Overall 6.1 Graphics 3.1 Sound 3.4 Addictive 3.1 Story 3.6 Depth 3.9 Difficulty 6.4
1.4
Ghostbusters NES review Zircron Swift
I know I know. The Nerd did a review of this game, and he did cover a lot of what happened in this game, but for the life of me I don't know why I played it. I don't know why. Maybe I thought that it wasn't as bad as everyone thought it to be, or that perhaps there were some elements the Nerd missed out and I was SOMEHOW curious on them, but in reality, the reason I played this game is because I wanted to say I beat Ghostbusters for the NES. We all know the film Ghostbusters and how popular it was back then. We all know a popular film will be bade into some game adept at one stage, whether we like it or not. Ghostbusters had the most unimpeachable displeasure of falling victim to this for the NES. Let me start by saying this game actually isn't as bad as the Nerd leads us to believe....
it's worse!The story is that you, the three Ghostbusters (Why do they always leave out the black Ghostbuster? He was one of my favourites.) have to stop New York City from being destroyed by ghosts. These ghosts will go to the "Zuul Building" in the center of the city, building up PK energy. When this hits 9999 (or OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), the game ends. In fact, you got to give this game credit. You can get a game over in five different ways, that's fairly impressive for an NES game, albeit it being a rather terrible one. Most involve money when you get a game over, though, and it does seem rather silly that you demand your heroes to pay up for damage you were trying to prevent in the first place. Imagine a building gets damaged that Superman stopped from falling over and destroying several over buildings and saved countless lives, and then someone coming over to him and saying "Those windows aren't cheap you know." and demands payment. That's just down right ungrateful.
Although you start playing immediately, you need a Ghost Trap and a Proton Pack before you can capture ghosts. You need to go to the shop and buy stuff before beginning your adventure. Now, I have no problem with this. I like the fact you need to buy stuff to do other stuff and a bit of tactical thinking is required. Clearly this shop is where the Ghostbusters make their equipment, and buying them merely "pays for the cost of making one". I mean, it would just be stupid if they had to buy their equipment from someone else who knew nothing about how a Proton pack works, right? You can also get many others things like a Sound Generator, which slows down Ghosts on the staircase, a stronger Proton Pack that does better than the original, a Ghost Alarm to alert you where ghosts are and of course, traps.
This is how the game works. You get a number of traps and a Proton Pack. You go to a building that flashes red when you are next to it, you press the A button and the direction of the building on the D-Pad, and you drive there. The more you move around, the longer you have to drive. So far everything seems realistic and has a nice touch. Then you start to play a driving stage. Here is where the game show's its true colours. If you have the Ghost Vacuum, you can press the A button to suck in ghosts, but it only works if you press it when you are near them. You can run over barrels to gain more fuel, which to be fair is a nice iconic sign in a game. Hitting another car will make you lose money. Again this make sense if you ram into the car. But if the car hits you, you should gain money. Even the slightest tap in this game could make you lose $800. Logic, eh? Also, I've noticed that no matter how fast or slow you are going in a car, you'll use the same amount of fuel. If you run out of fuel, however, your little Ghostbusters will get out of the car and push it, slowly and painfully to the Gas Station. For a moment, I thought they were going to push the car equal the distance I had left. Thankfully the game isn't that cruel.
Then you get to the ghostbusting level. This is quite fun to begin with. You have to set the trap by going up, down, left or right with the B button, press the B button again to activate the Proton Packs. From this angle, it looks like the Ghostbusters are trying to balance the Proton Packs like you would balance a cocktail feather in your palm. It looks rather silly. You can press the A button to switch between the two Ghostbusters and even rotate the beams to get some ghosts in tricky areas. The ghosts get caught in the beams like flies to fly-paper. You take them to the trap, press the B button a third time, and that kinda sucks them in. The more ghosts you trap at one time, the more money you get. This is actually fun the first few times you do it. I like having to place down the traps, and then have to activate the Proton Packs. It does feel like being a Ghostbuster. However, this gets old really fast. I enjoyed it for a bit, but I had to do this several times. It's horribly time consuming to grind for money and is very tedious. There is zero thrill in this. You stop thinking of it as a Ghostbusters game and think of it as a waste of time. If you don't purchase the Super-Trap, then you'll be making constant visits to Ghostbusters HQ to empty the traps, which makes the game even slower and more tedious. I highly recommend getting the Super-trap first thing.
