“If you loved the films then this is the game that you have been waiting for.” – Extreme Gamer

“If you’re a fan of the movies this alone is largely enough to look past the game’s failings.” – Total Video Games

“If you dug the movies, there’s no reason that you should be disappointed with Ghostbusters: The Video Game.” – IGN

Reading the recommendations¹ for Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009) is infuriating; the reviews that avoid hauling out these useless tropes are in short supply. Though I can’t blame the reviewers entirely – it’s a function of the industry, and we’ve been programmed to tolerate it. The video game industry has an entire sector dedicated to parading our childhood out in front of us whether repackaged (just look any major XBox Live release), or bundled on some compliation disc. And it always seems to garner a wistful response from the video game media.

Yeah, I remember those times, too. They were great, weren’t they?

And we all know what happened with The Phantom Menace and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. After the initial euphoria wore off from years of waiting, we saw these endeavors for what they really were: cash-ins by creators who had lost touch with their creations a long, long time ago.

So why Ghostbusters? When you think about it, it’s been close to 20 years since a proper Ghostbusters game has even been made². Ghostbusters is the next logical target, waiting like some vein of precious metal to be exploited. Is Ghostbusters: The Video Game intended for the demographic of gamers who are slowly losing interest in the hobby because it no longer speaks to them? Digging up a beloved franchise is the easiest way to draw this audience back in; it’s clearly working for Hollywood lately³. There was also plenty of turmoil surrounding who would actually publish Terminal Reality’s tribute. Originally to be published by Sierra, the merge of Vivendi with Activision in 2008 ejected Ghostbusters: The Video Game into publishing no man’s land. The internet erupted with righteous fury. It was obvious why people wanted this game: it represented their youth, a comeback of sorts for a franchise that never seemed to get the treatment it deserved.

The game was eventually picked up by Atari, and released last month. Which also happens to be the 25th anniversary of the 1984 theatrical release of Ghostbusters. I think the whole thing was staged.

From the outset, Ghostbusters: The Video Game has nostalgia working to its advantage. Like video games themselves, Ghostbusters was created during an era of consumable culture, of iconic characters, action figures and Saturday morning cartoons. That’s why Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Transformers and G.I. Joe still resonate with us. It provided characters and worlds that were so distinctive, entire product empires were built upon them. We were being exploited then; we just didn’t realize it. And now they’re back for more.

Ghostbusters II (1989) for DOS was my first (and last) video game experience with the franchise. I remember the game being frustratingly difficult, but it still managed to give the impression that Activision had created a kind of simluator. You would go on ghost busting missions, collect slime for experiments, earn money for new equipment – but limitations in technology resulted in a game that felt patched together with action sequences and needless puttering around in the laboratory screen. The game structured the missions around the main plot points of the movie, but the effort to design something different than the usual action game was there. Or maybe that’s just me being nostalgic.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game starts with you as the nameless “Rookie”, following around the veteran Ghostbusters Ray, Egon and Winston. The developers spared no expense in recruiting the film’s original actors to reprise their role in the game. The animated sequences and one-liners will elicit a laugh or two. At first, I couldn’t stop staring at the flashing lights and details on the proton pack. It was hypnosis. I couldn’t believe they had created the proton pack exactly as I had imagined it. But before critical blindness induced by nostalgia is allowed to set in, the game introduces its brand of action.

The structure of the mission included in the demo feels uncomfortable at first. You are hunting a ghost; the game doesn’t present you with a steady stream of opposition. Instead, you walk around staring at your PKE meter and wait for the arms to go horizontal. This was clearly the more faithful approach, but the presentation doesn’t make for an exciting video game. The controls are typical of third person shooters, but stripped of all recent conventions like leaning, taking cover, and crouching. Because you aren’t using a conventional gun, the game uses an “overheating” mechanic similar to Mass Effect, where fire must be controlled with bursts from the particle thrower. The manual venting option allows you to cool down your proton pack instantly, and follows a rhythm reminiscent of the active reload in Gears of War. There are other types of beams that can slow down or stun enemies, but these are just ornaments dumped into the game along with paid upgrades to make it appear deeper.

As a game, Ghostbusters doesn’t really have a lot to teach you. You are expected to go through the motions, listening to Egon’s instructions or Ray’s reactions to what’s happening. You fire the particle thrower and you destabalize ectoplasm. Yes, this is a Ghostbusters game.

I’ll admit, Ghostbusters still managed to hit me where it counted: it tapped in to that feeling of being 10 years old and wanting to be a Ghostbuster, to strap on a proton pack with the quack scientists that somehow managed to save New York City. Once again, nostalgia is wielded by the video game industry to great effect, making the game seem better than it actually is.

The initial impressions of the design clearly showed it was dictacted by a philosophy that only required it to be passable. Fans would be placated as their favorite characters and memories of the films suddenly materialized on screen to interact with. This tempted me to reject the game as so much patronizing bullshit. This skeleton of a design that wanted to push all the right buttons left me feeling that maybe this was the start of another trend, where nostalgia itself is a feature of a video game.

And then they got one thing so undeniably right.

What does it feel like to trap a ghost? Ghostbusters: The Video Game makes sure you know. I surprised myself with how positively I reacted to the action; it was the most fun I’ve had with a video game in years. (And this includes blowing up large buildings with perfectly placed charges in Red Faction: Guerrilla). The game lets you feel like you are wrangling a ghost at the end of your proton beam. Moving the ghost into position over the trap, the failed attempts, working together with the computer-controlled AI – Terminal Reality has constructed the essence of trapping a ghost. This was the film’s signature moment. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man will be what is remembered, but capturing ghosts was what we wanted to do when we were younger.

Ghostbusters then becomes an interesting specimen in the video game industry’s assault on our nostalgia, because it captures the moment that matters while making it feel so legitimate.

This is a Ghostbusting simulation. And it is the only one of its kind. For that I have to give the team at Terminal Reality some credit: they may not have laid the groundwork for an exceptional game, but I take their homage to the fabled franchise of our youth as an act of sincerity. If only Hollywood could be as respectful of our memories.

I can only speculate whether this sentiment is built to last for an entire game, or will fade after the tedium of the rudimentary combat and repetitive missions set in. Even though I already know the answer, I feel I owe it to my 10 year-old self to give Ghostbusters: The Video Game a fair chance. And that’s probably what Atari was banking on.