Or to be more precise, the game I played that called itself Ghostbusters 2.
This was a game I played when I was a little tacker alongside my brother (more on that later) on the venerable Commodore 64. Unsurprisingly, this is yet one more title in the dubious field of 'movie-tie-in-game'. So naturally, we can expect the following: Not much of a game speak of and what little there is restricted to following the plot of the movie.
Of course, many of you younger tykes may scoff at the notion of playing an ancient Commodore 64 game but I can assure you that a) the Commodore 64 was capable of far better games than this and b) the problems that befall current 'movie-tie-in-games' existed back in 1989 and have since been never properly solved.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Observe, if you will, a longplay of the full game:
Original video located here. Accessed 4th July 2016
As you can see, the game consists of three sections that follow the movie closely: First, we have a Ghostbuster (Ray?) descending down the shaft into the Van Horne subway tunnel to retrieve a slime sample. Next, we have the Statue of Liberty striding through New York with it's flame torch defeating swarms of ghosts and finally we have the Ghostbusters themselves confronting Vigo at the museum.
It's certainly a creative and varied approach to game design yes but does it work in practice?
Of course not.
You see, the biggest problem with this game is that the gameplay and controls are a disaster. You, the player are expected to use both the joystick AND the keyboard at the same time!
In the first section, the single-button joystick is used to control the Ghostbuster but the keyboard is used to select the right item to use. And good luck choosing the right item when things are getting hectic!
Later, in the second section, the joystick controls the fireball but the keyboard is used to control the direction of the New York populace who are collecting the slime of the defeated ghosts. That may sound easy in practice were it not for the ghosts marching on the ground and killing off your dudes! And good luck keeping track of everything happening on both the ground and the air!
As for the third section, I didn't see it that often: That second section was more or less a killer for me.
With controls like that you really needed a second person to play this game. And that's where my brother came in: We joined forces to play this game with him on the joystick and me on the keyboard.
We never succeeded in beating the game however. Our attempts were dogged by the tough difficulty, the frustrating gameplay and the unreliability of our gaming partner. That Second Section in particular was really an exercise in frustration even with a second person helping out. Example: I needed to catch the slime form the defeated ghosts. But kept missing big batches of it because of the ground ghosts blocked my path. Could I get my brother to help out and shoot the ground ghosts? No, because he was too tied up shooting the ghosts in the air....
In addition, on the few times we did make it the the third section, I relying on a guide, tried to convince my brother that Janosz (the first enemy) with the slime gun/pack, Vigo (the second enemy) had to be defeated with the Proton Pack. But my brother never believed me.
Still, watching this video I take comfort in the knowledge that I was right.
Of course, this is just one more addition to massive pile of 'movie-tie-in-game' that plague gaming history. Mind you, I will concede that they all can't be the 'lightning in the bottle' success that was Goldeneye but they could at least try and put some effort into it.
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