Movie to game translations have almost always been terrible. Not just bad mind you.... terrible. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I allowed myself to get excited about Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I decided I'd give in to my nerd fantasy of bustin' ghosts and was thankful to find so many people involved with the original movie along for the ride. Obviously starting with the 4 frontmen themselves (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson) not only providing the voice work, but Aykroyd and Ramis wrote the damn thing!

So it's out and I've played it through. My reaction? After the jump!

The first time your character fires up the proton pack in the game and you hear that now classic sound effect I had the biggest, stupidest grin I've had on my face in years. In fact all the sounds brought back memories.  It's as if the game managed to reach into my head, find my inner-nerd and tell him "dude, you've been waiting for this."

The gameplay is nothing groundbreaking or spectacular. At the same time it doesn't collapse under some stupid game-breaking flaw either. It's really an above average third person action game wrapped around nostalgia, with brilliant writing and acting. What the game banks (and delivers) on is the continuation of the Ghostbusters story giving you a chance to not only join the crew, but to bust many, many ghosts.

The game centers mostly around the fighting/capturing of ghosts, and the process is complicated enough to give you a sense of accomplishment when you catch one, but simple enough to not have to hit 10 buttons at once to make something happen. You shoot the ghost with your beam to wear it down, catch it, throw out a trap, and guide the ghost home. It's a process you'll repeat over and over and over, and while it's not the most unique thing in the world I never got sick of it. Different ghosts require different tactics, and there's just something comforting about the sound of that trap door shutting. When the light is green, the trap is clean!

Over the course of the game you'll get new enhancements to the proton pack, and they cover the normal range of weapons you'd find in a game like this. Ice beam, shockwave type thing, shotgun type, and a cool slime thing that can be used to destroy hurtful slime and to "tether" objects to each other. It's a pretty cool weapon as the slime tether shrinks quickly, so if you shoot a ghost with on end and then shoot the ground the ghost gets slammed into the ground stunning it. I used this to throw statues into ghosts too.  It was a fun weapon that gave you different ways to complete objectives.

To break up the action the developers have thrown in some PKE Meter scanning helps you find objcetives and offers you a bit of a rest from the action.  I found these sections a bit on the boring side and was glad when they were over. They never last too long, so these PKE breaks may have been an intentional move on the developers part to make me anticipate the fights more.

As stated earlier, the game was written by Aykroyd and Ramis, taking place just after the events of Ghostbusters II. With the exception of Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, they got nearly everyone involved in the movies back to reprise their roles and I can't tell you how much that seems to validate the story. You've got no problem believing this is a continuation of the movies cause all the people are here!  They find good reasons within the plot to go back to visit a lot of the Ghostbusters lore, so expect to experience brand new fights with classic series baddies like Stay Puft and the Libriarian ghost.

Even the multiplayer here is worth a look. It's all co-op style and centers around catching ghosts as well, but with mildly different objectives. Sometimes you're trying to catch as many ghosts as possible in a period of time.  Sometimes your trying to protect an artifact from ghosts who try to swoop in a steal it. Typical variations on the same theme really. Again, nothing earth shattering, but competent and more importantly... fun.

So you take a childhood dream (being able to be a ghostbuster) and meld it with competent gameplay and you end up with something of an extreme rarity.... a game based on a movie that's worth playing.

Yay! The satisfaction of slamming a ghost into a wall them guiding him into the trap. It never gets old.

Nay! No compelling reason to play the campaign after you beat it.

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