Who Ya Gonna Call? (Ghostbusters)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Ghostbusters
Date:	14/02/01 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see review

Disadvantages: see review

This was a bit of a bizarre addition to the computer gaming world...although certainly original. Basically you follow the films plot(sort of) and must capture ghosts whilst preventing the Gate keeper and key master from getting it on downtown.

At the start of the game you get to kit out your car with your ghostbusting stuff inclduing such things as the traps, gghost detector and the vital Vacuum cleaner(why?) to suck up the ghosts...

The main play area is a map of the city streets and buildings. Ghosts float in from the four corners and you must drive your car around the streets, sucking them up in the vacuum cleaner on the front of the vehicle. These sequences tend to take ages and are blatantly boring and unnecessary but hey...what the hell...

If ghosts remain on screen for too long then the city's PK energy rating goes up and some of the building may become inhabited by a ghost. But not to fear! You can go there and catch them in one of you traps. Two of you ghostbusting team have to lay one of the ghost traps, and then trap it within the beams of their lasers, before pushing the plunger on the trap and hoping it will grab it. Cross the beams however and you'll fuse the packs and have to return to base for a recharge which not only wastes time but aso allows the ghosts to get a stronger hold on the city by raising the PK energy rating. Catch the ghost however and you get money..yeyyy!!!

If the city's Pk energy rating gets too high then there will be a marshmallow alert and the big man will appears to walk across some of your buidings, infestng them with ghosts and raising the PK rating.

So why do you care about PK ratings? Well when this gets higher then the gatekeeper and keymaster move faster in their search for each other - something you must prevent at all costs.

I have no idea whether this game has an end - ie. whether you can actually defeat the gatekeeper/keymaster as I always got bored afte
r a while, but until then its quite good fun. With the money you get from trapping ghosts you can buy add-ons to your weaponry/car arangement and it all looks quite advanced for its time. The main problem with this game though was the playability. Yes it was fun...unless you were driving in that damn car which took absolutely ages to get to places. Even if you weren't trapping ghosts on the way you had to watch the entire journey, which was blatantly boring. The ghosts catching bits were good though, and souping up the car was always fun.

Overall, not a bad game, but with a few niggly bits which let it down greatly.


***Some Good News***

With all the emulation sites I've found recently, you can play this and games like it free of charge...whoohoo!!!

check out sites like

www.spectrumarchive.freeserve.co.uk/
www.classicgaming.com

you might have to search around for an emulator which suits you best though, some are a bit iffy to say the least.

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