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"Shoryuken!"
Moderator
on 12/08/2009 at 5:05:25PM
Total Posts: 10339 |
Ghostbusters on the DS was always going to be a poor cousin to the bigger consoles. But surely all the fun and humour could be ported onto our dear little touch-screen friend?
Start your Bustin’
The game differs from the start, having the original 4 Ghostbusters to choose from, rather than the PS3’s new rookie guy. It’s a nice move and you get to choose the Ghostbuster you want to play with at any time from their pictures on the touchscreen. Otherwise, the main screen and menus all make you feel you’re in familiar territory and that the programmers obviously have a love for the movies.
Ghost Writer
The story is pretty much the same as on the PS3 but it changes slightly due to the lack of the new recruit.
The issue here is that while shrinking the game for the DS, someone has obviously left the story in the washing machine too long and shrunk that as well. It’s disappointing, but then I expect many people will get this as a backup to the Wii or PS3/360 games rather than their main Ghostbusting experience.
Haunting Sounds
Sadly, the other thing to go is the voice acting, which was one of the highlights of the console game. It’s all text here I’m afraid. What you do get is the theme tune and all the supplementary tunes from the first movie, but I found that the main theme is played so much it gets on your nerves after a while. Was this a test of endurance from the programmers? If so, I think I failed!
Control Buster
Controls are pretty much standard for these sort of games, the control pad or stylus moves your busters around and touch screen interacts with the environment while also letting you choose a Ghostbuster to play with from the side of the screen.
Controlling the proton packs while capturing ghosts is pretty straightforward too. Choose your weapon and chase after the ghost, aiming your stream with the stylus as you go.
The only downside to the controls is with Ecto 1, which you need to drive to every mission. It handles pretty badly around corners and seeing as the game world gives you a set of roads that make Piccadilly Circus look car friendly it’s not good news.
Don’t Cross the Streams
The graphics take the form of an isometric view as with many other DS games. It works really well for the on foot sections but when you get to drive in Ecto 1, which is all in 3D as with many of the racing games on the DS, the screen is so dark and foggy that you often have a job seeing where you are going, adding to the control issues already mentioned.
The Busters themselves take the cartoony form of the Wii version, but this is pretty suited to the DS anyway and they do still look the part.
The Big Bust
Ultimately, Ghostbusters plays a bit more like an RTS than the shooter found on big consoles, but that suits the DS fine. The ‘side’ missions are all about capturing ghosts in different locations and they work really well but can get repetitive too quickly. Being as the DS is a portable games console I guess that can be excused, considering that you’ll probably pick this up for short bursts of busting.
Every time you accept a mission you need to travel in Ecto-1. This is a pain because of the aforementioned control and graphics issues. In a way it’s a nice break between the isometric stages, being as the driving is all in 3D and the section is pretty short.
In between missions you’ll find yourself upgrading weapons at the old firehouse in order to fight bigger ghosts. It’s this that adds a little strategy to the proceedings and keeps them interesting. Other than that it’s pretty much blowing stuff up and catching ghosts, which is how it should be!
Bustin’ Out
So, is Ghostbusters on DS any good? Well, yes, it is. Compared to the full game it’s a bit short and the lack of voice acting is disappointing (they could have used a bigger cartridge) but overall the style suits the DS better and it’s still a fun Ghostbusters game for fans of the franchise.
7/10
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pb
"Shoryuken!"
Moderator
on 12/08/2009 at 5:05:25PM
Total Posts: 10339
|
|
Ghostbusters on the DS was always going to be a poor cousin to the bigger consoles. But surely all the fun and humour could be ported onto our dear little touch-screen friend?
Start your Bustin’
The game differs from the start, having the original 4 Ghostbusters to choose from, rather than the PS3’s new rookie guy. It’s a nice move and you get to choose the Ghostbuster you want to play with at any time from their pictures on the touchscreen. Otherwise, the main screen and menus all make you feel you’re in familiar territory and that the programmers obviously have a love for the movies.
Ghost Writer
The story is pretty much the same as on the PS3 but it changes slightly due to the lack of the new recruit.
The issue here is that while shrinking the game for the DS, someone has obviously left the story in the washing machine too long and shrunk that as well. It’s disappointing, but then I expect many people will get this as a backup to the Wii or PS3/360 games rather than their main Ghostbusting experience.
Haunting Sounds
Sadly, the other thing to go is the voice acting, which was one of the highlights of the console game. It’s all text here I’m afraid. What you do get is the theme tune and all the supplementary tunes from the first movie, but I found that the main theme is played so much it gets on your nerves after a while. Was this a test of endurance from the programmers? If so, I think I failed!
Control Buster
Controls are pretty much standard for these sort of games, the control pad or stylus moves your busters around and touch screen interacts with the environment while also letting you choose a Ghostbuster to play with from the side of the screen.
Controlling the proton packs while capturing ghosts is pretty straightforward too. Choose your weapon and chase after the ghost, aiming your stream with the stylus as you go.
The only downside to the controls is with Ecto 1, which you need to drive to every mission. It handles pretty badly around corners and seeing as the game world gives you a set of roads that make Piccadilly Circus look car friendly it’s not good news.
Don’t Cross the Streams
The graphics take the form of an isometric view as with many other DS games. It works really well for the on foot sections but when you get to drive in Ecto 1, which is all in 3D as with many of the racing games on the DS, the screen is so dark and foggy that you often have a job seeing where you are going, adding to the control issues already mentioned.
The Busters themselves take the cartoony form of the Wii version, but this is pretty suited to the DS anyway and they do still look the part.
The Big Bust
Ultimately, Ghostbusters plays a bit more like an RTS than the shooter found on big consoles, but that suits the DS fine. The ‘side’ missions are all about capturing ghosts in different locations and they work really well but can get repetitive too quickly. Being as the DS is a portable games console I guess that can be excused, considering that you’ll probably pick this up for short bursts of busting.
Every time you accept a mission you need to travel in Ecto-1. This is a pain because of the aforementioned control and graphics issues. In a way it’s a nice break between the isometric stages, being as the driving is all in 3D and the section is pretty short.
In between missions you’ll find yourself upgrading weapons at the old firehouse in order to fight bigger ghosts. It’s this that adds a little strategy to the proceedings and keeps them interesting. Other than that it’s pretty much blowing stuff up and catching ghosts, which is how it should be!
Bustin’ Out
So, is Ghostbusters on DS any good? Well, yes, it is. Compared to the full game it’s a bit short and the lack of voice acting is disappointing (they could have used a bigger cartridge) but overall the style suits the DS better and it’s still a fun Ghostbusters game for fans of the franchise.
7/10
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