The Real Ghost-Busters reviewGhostbusters for the Game Boy....won't they ever learn? The NES one was bad enough, why did they produce
another one? For some reason unknown to mankind, or indeed unknown to the wisest of beings, I played this game. As I'm sure some of you already know, the Real Ghostbusters was a cartoon version of the Ghostbusters film. This was the only side product I know created due to the existence of the film that had all the Ghostbusters in. But does this game have such a luxury and honor to have all four Ghostbusters in? I doubt it...
The title screen greets you with an 8-bit rendition of the Ghostbusters theme, which, to be fair, is a degree better than the NES one. There is a password selection to get to stages quickly, so you don't have to do the entire game in gone go, that's a nice feature, you know, for a Ghostbusters game. So far, everything looks promising. Maybe this won't be so bad. As you press start, you are shown with a cut scene to let you know what the story is about. So one of the Ghostbusters, I think Peter, is walking on top of some big building, where he walks on some thin bit of wood, and a small opening (one could say a trap door), appears and Peter falls down. You see him fall down some more, and you see him still falling. Riveting. As he hits the ground, you see that he is not hurt at all from falling such a great distance. Pretty sure no human could survive that great a fall. Then you see him come across a room, with a sparkly star thing at the back of the room. This is more of a "Look, before you play this game,
this is how you play it, as you probably never heard of an instruction booklet before." sort of cut scene more than anything else. I just like how the game is blatantly telling you how to play the game.
You have to collect all the star things in the room. Not all of them are in plain sight, though. Some are hidden in blocks with a cross pattern on them. How do you break them? With explosives? Na, that's far too simple. How about a pickaxe? I hear you say. Again, that would be too sensible. Well, with your Proton Pack. Yeah, I know. You use it to destroy blocks. these blocks re-appear after a while, and if you are caught in those blocks as they re-appear, you'll die instant. Sometimes these blocks contain items, like start things used to open the door. I think the star things might be pieces of keys, and you piece them together to make a key for the door so it will open. or, you know, they're pieces of ghosts souls that take mercy on you and turn into a ghost key. Who knows? Maybe the blocks are ghost blocks, which requires a Proton Pack to destroy, and there are an infinite number of them, which take up their spots to feel like their part of something or something like that. But if that's the case, why don't you use the Proton Pack to defeat the ghosts in the up-coming levels? It's amazing how little these things are used to defeat ghosts in these Ghostbusters games.
This game play is kinda like Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle and King Solomon wrapped in one, although you can't create blocks. Which can only mean one thing. The game gets boring very quickly. After the 14th stage, I was brain dead. And there are 51 stages in total, with the last level being a boss level (surprise there). You can collect items within the game to help you get along in these levels, but you have to use everything you collect. Clocks to increase time, not automatic, you gotta use it from your inventory, which i find bizarre, as I can't think of a time in any game where extra time is a bad thing. Why would you want the option to "have" more extra time? Can't it just be added there automatically? Yes, I would like more time, who wouldn't? Who would say "Ah, extra time, I'll use that at the last second!", your going to get the same amount of total time weather it's added there automatically or weather you use it at the last moment, so why not just cut out the middle man and add there in the first place? Keys are also another issue with this system. Doesn't open doors automatically, you gotta use it first. Again, why? You're going to use all the keys in the level anyway, so why do I need to pick the right shaped key to open it, when it should open automatically?
Take a game like Doom. you need to get different coloured keys, and you need to get health to stay alive. Imagine having to pause the game to apply health, or to pause the game to select the right coloured key to open a door. The game does it automatically for your convenience and there is a load of stuff trying to kill you. Plus, having this makes the game flow much better. Here, it just slows down the game somewhat. Granted, there is a level that makes you choose between three different doors to go further down in a level, in which this key choosing business is rather helpful. However, as you can't see what's below before it's too late, it makes it a rather unfair level, and therefore, makes the point the game was trying to make rather pointless.
However, I will make two acceptations to this system. Hearts to increase your health, as this is actually quite helpful having to
have to use it, as you can save it for later. You can also collect bombs to defeat enemies (again, helpful to place wherever you need it to go). Yes, you use the comical cartoon shaped bomb to defeat enemies coming your way. You just select it in your inventory, and it's placed down. When an enemy walks into it, it blows up, defeating it. Is Peter too much of a wimp to go head on with it's Proton Pack?
Sometimes, you have to collect like a million pieces of these star things in a level. Is that really necessary? Why not just like five or ten at the most? Why 35? You're just making this game last longer than it should. When you die, you have to collect all the pieces again, and it gets tiresome after the first death. Sometimes, you can't tell what's below you, and you hit some dirty water or lava or fire that hurts you, which seems really unfair. How was I suppose to know that was there? What's even more unfair is that some spots release spikes faster than you can react. Thankfully, you don't die instantly when you get hit by these spikes, which can't be said for some of our more tougher super heroes.... There are also some warp spots that take you back to the beginning of the level. Some of these you can see quite clearly (a door with the letter "W" on the top), and some are are just hidden unfairly. You would be walking, and with that is you start to not trust that background at all, and you start jumping over it when there isn't a teleport spot there, or if there is actually a helpful teleport with that background. And the background changes from time to time, and others is just random. This game is quite unfair to a player trying to complete it as quickly as possible (and I wouldn't blame them).
The graphics are quite plain. The backgrounds are uninteresting and the water and such is quite poorly made. The animations are slow and chunky. I like how you can make Peter attempt to walk in mid-air as he is falling. There really isn't anything to say about the graphics of this game....other than they are horrible.
The music, however, it quite good. I love the Ghostbusters theme, as it is quite accurate to the original song, with very few sour notes to talk about. The music you hear as you are beginning a new stage is rather creepy and eerie and rather awesome. However, once you hear it a fair few times, it loses it's touch and gets annoying. In fact, all the music, including the tune you hear when you get the key to the end of the level, is awesome in some way, but it doesn't age well and gets old quickly.
The game isn't that difficult. The only thing you really need to complete this game is patience and an odd will to complete this game. If you have ever played Bug's Bunny's Crazy Castle, then you can understand how boring this game can get. The goals are simple, the puzzles aren't that challenging, and the level design is extremely unfair, causing you to die once or twice, having to go through that all that purgatory again.
Overall, I give this game a 3.8/10 It's not worth playing till the end. The game didn't satisfy me when I completed it, and the ending isn't all that desired for. It's got awesome music, but you need to enjoy it while you can. At best, it's safe to play this game, but when you get bored of it, don't play it again. There won't be anything new when you play this game again. Not very challenging, bad graphics, terrible level design and only one Ghostbuster....it's not as bad as the NES game, but it's shockingly close.
Graphics
3 Sound
8 Addictive
1 Depth
2 Story
1 Difficulty
3
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