After a random amount of time, you'll be told to enter the Zuul Building in the enter of the map. You can do one of four things here. The first, and most highly recommended is to turn off the power and do something more productive. The second is to continue to grind for money, as you will still be offered to enter the Zuul Building despite how many buildings you clear. The third is to go to the shop and get kitted up, but that takes your option to go into the Zuul Building away until the game chooses you have suffered enough, which is extremely annoying. The forth is to enter the Zuul Building straight away. As you do, you are greeted with the colour red...and ghosts. This is by far the most annoying, unfair and difficult part of the game. You need to mash the A button to climb up the stairs, which is extremely tedious. On every floor, you can open a door with the B button, and you'll either get nothing, an extra hit, or lose a hit. This might have been a good feature to the game, if the ghost pattern wasn't completely random. You'll need a degree of luck to get past this, and I think the only way to get past it without cheating is to get the armour and the Sound Generator. However, the Sound Generator takes ages to get, and requires luck that you'll get to enter the Zuul Building a second time before the counter reaches 9999 PK Energy. When (or if) you do get to the top, just a fair bit of warning, there is a bit of nudity during the final battle.
I really, really hate the graphics on this game. It's just grey everywhere. There's a bit of yellow and green here and there, but it's all the dull and murky green and yellow that seems to blend in with the background and doesn't really "stand out". It just makes the whole place seem lifeless. Are you trying to say New York City is lifeless, game? You can do better than that. Look at Contra ans the details they have in the rocks and trees and water. Look at Super Mario Bros., that was a very early NES game, and it was chocked full of colour. Here, it's just a collection of uncreative grey slabs pushed together and expected it to be called art. The NES can handle more than one colour at a time, you know. It had candle several. There is no excuse for the game to look good, so it's clear the designers were very lazy and didn't bother to put effort into it.
The music is also very limited. It's just the same music over, and over, and over, and over, and over....and over. It's an 8-bit cover of the Ghostbusters theme, and it's no that bad to begin with, but it repeats. There isn't any variety in the music, and what's more, it's a very poor cover. It's thin, it doesn't have any harmony in it. It also has the odd sour note here and there which makes me wrench every time I hear it. Again they could have made it sound really awesome in 8-bit, but they were lazy, and it sucked. Some of the sound effects also seemed rather "incomplete". They sounded like they were still being worked on half the time, and the other half were very simple sound effects. The designers could have made the game look and sound so much better, but they just didn't put effort in.
Like I said before, the game play is tediously boring. The game play is basically a grinding game. You go somewhere, you do the same thing every time, you hope to get lucky and you want it to be over as soon as possible just so you can continue with the next round of pretty much the same thing. This is further irritated by the fact you have to continuously press the A button in the Zuul Building, and the chances of death are high there. Your thumbs will ache a lot after that level, but rest assure there is indeed a pause button in this game. You press select. I thought the game crashed when I accidentally pressed this button, because it retains the last note played for a while.
Overall, I give this game a 1.4/10 This game is bad, and I mean really, really bad. it's one of the worst games I have ever played. I'm not sure if this game is worse than Superman 64 or not, but it;s bad enough to claim the title. If you want to play this game. Just don't. Nothing will be gained from playing it, only things will be lost. Sanity and time are the main ones and you'll gain no satisfaction from completing it.
Graphics 1 Sound 1 Addictive 2 Story 4 Depth 1 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 09-12-12
Review Replies: 4
5
I ain't afraid of no ghost! BestGamer24
Today, we're going to review Ghostbusters for the NES. The movie was awesome, but the game..isn't.
It's basicly the Commodore 64 version, ported to the NES.
Anyway, let's turn on our Proton packs, open the traps, and catch some Ghosts in Ghostbusters!
Graphics, 6: The graphics are pretty mediocre for the NES. I looks better than some games, looks worse than most games. It came out in 1988, at that time, Contra was already out. That tells you something. It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look good. The map screen with the Ghostbusters looks good. The logo looks really good. The driving stages look bad. The Ecto 1 looks bad, and the other cars are the same as the Ecto 1, but it's always gray. There's a few fire hydrants here and there, but there's nothing on the sidewalks. The stage were you catch ghosts looks good too. Why are the Ghosts yellow? Were white Ghosts hard to see? The backgrounds are bland, with a detailed building behind you, and to gray/black boxes next to them. Also, why do they catch Ghosts outside?
Sound, 5: The only sounds in this game is the Ghostbusters theme, which plays on a non-stop loop, which can make you play the game on mute. There's also sounds when the trap opens, and when you go inside the Zuul building, when the Ghostbusters get knocked down, but their mostly beeps.
Addictiveness, 4: This game is cool for the first 10 minutes, but then it gets repetitive. Constantly driving back and forth gets old after a while. I played maybe 30 minutes before I got bored.
