I played Ghostbusters on the Sega Master System · 4:22pm Aug 28th, 2020
This is the last SMS game for now.
Let me start with a bit of the movie. This movie was bottled lightning, written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It's a great comedy that plays things straight. The characters seem odd until you get to know them, but once you understand them they seem kind of realistic. Like someone you may have met before.
This game … well, it has the name. That being said I've seen the NES version of this game and it looks like the SMS version is better.
Let me take a moment to enjoy the title screen where you get a decent midi of the Ghostbusters theme with a bouncing ball if you want to sing along.
Okay, onto the game … finally.
The game starts with you getting a loan (In theory from Ray's third mortgage) to purchase equipment that you'll use during the game. I'd suggest that you not skimp on some of your purchases. The High Capacity Trap will be more than worth it (you only need one.) Now there is a way to manipulate the password you get when you lose that lets you get a metric ton of money, but I'm not giving away that little secret.
After you finish buying your goods (or accidentally leaving the shop with nothing like I always do) you find yourself on a grid. This is a top down view of the city you're patrolling. There are a few things you should notice right away.
The four yellow birds – these aren't birds, they're ghosts, and if you touch them with your Ghostbuster icon they freeze in place. More on that in a moment.
The two human Icons. These are Dana Barrett and Louis Tully, they'll drain your money if you touch them. Try to avoid them.
A blinking building (But only if you bought a PKE meter) This is a building dealing with ghost activity, go there and catch some ghosts.
There's a bar at top, this is the City's PKE and functions as the timer for the game. Just keep playing as the bar fills and you should get there eventually.
And three points with signs. HQ, this is the Ghost Busters HQ. Shop: Self Explanitory. And Zuul, this is where you go at the end of the game.
Now, those ghosts you touched and froze, that's because you're going to encounter them as you drive towards your destination. Those dots that mark your path, that's where you're driving. The more you move around, the longer you're trip is.
While driving there are obstacles to watch out for. Open manholes, decent drivers, and crazy drivers that swerve all over the road, just like any other driving experience in the midwest. Any Ghosts you touch will show up too, and if you bought the vacuum you can catch them.
As the game advances some building may change to a different color, these are about to be attacked by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and you need marshmallow bait to prevent it.
If you keep on going, eventually the city's PKE maxes out and everyone, including you, go directly to Zuul. (Do not pass go, do not collect $200)
The game completely changes here. You've got four characters standing outside the building as Stay Puft bounces in front of the door. You have to get them all in the door (Well, you don't have to get them all in, but each character lost is one try closer to game over.) Once you get a feel for his movement you can get them in pretty easily.
Anyone remember the climb up the Shinra Building? Meet it's big brother: longer, harder, and older.
Assuming you got all four guys in you've got four chances to get someone to the top. Thankfully you only need to get one to the top to get to Gozer.
The trip up isn't an easy one, ghosts pop up and you have to take them out because if you get touched even once that ghost buster is down and you have to start from the beginning of the stair case. You can shoot the ghosts, but only diagonal up and forward. So aiming is tough. And they get tougher and more frequent as you keep climbing.
There's green Slimers who weave and are some of the toughest to hit. Yellow ghosts that look like the ones you ran over with your car chasing you, swooping upright yellow ones, and yellow ones that throw plates at you. And there's one unique green one that I have a little trouble describing. I always shoot that one on reflex so I don't know anything about it.
The advancement isn't too bad here, it gradually gets harder as you climb so you get used to the difficulty. But it is still difficult so don't just try to glide through this.
Then there's Gozer. You've got all of your remaining Ghostbusters for this fight. And it is hard! You're out in one hit, but you have to really pound on Gozer to take them out. They move back and forth shooting at you, and you also have to avoid attacks from the guardians.
This fight is tough, and when you win … you get a text screen with a blurb about you saving the city and an account number so you can play again with all the money you ended the game with. (Password New Game +)
I did play a couple more games from my childhood, but I'm moving on for now. But this isn't my last dive into Ghostbusters video games. I'm going to do a side by side comparison review of the Ghostbusters Video game that came out on the PS2 and PS3, as they are very different games in more than just their graphics. This one might take me a bit longer to write up.
And here's some things I wanted to say about the movie that I removed because they didn't fit in the review of the game:
Dan Aykroyd didn't just pull the ghost stuff from his backside either, he's a spiritualist and researched what he was writing about.
Harold Ramis only acted in the film because he didn't feel anyone who auditioned fit the part of Egon.
Slimer was an homage to John Belushi.
Paul Reubens was supposed to play Gozer. That's part of why Gozer was always referred to as “He” throughout the movie yet when you see Gozer it's a woman playing them.
Reminds me of a fanfic where Pinkie Pie tells an off the wall story where Rarity goes,
"They won't get me like they got mom!"
Then is attacked by baddies who tell her, they've learned Rarity is part marshmallow, and "must be harvested for the good of Equestria."
AJ says it was freaky in spite of it being obviously untrue!