I’m going to go ahead and get this out of the way: I fucking love all things Ghostbusters. The movies? Seen ‘em both more times than I can remember (yes, even Ghostbusters 2). The cartoon? Watched it religiously. The toys? Let’s put it this way, if I had kept them in good condition (you know, by not PLAYING with them) the collection, by volume, would be worth a fortune. Hell, I still have all my Ghostbusters comics. I even liked the god awful NES attempt at an adaptation. So I’ve been watching the drama surrounding this game pretty closely and after a long hard wait, I finally got my hands on Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

Alright, I’ve seen the side by side graphics comparisons and I now feel inclined to throw my opinionated hat into the ring. Who really gives a shit? This kind of discussion always devolves into fanboyisms and chest thumping nerd-speak that leads nowhere. KNOCK IT OFF! The graphics (even on the supposedly inferior PS3 iteration) are better than average with an impressive level of destructibility. The character models look good but animate a little stiffly and the game engine voice synch is almost distractingly bad at some points. But this game is just too damn fun to dwell on a few graphical hiccups. Getting back to the environments for a second, they look great. There’s a level of detail here that is much appreciated, especially in the fire house.

The atmosphere in this game has significant nostalgia attached to it as well as moments of genuine creepiness. That being said it’s the same kind of creepiness as the movies so it’s pretty tongue in cheek. The game definitely feels like the third chapter in the Ghostbusters’ story. A big part of that is the fact that Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd returned to write it (and reprise their roles, along with Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson, and a few surprises). It does seem like they struggled here and there with the type of scripting that a videogame calls for. Nevertheless, the story remained entertaining and more often than not funny for the duration of the game.

The new uniform is a little snug in the crotch.

Ghostbusters plays like you would hope a Ghostbusters game would play like. Blasting ghosts and pulling those fuckers into the traps is a joy that is never diminished. And thankfully there are a ton of ghosts in this sucker. The boss encounters are high points in a game that is actually pretty easy.

One of the only real knocks against this game is that it is kind of on the short side. It’s one hell of a ride while it lasts though. There’s not really any incentive to play through the single player campaign once you finish but thankfully the multiplayer aspect is pretty fun too, albeit a bit bland.

The bottom line here is that if you like the Ghostbusters you should already be playing Ghostbusters The Video Game. But if you haven’t been steeped in the mythos of this franchise there’s something here for you as well. This is a solid game with fun mechanics and a clever and funny story. Definitely worthy of a Ray Parker Jr. strut.