.FLYINGHEAD WE GOT GAME!
.TITLE Who you gonna call on the PSP… Ghostbusters
.AUTHOR James Booth
.SUMMARY Ghostbusters The Video Game was one of the most eagerly anticipated games of Summer 2009, being released on every major gaming platform except the PSP. Then, with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever, Ghostbusters The Video game for PSP was released on November 3, 2009. Is worth the effort, or is too little too late? Read Editor-at-Large James Booth’s opinion in this review of the mobile Ghostbusters.
.OTHER
Ghostbusters The Video Game was one of the most eagerly anticipated games of Summer 2009. It was released on every major gaming platform except the PSP (Playstation Portable). Originally, the PSP was to be included as well, but for some reason developers backed out. Well guess what? Sony said, "No way, cough it up."
So it was, that with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever, Ghostbusters The Video game for PSP was released on November 3, 2009. Sadly, the community response to Ghostbusters on the PSP, shown in Figure A, has been less than enthusiastic.
.FIGPAIR A Who you gonna call?
It would seem all the hooray got played out back in June, but what about the PSP version? Is worth the effort, or is too little too late?
.BREAK_EMAIL To read more about Ghostbusters on the PSP, click here.
.H1 The premise
Ghostbusters The Video Game is set two years after the Ghostbusters II film. The team is still in business in New York City, and paranormal activity is on the rise once again. Business has picked up to the point where the ‘Busters have hired an intern: you.
All of your favorites from the films are back. The triumvirate of Ayckroyd, Murry, and Ramis are there, as well as the supporting voice talents of Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton. Alyssa Milano joins the cast in the role of new female lead Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn. Paranormal-based film favorites such as Slimer, the Grey Lady, and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, shown in Figure B, return as well.
.FIGPAIR B The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man returns.
.H1 The locations
Many of the locations from the film return as well, such as the Sedgewick Hotel, from the famous banquet hall capture of Slimer. Other locations are the New York Public Library, home to the Grey Lady, the Museum of Natural History, and of course, the Ghostbusters Firehouse. Ghostbuster’s creator Dan Aykroyd has said, "this is essentially the third movie."
As well as the familiar locations and people, film fans will recognize the proton packs carried by the ‘busters; backpack-sized particle accelerators used to wrangle their ectoplasmic enemies. Throughout the game, upgrades to the proton pack include such additional features as a "good" slime blower, a stasis stream, shock blast, and others. Players will also make heavy use of the PKE meter (psychokinetic energy) to track down ghostly emanations. Scanning entities with the PKE meter and collecting the appropriate archive page will complete informational entries in Tobin’s Spirit Guide.
Some of these pages you’ll find just laying about, but others are hidden inside furniture, fixtures, etc. How to get them out? Blast them with the proton pack. Don’t worry about the damage bill, the city is picking up the tab; so blast everything in sight.
.H1 The look and feel
Unlike the Ghostbusters game on the larger platforms (PC, Xbox 360, and PS3), which are built on a real-life CGI appearance, the PSP version is more of an animated cartoon build. The play is third-person perspective as shown in Figure C, which I think best suits the small display of the PSP; I’ve always had difficulty with first-person games on consoles, having been raised on the keyboard-and-mouse combo of the PC.
.FIGPAIR C Gameplay is from a third-person perspective.
The cutscenes transition to gameplay quite fluidly, and you’re always given the option to skip a cutscene. Players are walked through the first few levels tutorial-like; and whenever a new entity is encountered that requires special handling, another member of the team will provide hints as to how to proceed.
The controls were a bit awkward at first, using the analog stick for movement and the X,O,Triangle, and Square buttons for aiming. I tried them reversed though, and that was even worse. Eventually I got used to the controls, but aiming with those four buttons has a lack of accuracy and finesse.
Checkpoints are frequent, allowing for easy saving at each one. You can return to the firehouse at any point in a mission, and if done after saving at a checkpoint, you can pick up at that point at a later time. There are also "invisible" mini-checkpoints throughout each level, so that if you die, you pick up at the closest mini-checkpoint. These mini-checkpoints are not saved if you exit the level though.
Ghostbusters on the PSP has not been very well received by the gaming review community, some of the larger gaming publications have ignored it entirely, and I can’t really understand why. Perhaps their attention is more focused on larger titles soon to be released. It didn’t even show up on the Playstation Portable site as an upcoming or new release.
I think Ghostbusters The Video Game on the PSP is great romp through the Ghostbusters universe. It allows us all to do something we wished we could do since the release of the first film in 1984: to strap on a proton pack and become a Ghostbuster. And the cartoon format keeps the game lighthearted, rather than taking the tension-filled, edge-of-the-seat route of many survival-horror games.
I found Ghostbusters on the PSP to be a thoroughly enjoyable game, and if I had any complaint, it would be that it was too short. If played from beginning to end in one sitting, without dying, the entire game would come out to about six hours worth of play — way too short for such a fun game.
Another element I would have like to have seen incorporated was some portion that allowed the player to take control of Ecto-1, the Ghostbuster’s 1959 Cadillac ambulance. This would have fulfilled yet one more fan-fantasy. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the game and happy to give it four out of five.
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.RATING 4
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.H1 Product availability and resources
Learn more about [[http://www.ghostbustersgame.com/psp2/|Ghostbusters the Video Game for PSP]].
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.BIO
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