Ghostbusters
| Developer: Sega | Publisher: Sega |
| Release Date: 1989 | Also On: None |
Ah, here we have some memories. I first played this title, created by the legendary David Crane, on the Atari 2600 a long time ago at a friend's house. The game was terrible, one of the worst things ever but for such a limited system I supposed it was decent. Eventually, it was ported to other systems including the Nintendo NES. This version, due to a number of issues including this annoying "get gasoline when you're low or push your car" feature, sucks. I knew a version existed for the Sega Master System, but I was yet unfamiliar with it until I finally picked one up. Thank god, it seems someone eventually got this game to play right!
Ghostbusters is graphically pretty impressive. Akin to the SMS' capabilities you have a wide variety of colors, excellent character detail and smooth animation. Though the game itself is somewhat limited in basic design, the programmers certainly made up for this by adding as much detail as they could. The title screen opens with the Ghostbusters' logo and a bouncing ball run through the theme song that's smooth and fitting. The ending, unfortunately, is lame text, which gets to me sometimes, so I wish they did more with that but overall this game presents quite well with no flicker, slowdown or problems.
The sound is definitely not mediocre, but it could of used some more variety. Essentially you have the same song playing through the entire game, with little alteration throughout. Mind you, they certainly captured the Ghostbusters' theme song perfectly, but I think some variety would have made it much better. Hearing the same song playing, regardless of the in-game action, gets redundant after awhile. They should have at least changed it during more difficult segments, especially when you're finally fighting the final boss. I will say that the track is at least very lengthy, so though it repeats it goes on for a long time before this happens and it doesn't get too redundant too quickly. Run DMX certainly made his mark with this beauty. The sound effects are generally what you'd expect to hear, but a few could have been adjusted. A twitting sound when you get slimed doesn't seem to fit the effect I'd expect from this, though for the most part the effects work well.
Ghostbusters has very unique gameplay, and it's generally said that the Master System version is the only title to ever truly capture this and do it well. Basically, you have to first collect ghosts to save up money, purchase more expensive equipment and other items, and keep going until you have enough when the PK energy meter reaches maximum. You need to have at least $10,000 at this point, otherwise you can't attempt to fight the final boss.
When you do, you have to first pass the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, climb up several flights of the building while avoiding ghosts, and then take on Gorza (changed from the movie name). When you capture ghosts, which is the main part of the game initially, you move two Ghostbusters on the street after you go to a building, with vertically firing beams to draw them into the center and then let loose your trap. There are various items that make this easier, along with items to make the overall money collection quicker. This is essential, because later on the Marshmallow Man appears and destroys buildings unless you have ghost bait to stop his assimilation or enough money to pay the city off. So you have some items like a laser containment field that enables you to bypass going back to headquarters to empty your traps. Lots of different features like this that the programmers added.
The controls are very smooth and intuitive. Even without the manual you could jump right into this and it doesn't take long to master what you need to do. Of course, this doesn't avoid the fact that strategy is required to complete Ghostbusters. It's nice to see this in this type of game, which defies categorization to begin with. There are some other features to be found here as well like ghosts you'll encounter on the road to different buildings, the usage of the Marshmallow Man detector, the Key Master and so forth. Nothing superfluous and everything integral, just as it should be.
The only problem is that it's a damn difficult title to complete. The main difficulty comes from saving up money, especially when Stay-Puft comes into the picture, so this may be a burden on less experienced or less patient gamers. It took me quite awhile to finally get to the end. The stair-climbing segment before Gorza is also annoying, because there is no real strategy to it and you'll really only complete it through chance; it all depends where the ghosts appear. Sometimes one will appear below you chucking plates and you can't do anything about it. Still, overall this is a very fun and interesting game and without a doubt the best version ever released.
This is definitely a creative game. Though it's not the original version, I'm not going to take off points because regardless of this it's still a great play. In addition, the programmers tweaked the gameplay to make it more user friendly, adding a number of new features to enhance it, so I have to give props for that. Ghostbusters was always one of the strangest titles back in the day, as I mentioned above it's nearly impossible to categorize it. I'm not sure what you'd call it since it throws together puzzle, action, adventure and strategy elements all into one.
As for replay value, it will definitely take a new player several attempts to finally make it to the end and then several more attempts to master that segment. The only thing that's annoying is a lack of password feature. Of course, it would be pointless for this title once you see how it runs and how long it is, but it's really annoying to spend so much time saving up money only to die within a few seconds because you can't get your men past the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man outside of the building. It's even more annoying if you put a lot of time into it only to be randomly slimed during the stair-climb. Still, I did keep coming back to it and even after beating it I still play it now and then because it's an interesting title and a lot of fun once you've mastered it. The game length is a bit short, however, figure it out and you can complete it in under fifteen minutes or so. Should have added a bit more to increase the depth of play and the plot, perhaps more levels to fit the movie or something. That's the only real problem I have with this game.
Ghostbusters is without a doubt a core title in the early days of the Master
System and one that every SMS collector should own. Fans of the
Ghostbusters (or The Real Ghostbusters cartoon) will definitely enjoy this.
Plus, for you collectors out there, there's a re-release version of this that
came out in 1990. Good luck finding that one. Anyway, to conclude, this
title is so much better than the NES version and leagues beyond the Atari
2600 version, which really made me happy. I always hated the other two and
wanted to get through them, but through poor programming and bad mechanics
it was sometimes impossible to get anywhere because you got too pissed off.
It's not necessarily
a perfect game to begin with, but Sega did a great job altering it and
making it as best as possible.
| Graphics: | 7.5 |
| Sound: | 6 |
| Gameplay: | 8 |
| Creativity: | 8.5 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 6.5 |
| Final: | 7.3 |
| Written by Stan | Review Guide |
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