Ghostbusters the Video Game for the Wii is an interesting title. It’s a game based on the popular movie series, however, it is not a simple re-hash of the original movies. It stands on its own as an original story that continues the story from the prior films. So while it is not directly based on any of the movies, does it still suffer from the same fate of being a terrible cash cow as most movie based games do? Thankfully it does not.
To start off with, let’s look at the presentation. The original four actors who portrayed the busters in the film series return to lend their vocal talent in voicing the crew. While the actors themselves have aged since the movies, they pull off an incredible job of voicing the characters and making it feel like you have just popped in a DVD of the old film. The choice for graphics however might turn some people off to the game though. Unlike other console’s versions of this title, the Ghostbusters are not represented as life like models of the actors. Instead, the actors are shown as caricatures as themselves, somewhat reminiscent of the 80’s cartoon The Real Ghostbusters. However, the mix of cartoon-like graphics with the original actors meshes together well for a visual and auditory experience that newcomers and older fans should like. Thankfully the graphics never falter much either. The only issue I ever saw was a slight lag in the ghosts' frame rates when there was a lot of action going on the screen.
As far as the story is concerned, you play as a trainee buster who is charged with the task of testing out the new weaponry that Egon makes as you complete more missions. Your character, which can be a male or female is a mute though, so the original busters will be doing all of the talking. Without ruining or spoiling anything, the basic setup is that when a new museum exhibit comes to town, strange ghost sightings and paranormal events begin to happen and the Ghostbusters all called in to investigate. Thankfully, it’s not a cut and paste story as there are twists that happen in the game’s progression.
The controls are pretty straight forward and easy to learn. You aim and turn with the remote, while the nun chuck is used for moving. The d-pad is for changing weapons on the fly and the A and B buttons serve to activate them. At your disposal is the traditional proton pack from the movies, along with a slime generator, a freeze ray, and a pulse shot among others. None of these weapons feel tacked on or too gimmicky though as they all serve a purpose for navigating through the levels. For instance, one stage has you freeze gears in order to open doors and use the slime to reveal hidden levers and objects.
The enemies you face are defeated either by draining all of their health until they simply die, pulling them apart with the proton stream, or by wrangling them into a well placed ghost trap. This reviewer only had one complaint with the controls. For the enemies that need to be put in a trap in order to beat them, you must first wear them down by slamming them into the walls in a tug of war like event. The game tells you where to slam them with on screen arrows to cue you into a random direction, with the final slam being your choice of where to go. Going down works just fine, but when you are directed to go in any other direction, you have to be spot on with your waving of the remote. Several times I thought I had swung hard enough only to see that the game did not register the motion. It’s not a game breaking detail, just a recurring nuisance that would have nice to have seen worked out better before the game’s release.
There is only one other major complaint to mention. In short, the four original Ghostbusters are useless when it comes to actually busting ghosts as their title states they should. Early on in the game, when there are not that many ghosts, you won’t notice it as much. But in the latter levels when the ghosts and enemies grow in size and number you will see what I am writing about. During my entire play through of the game, I don’t remember any of the busters aside from my own character actually catch any ghosts in any traps. Sure they wore down some enemies, but you would think they could at least catch one ghost. The worst was a level near the end of the game. You are paired up with one buster in a graveyard and have to fight a huge golem. Your partner tells you to yank off the golem’s armor in order to hurt it. However, as soon as you yank the armor off, a swarm of smaller enemies attacks. During the entire fight though, your partner just sits there aimlessly zapping the golem and not even bothering to try to dodge any attacks.
The only time that the other teammates are useful is during the boss fights as they will help to wear the enemy down and revive you if you happen to lose all your energy. It’s a real shame that the Ghostbusters look incompetent compared to the rookie you play as for most of the game. Long story short, the A.I. for your partners could have been much better.
Ghostbusters the Video Game does have a good amount of replay value though. If you don't want to play alone, then a second player can join in at the start of a new mission. In addition to this, during the game you can scan ghosts and items and then collect art pieces in order to complete entries into the Ghostbusters data bases. Doing so will unlock rewards such as more power for your weapons and a new uniform.