Story, 3: There's really no story, the game just throws you in. I'm assuming it's the same as the movie. So, in the game, there are ghosts that are going inside the Zuul building. The ghostbusters have to catch enough ghosts to go inside the Zuul building and defeat Gozer.
That's basically the story.
Depth, 6: There's not that much depth to this game. You can
select a location on the map like the store, drive there, buy a Proton Pack and a Trap, go catch 4 Ghosts (if you can get all 4), then go to the GBHQ and empty the traps. Then you have to go get gas, if you run out they'll get out of the car, and push it there. If have to go back and forth between the Gas Station, where the ghosts are, and the GBHQ. You can buy multiple traps, which can reduce the number of visits to the HQ. If you catch Ghosts, you get money. You can use that money to buy equipment. After a while, you can go to the Zuul building. You drive there, and you walk up a flight of stairs to the rooftop, fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, then you fight Gozer. After you defeat Gozer, the worst/greatest End Screen pops up. "Conglatulation. You have completed a great game. And prooved the justice of our culture. Now go and rest our heroes!!!"
That doesn't even make sense.
Difficulty, 7: This game goes from easy, to very hard, very fast. The driving stages are easy, you just avoid the cars that try to ram you off the road, and done. If you hold up, you can get to places faster, but caution, as you may get hit by the car. The ghost catching stages are easy as well. Put down the trap, turn on your Proton Pack, and catch them. If you take to long, they get away and you catch nothing. Then when you get to the Zuul building, you have to walk up a flight of stairs to the rooftop. There are ghosts (4 to be exact) that try to catch you, and if they touch you, you get knocked down, if you get knocked down 3 times, game over. You can buy "ghost food" which distracts them, but it only lasts about 5 seconds. After that, they keep coming after you. The stair case is the hardest part in this game! Once you get to the rooftop, you fight Gozer. While you're fighting Gozer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow man is climbing the building, which means you're on a time limit. If he gets to the top, game over. Gozer isn't that hard, you just dodge the bullets (or whatever they are), and keep shooting until she's dead. That's it. You win.
OVERALL: 5. Wow, I said A LOT. This game isn't bad but it isn't good. It's hard, and repetitive. So, that was Ghostbusters for the NES.
Graphics 6 Sound 5 Addictive 4 Story 3 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 10-14-15
Updated: 10-14-15
Review Replies: 1
0.2
Possibly the worst game I've ever played. totaldramaman2
Oh great, THIS game. First let me say, I hope you're okay, ~sakura~. I remeber hearing about this game in Nintendo Power as a child. It was crazy how excited my friends got over it. They started coming up with awsome ideas, most of which can be found in Luigi's Mansion. I thought it would be a sidescroller, like Mario. But, MAN, was I ever wrong!
--- I wanted to name this: Why wasn't this as good as the movie either? ---
This is Ghostbusters on the NES. Ghostbusters is awsome, and the NES is awsome too! This game should be great! *presses Start* Game: GHOZTBUZTAHS! Oh, how I remeber that sound. I heard it because I reset the game so many DANG TIMES! So, you... play as the Ghostbusters logo playing tag with ghosts. What happened to that Ecto-1 of thiers and, heck, I DON'T REMEMBER THIS. So you go around pressing everything trying to get to the building, but you need a beam. But what you also need is a trap for the ghosts. Now, you go to the shop. In there... I have to drive there. Even if I'm already there. There's the car... surrounded by a sezuire-enducing background! How joyous am I!
--- Too much stuff... not enough money... or car gas. ---
So you drive across the road, and eventually you see some drunk drivers. That's probably what the creators of this game were. DRUNK. So eventually you get to the shop. What you need is a 3 Traps, a Ghost Vaccuum, and a Ghost Beam. WHAT? You don't have enough money all of a sudden? Yeah, every time you run into the drunk drivers, you'll lose $200-$800. How mean. So, RESET! *explains whole review over again* So now that you have that, you can enter the buildings that flash red. Now, your Ecto-1 might run out of gas, so two Ghostbusters will come out and slowly push it to the gas machine. Wait, the Ecto-1 takes gas? Never mind. So, you'll come to the place where the ghost is. The Ghost Beam, 85% of the time will miss the ghosts. I thought is was better in the Atari vesion. Speaking of Atari, the graphics for this scene actually look WORSE than Atari! What else can do that? *hides Intellivision by stuffing it in a PokeBall*
--- The Zuul Bulding ---
Do what I said to do for about 3 more hours, then this will happen: Most likely you won't see it, but a message will appear saying "Enter Zuul buliding". That means you can now go to that Zuul building in the middle of the map. Now, you go in, and IT'S A SIDESCROLLER!!!! But wait... I have two major problems. 1.) Where's Winston? I never saw him in this game. I see Peter, Ray, and Egon, but no Winston. Think about it. There are two Ghostbusters who push the car, two who catch ghosts, and three in the buiding. No Winston! Where IS he? And 2.) How do I move? The D-pad doesn't work, but the... A button works. I have to tap the A button as fast as I can... *takes out normal controller and puts in NES Max Controller* So the ghosts are going to kill your Ghostbusters if they touch them. And you get but ONE
try. And then. 3 more hours. YEAH. So, I guess maybe an Anti-Ghost Suit would be good, but it costs a whopping
$20,000!!! At the final boss, it's well, Gozer. Now, if you go to far back, you see Marshmellow Man climbing up the building, which WILL KILL you. So once you beat it, you get the most meesed up ending screen EVER. With like, 10 errors, it wasn't worth the time. I'd rather have the game freeze. Actually, I'd rather not play this at all! ENOUGH WITH THIS GAME! I'll see you in my next review!
