Ghostbusters: The Video Game has you playing as a fifth newly-recruited member to the Ghostbusters team, known only as ‘Rookie’ by the others. The game is set after the second film, with the city once again calling on the Ghostbusters team to rid them of the supernatural. The film’s original cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson have all returned to provide voices for their characters and Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis also helped to write the script, so you can expect similar humour to the films.
During the game you will come across a variety of ghosts, and some of them will be familiar if you’ve ever watched the films. You’ll come across Slimer in the ballroom of the Sedgewick Hotel, the Grey lady at the library, and Marshmallow man on the streets of New York, but of course you’ll also be trying to trap a variety of new ghosts as well such as construction workers and phantom chefs.
The PSP version has decided to go the way of the Wii and PS2 instead of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions and have cartoon graphics. We’ve come to expect nice-looking games and smoothing thanks to the power of the PSP but this is not always the case. These graphics aren’t bad by any means, but on some of the levels and cut scenes you can see the frame rate dip slightly and there is blurriness on other levels. The audio is not of the best quality - due to high compression probably - and in some places you can tell even when using headphones. Some of the levels are rather bare as well, with a lack of destroyable items, the destructive power of the photon pack can’t be shown off as well as in the PS3/Xbox 360 versions. There is still a wide variety of levels to get through and the audio brings lots of laughs while playing, which can make up for some of the frame rate issues.
Most levels in the game are pretty similar. They have you going to a location in order to catch some out-of-control ghost or another. This generally involves the team splitting up to look around, for example; the first level has you searching for a recently escaped Slimer in a hotel. After spotting him he then disappears and you have to walk around, relying on you PKE meter to find him. This is something you’ll have to get used to as this is what happens on most levels. After finding the ghost you then have to weaken them down in order to trap them. This can be a huge task in itself. You have to use the photon pack, or one of its many attachments, such as a shotgun mode, to weaken the ghost. This can be quite difficult to accomplish due to the control scheme, with strafing controlled by the analogue stick and the face buttons to look around. There is a slight ‘lock on’ effect so you don’t have to aim exactly at the ghost to get them. However after having played the first few levels you will gradually become used to the control scheme and it will be less difficult to use. Trapping a ghost is however a different story. To move the ghost towards the trap beam you just have to hit the correct buttons in time and the ghost automatically gets trapped once it moves into the beam.
Overall this could have been a must-have PSP title but is let down by a few small niggles here and there, including the loading times between levels which can seem to take an eternity. However, if you’re a fan of the series I’m sure this would be the game for you, but non-Ghostbusters fans may be better off looking elsewhere.
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