Way back in the 90s when Blockbuster reigned supreme, you could rent video game consoles for a couple days. You'd get a big plastic case with the system loaded inside, slotted neatly into carved foam like some kind of deadly weapon. I remember my mom coming home with an NES she picked up for a weekend, and two games: Super Mario Bros. 3 and Ghostbusters. Thankfully, something was wrong with the console my mom rented and it refused to play either game, sparing me from forming any early memory of the NES version of Ghostbusters. I only learned about how horrible it was much later, I think through a Seanbaby article in the back of an issue of EGM. It was either that or the AVGN video, which I would strongly attribute to its lasting legacy as once of the biggest pieces of crap to ever hit the system.
This review is not about the NES Ghostbusters, of course, but rather the Sega Genesis game of the same name which is often touted as one of the extremely few good, if not great, Ghostbuster games. Unfortunately, the people who think this have looked directly into the ghost trap and had their brains scrambled, or else have had their opinions so colored by the NES title that any other game with the Ghostbusters branding seems like a revelation by comparison.
To be fair, I may perhaps have my own bias here, as this game reminds me a lot of the Ocean developed Addam's Family game for the Genesis, which is really one of the absolute worst things I ever played as a kid. This is due in part to the super-deformed aesthetic of both games, which I think looks atrocious, but mechanically I find both to be completely unwieldy. The Ghostbusters (Peter, Egon, and Ray. No Winston. Zero respect for a workin' man.) are never on the same level of slippery as Gomez, who plays as if he's bathed in grease and covered himself in banana peels, but making tight jumps feels janky and falling short usually drops you down a fair ways.
Levels take place inside large buildings that are in the midst of a ghost attack. They can be a bit confusing to navigate at times and take entirely too long to finish. I fond the music to mostly be grating throughout, though the rendition of the Ghostbusters theme is fine and about as good as it gets from this era of hardware. Boss battles are a highlight and probably the games strongest suit, and even then it's a pretty mixed bag.
Maybe if I played this as a kid I would've landed better with me. I was way into Ghostbusters at the time and whatever similarities it had with Ocean Soft's Addam's Family might have been easier to handwave due to my affection for the franchise. As an adult, the value of Ghostbusters outside the first two movies has been effectively torched multiple times over, and it's very easy for me to look at this game for what it is: a messy, ugly waste of time.
This review is not about the NES Ghostbusters, of course, but rather the Sega Genesis game of the same name which is often touted as one of the extremely few good, if not great, Ghostbuster games. Unfortunately, the people who think this have looked directly into the ghost trap and had their brains scrambled, or else have had their opinions so colored by the NES title that any other game with the Ghostbusters branding seems like a revelation by comparison.
To be fair, I may perhaps have my own bias here, as this game reminds me a lot of the Ocean developed Addam's Family game for the Genesis, which is really one of the absolute worst things I ever played as a kid. This is due in part to the super-deformed aesthetic of both games, which I think looks atrocious, but mechanically I find both to be completely unwieldy. The Ghostbusters (Peter, Egon, and Ray. No Winston. Zero respect for a workin' man.) are never on the same level of slippery as Gomez, who plays as if he's bathed in grease and covered himself in banana peels, but making tight jumps feels janky and falling short usually drops you down a fair ways.
Levels take place inside large buildings that are in the midst of a ghost attack. They can be a bit confusing to navigate at times and take entirely too long to finish. I fond the music to mostly be grating throughout, though the rendition of the Ghostbusters theme is fine and about as good as it gets from this era of hardware. Boss battles are a highlight and probably the games strongest suit, and even then it's a pretty mixed bag.
Maybe if I played this as a kid I would've landed better with me. I was way into Ghostbusters at the time and whatever similarities it had with Ocean Soft's Addam's Family might have been easier to handwave due to my affection for the franchise. As an adult, the value of Ghostbusters outside the first two movies has been effectively torched multiple times over, and it's very easy for me to look at this game for what it is: a messy, ugly waste of time.