Man, I’ill tell you what. The more games that I play and get around to reviewing, the worse off they seem to get, especially when it comes to games on the Nintendo Entertainment System that try to bring the experience of the movie home to the game system. In this little outing, you take control of the Ghostbusters, and attempt to work your way through New York City while facing off against the evil Ghost Master Zuul. The game, for the most part, follows the movie to a letter, but where you would hope for some good old fashion ghost ass kicking, all you have is a sub-par action game that tries hard to give you action and adventure, but fails miserably in all aspects! Like the movie, you have to go from place to place, while catching various ghosts in different locations and keep yourself in the money as well as alive when you’re out busting ghosts. While this may seem like an easy feat, it is, because the game really doesn’t have much in the way of lives or otherwise, and you’ll find that the main challenge of the game is just to make it all the way through to the end and defeat the head bad guy. As most action games go, the action is here, but the display and otherwise that the game tries to feature is something that is less than stellar. When you really boil the game down to what it is and what you have you to do, there is nothing more than a sub-par theme based game to a rather well done movie!

The game play is just what it’s meant to be in an action game. You go from place to place and try to capture ghosts, earning money in the process for better items and equipment that will help you out later on in the game. There are actually two portions to the game that you’ll be seeing a lot of, and the first one of these is with the driving. In the driving portion of the game, you get in your car, and go from place to place, usually to the next ghost sighting so you can make some cash. On your way, you’ll have to avoid other vehicles in the road as well as ghosts that seem to drain your fuel every time they touch you! Bash into another car and you’ll dish out some cash for repairs. Get too far away from the gas stations {one of your pre-set locations} and get hit by too many ghosts, and you’ll have to start all over again. The second portion of the game is actually a game of luck rather than skill.

You and another Ghostbuster have to capture a ghost by getting it caught in the beams and then working it over to the trap. Once you’ve gotten it that far, then the trap should suck it up, you move onto the next ghost at the location and so on. What this does, is enables you to make some cash so you can buy more equipment, some of it rather useless, and off you go again! The repetitive nature that the game portrays is about enough to make a sane man go ballistic with the amount of crap that you have to put up with throughout the game in order to get to the final stage. After the walk up a tall building, you’ll face off against Zuul and attempt to defeat the game. Other than that, there is nothing else to the game that you really have to look for or figure out, so be prepared for plenty of back and forth traveling with the ghost traps!

The control that you find here in Ghostbusters is down right horrendous. With instances of unresponsive control {or Ghost Control as I call it}, you’ll find that actually making it through the stages is more of a test in patience than it is skill! The driving scenes really aren’t all that hard to get through, but you’ll find that even if you avoid the cars, the ghosts will almost certainly hit you, even if you’re jamming on the directional pad to go in another direction. This type of control is something that immediately kills the fun factor in a game, and with some games that feature this type of control, there is no excuse for them, or even to play through them more than once, no matter what your skill level is. Veterans of platform games will find this to be nothing more than an exercise, but beginners will probably find it to be more than what they are bargaining for and throw the control more than study it!

Visually, the game lacks detailing and color in just about every portion of the game. To give the title a little credit, it does go from top down to side scrolling view, but that isn’t enough to make a difference once you’re a few minutes into the game. Trying to keep with the ‘spooky’ theme that the movie and the game is supposed to represent doesn’t mean that the game should be devoid of all color! When I first played the game, I thought my television was busted, simply because there was so much gray-wash in the color scheme, that it didn’t seem to have any life to it. The special effects also run the same way, and you’ll find that the true lack of innovation, detail, design and otherwise is enough to make a grown man cry. Other than that, the images break up when there is too much going on during the game, and ultimately, makes the game rather impossible to play if you’re looking to see some flash and flare.

Audio wise, they butchered the main theme song from the movie, and in all honesty, that is all that you’ll hear throughout the game. The same tone being repeated over and over is almost enough to make you dive out the nearest window into a pool of razor blades! Add into this the fact that the sound effects sound as though they have been ported over from every other action game known to man, and you have a medley of ear-bleeding sounds that don’t belong in any video game, even a crappy rendition of a rather popular movie.

Ghostbusters is a true flop any way that you slice it. With hard to use control, sub-par audio and a visual scheme that just uses way too much gray, it’s almost a wonder why any one in their right mind would ever want to pick this game up and play. Playing the game, with the repetitive game play and the lack of useful items is just another nail driven in the coffin of this title, and if you find it on the bargain shelf at some used game store, buy it so you can take it outside and smash the hell out of it! It truly is a bane on the action adventure genre and should be treated accordingly

I'd rather slap a biker than sit by as you try to pass other people's reviews as your own:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587301-ghostbusters/reviews/review-28988

I don't allow plagiarism in this forum. Don't do it again.