The Internet gaming community is buzzing about the latest update on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Ghostbusters, and frankly I understand why there’s so much excitement and anticipation for this game. Ghostbusters needs to be good. I grew up practically worshipping the original film. I consumed The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, played with a big box of the action figures, read the official magazine, drank the Slimer fruit punch, and kept a running countdown of days until the film’s sequel hit theaters. I played the various video games based on the franchise and typically came away disappointed with the experience. With the exception of the original Ghostbusters adventure for the Commodore 64, I’ve never played a really good Ghostbusters game. There just hasn’t been a game that captures the spirit of the original films. The basic concept has been there, sure, but where are the ghoulish ghosts? The underlying humor? The fun chills and frights? You won’t find them in the previous games.
Granted, the previous games were mostly created during the 1980s when the game industry hadn’t yet found the magic formula for successfully turning a movie into a comparatively decent game. Today’s movie-to-game projects typically benefit from the input of the creative crew responsible for the film. The participation of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray put the new Ghostbusters game a step ahead of any of the previous titles before a single screenshot hit the Internet. The horsepower driving the modern consoles goes a long way towards bringing the experience one would expect from a proper Ghostbusters game. Legitimate thrills just weren’t possible from the old 8-bit generation of hardware.
It takes much more than just gifted creative talent and technical capability to make a soild video game, of course, which is why the last piece of the puzzle is so important to this game. Ghostbusters needs to be good because the films are a beloved part of many gamers’ personal histories. This game needs to be for all of us that spent our childhood nights dreaming of strapping on a proton pack. It’s a high standard for a development team to meet, but based on the current reports regarding gameplay, I think that things are making great progress.