Again, I hope you're okay ~sakura~. Nobody should have to go through leukimia, or any kind of cancer.
Graphics 1 Sound 2 Addictive 1 Depth 3 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 3.5/5
Submitted: 08-10-11
Updated: 09-15-11
Review Replies: 23
4.5
ghostbusters........ a little bit of a disappointment leatherface9
ghost busters was a big disappointment.
it was too short!!!! only four levels if you don't count the shop and gas station.
the graphics.. don't get me started they don't even look like egon ray Pete and Winston. not to mention gozer looks like a naked statue with weird hair wheres the bubbles from the movies
even though the sound sucks the theme is a nice 8 bit rendition 1 problem... its the only song in the entire game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the title screen voice also sounds like crud.
but to be fair its kinda fun i play it sometimes but only for the novelty for being ghost busters but its super frustrating especially the stair stage in the Zuul building
Graphics 3 Sound 3 Addictive 6 Story 4 Depth 4 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 08-22-13
Review Replies: 1
6
Ghostbusters: Not as bad as everyone says supersonic44
Ah, Ghostbusters for NES. How you are a fun game to hate. Seriously, the nerd made a 3-part mini-series basically dedicated to this game and all the hate he gave it. But, does this game really deserve all the hate?
Story:
This game basically follows the story of the film. Gozer, (Or Gorza, as this game calls him,) "recruits" Dana Barrett and Louis Tulley to be the Gatekeeper and Zuul, respectively. If you have any knowledge about games or the movie, you'd know that these guys are the bad guys. Anyway, Zuul and the Gatekeeper take over a building in New York, send an army of ghosts to stop you, and you must stop them. It's a story that really isn't that different from the movie, the only reason I'll give it a meh score is they don't try to deviate from the movie to much, which is a good thing, since the movie is so familiar to people. 6/10
Graphics:
THIS GAME IS UGLY! I know this is a NES game, and the graphics aren't as good as they would be today, but, come on, this makes the NES look like it can't process anything. If you want to play this game, hope you enjoy the colors gray and green. In excess. Animations are bland, even for the NES. Also, if you're looking for a proofread fail, play this game until the end. It's hilarious Basically, this game could run on the Atari 2600 with a mild graphic downgrade, (which, it pretty much did.) 4/10
Sound:
Like the Ghostbusters theme? Would you listen to it for a 3 hour period? Still here? OK, now would you listen to an 8-bit version for 3 hours? Exactly. The sound effects aren't the great either. Stocked bleeps and bloops are expected, but, knowing how this games play, this needed more memorable sound. 3/10
Gameplay:
Alright, it may seem I just bashed this game to a new low, and that I hate it. I don't. Why? This game did something different. When I went into this game, I thought it would be a sidescroller, (like the Ghostbusters 2 NES game was.) It's not. It's a tycoon game. Basically, you control the Ghostbusters logo and walk around the buildings of New York, looking for buildings to flash red. You then drive to the flashing red building, and fight ghosts to get money. After you reach a cap on money or play for a little bit, you go to the building "Gorza" is at, climb the stairs to fight him. The tycoon elements come in when you realize you have to buy stuff. You have to buy ghost traps, the Ghostbusters weapons, etc. You can switch out weapons to have different experiences. Aside from the driving scenes, this game actually plays Really good. 7/10.
Interesting thing about this game:
It's end screen. Seriously, look it up. It's worth a laugh or two.
Overall:
The gameplay of this game saves it. If you can deal with repetitive graphics and HORRIBLE sound, it's not that bad of a game. 6/10
Graphics 4 Sound 3 Addictive 7 Story 6 Depth 7 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 08-04-11
Updated: 08-04-11
Review Replies: 4
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