games based on the license. There are some bangers of course. The Genesis title by Sega was a borderline excellent game. The recent 360/Wii game (which has been remastered) is essentially Ghostbusters 3 and is probably the best. But when they are bad, good lord. The NES game is undoubtedly the worst. Ghostbusters for NES is one of the worst games on the system, bar none.
The sad thing is it did not have to be! Ghostbusters is a port of the Commodore 64 game of the same name. While it is a port it has heavy changes and not for the better. Various features have been removed for no good reason and other elements such as the price of elements have been tweaked and made worse. I fail to see how anyone play tested this game and thought it was okay for release. Ghostbusters is another in a long line of movie tie-ins from Activision that have the germ of a good idea but fail in their execution. I luckily dodged a bullet with this one; my cousins got it for a birthday and let’s just say no one was happy.
Ghostbusters begins on a world map with a few points of interest. Zuul building is your final destination but it remains locked behind a never specified goal of earning $15000 before you can enter. The shop is where you buy items, the gas station provides fuel and Ghostbusters headquarters is where you empty your traps. The only “enemies” are ghosts that all make their way to the Zuul building that you can avoid. However for every ghost that enters the spectral meter rises, and once it hits 9999 the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man appears and wrecks the city, costing you $10000 in the process.
The first order of business is to head to the shop to buy a proton pack and at least a few traps to collect ghosts. The gameplay loop then becomes scouring the map for locations that are currently haunted, complete a short driving sequence and then (hopefully) capturing a few ghosts for cash rewards. You need the cash to buy upgrades while also trying to save enough money to eventually enter Zuul’s lair. But there are an insane number of issues with the game that conspire to make this simple task more difficult than it should be.
Nearly every element of the game conspires to take away your money. Visiting any location requires a brief driving sequence that has cars that penalize you for the slightest touch. Run out of fuel and it costs money to get back up to speed. These driving scenes are a constant as you need to empty your traps constantly until you buy a super trap. Technically gaining the $15000 to reach the end game is not that hard. But entering the Zuul building without ghost food and the anti-ghost suit is suicide. Even with those items the end game is still some of the biggest bullshit in video game history.
The march to Zuul and subsequent battle are new to this version. I’m sure someone thought they were doing us a favor with this addition. In reality they ruin the game. The controls make no sense. To move you must constantly tap the A button to move in your chosen direction without a turbo controller. You must ascend twenty-three floors to reach the top all while dodging ghosts which is near impossible due to their erratic behavior and the bad hit detection. You move slowly and no matter how fast (heh) you dodge the ghosts they always remain on screen. There is no pattern to their movement and the hit detection means you will take hits despite being far away. Even with the previously mentioned items it is still a matter of luck if you reach the top. The ensuing fight is not as bad but good luck getting there.
The most frustrating thing about Ghostbusters is that it should not be this bad. The original computer releases were pretty good. Hell even the Atari 2600 version is more tolerable than this. There is so much content missing; you could buy a number of vehicles with differing slots to equip items rather than being stuck with just four. There are less items but the ones in the NES version are more expensive which leads to excessive grinding. The best one for the end game, the sound generator, costs $100,000 and is almost mandatory to climb the Zuul building. Speaking of which, the computer versions do not feature the ridiculous march up the tower to fight Zuul. I don’t know who thought it was a good addition but it is not. There are more but you get the point. They took an otherwise good game and made it worse.
In Closing
This game should not be this bad. Activision and its partners tried to improve an already good game but failed in the attempt. Ghostbusters is another in the line of bad licensed titles from Activision and should be avoided. If you must play a version of this game go for the Master System version. It is everything this one should have been and more.
