I must have seen Ghostbusters a million times.  It’s just one of those films I never tire of.  Despite wearing my DVD out I’ll always watch it if it happens to be on TV, so it’s no surprise that I was eagerly awaiting the Ghostbusters game.

It’s not something that has been thrown together lightly either.  From the outset Harold Ramis (Egon and co-writer of the original movie) and Dan Ackroyd have worked on the project.  They were key to getting all the old cast back to record their voices for the game (bar Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis) and to coming up with a brand new script.

The game takes place in the early 90’s, a few years after the Ghostbusters have saved the earth from Vigo (in Ghostbusters 2) and they’ve just hired a new recruit.  Yep, that’s right, it’s you.  While this may seem disappointing at first, the reason is soon clear.  Because you’re not playing an existing character the script allows the main cast to get on with the wise cracks and be themselves.  It works brilliantly and means that the game feels even more authentic than if you’d have played Stantz or Venkman. 

As you’d expect, the game has you busting ghosts within a few minutes of playing. Slimer escapes from his containment area and your attempts to get him back release another ghost.  Cue Proton Pack training exercise.  Meanwhile, something’s going down at the Gozer exhibit in the New York museum and ghosts start appearing everywhere.  Starting back at the hotel where Slimer was first seen you begin your work to bust the ghosts and save the city.

Your proton pack is the key to all this.  Nicely staying away from the old style health meters and score etc, everything you need to know is on your backpack.  One set of lights shows your health and another shows the status of your proton stream.  You’ll need to cool it down every so often, which adds a small amount of strategy to proceedings, but pretty much amounts to the same as a gun overheating in any other shooter.  Earning money for jobs will allow you to get proton pack upgrades.  These range from better traps to catch ghosts faster to massive weapons that make it easier to grab the ghosts and wear them down.

The ghosts are nice and varied too, from a Fisherman to the classic Stay Puft and even Vigo himself.  The routine is usually to capture smaller ghosts until you hit the huge end of level boss.  The set pieces are top notch, really making the game world come alive, though the boss fights tend to be simple stand and shoot affairs, which is a bit of a shame.

Graphically Ghostbusters ticks most of the boxes.  Proton packs fry the walls, bosses look fantastic and characters look like the actors, albeit with a bit too much shine and rubbery faces at times.  There are a few glitches at times, usually in the backgrounds, but they’re hardly noticeable unless you stand around waiting for them.  Only the lip sync spoils things, it’s worse than a dubbed Bruce Lee movie at times!

Lastly, multiplayer appears as a way to lengthen your time with the game.  It’s pretty good being able to choose one of the main cast and fight with or against 3 other players in a range of modes.  My favourite is capturing as many ghosts in the time limit as you can but there are loads of different games to choose from including defending certain items and simply staying alive the longest.

Ghostbusters The Game is a worthy addition to the Ghostbusters universe.  It’s obvious that this game has been built with love and attention for the franchise and it feels just like you’d imagine.  A few graphical glitches and lack of bigger online play or co-op aside, Ghostbusters is the best Movie based game to date.  Bustin’ certainly makes me feel good!

8/10