Game Review: Ghostbusters (Atari, Ricochet)

Ghostbusters, Atari, Ricochet - RT021
  • 9/10
    Score - 9/10
9/10

Summary

Ghostbusters on the Atari might not quite be up to the same level technically as the C64 original, but the gameplay is just as captivating. This is a classic game in every sense and captures the feel of the movie superbly and rightly deserves its reputation as being one of the best movie tie-ins ever released.

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One of Activision’s biggest games of 1984 was their movie tie-ins for the blockbuster film Ghostbusters. While most celebrate the Commodore 64 original of David Crane’s supernatural hit, it made its way to a number of other formats including the 8-bit Atari systems converted by Glyn Anderson and eventually re-released by Ricochet…

Ghostbusters: The Karaoke!

As with the Commodore 64 version, the game opens up with a short sound sample crying out “Ghostbusters” followed by a haunting, cackling laugh. Straight after that, you’re faced with the familiar Ghostbusters logo and Ray Parker Jnr’s iconic theme song pumping out of the speakers. Straight away I was pretty impressed at not only the clarity of the speech – easily on par with that of the C64 version – but at how well the music had been adapted.

Straight after the music starts, the lyrics appear on screen and a bouncing ball appears turning this into the first, if not the only game with its own built in karaoke feature. Timing of the bouncing ball to the lyrics is spot on, and I dare anyone to resist letting the music play through at least once when you load the game up for the first time! As with the Commodore version, pressing the spacebar will break from the music to once again trigger the speech to shout “Ghostbusters” but sadly instead of replacing the music with the speech it simply pauses it so it throws the music out of sync unlike the C64 version which skips the music forward slightly when speech is triggered.

Getting Started

But that’s all just fun and a gimmick that you’ll play around with for a few minutes and doesn’t affect the game itself. Diving into the gameplay, instead of taking on the role of the main characters or copying the plot of the movie, you’re working alongside the main characters of the film and managing your own Ghostbusters franchise on their behalf.

Starting off with $10,000 you’ve got to kit out your operation with a vehicle with all the equipment you need from a wide selection on offer then it’s off to work hunting and capturing ghosts and making a profitable ghost hunting business. Sounds easy? It would be if Zuul wasn’t still around. PK energy is rising in the city and you’ve got to stop it rising too high before the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper can get enough power to bring Zuul back to destroy the city.

Saving The City One More Time…

So how do you do it exactly? There are three key elements and game modes in the game. Onc you’ve chosen your vehicle and all the equipment you need, the bulk of the game is played out on the city map. This highlights buildings that are facing ghost infestation and are in need of help. At the same time, other ghosts roam the city making their way towards Zuul in the city centre. It’s your job to capture as many ghosts as possible earning more than your opening budget before the city’s PK energy level reaches 9,999 and Zuul is unleashed. Each time the roaming ghosts reach Zuul this level rises so you can intercept these en route to each job, scooping them up with your ghost vacuum (if you remembered to buy one).

Just move your cursor around the map (which conveniently looks like the Ghostbusters insignia) and position it underneath any flashing building and press fire to travel to it. Buildings with ghosts there waiting to be captured will flash darker colours and if you have a PK detector equipped some will flash a lighter colour indicating that ghosts will appear soon. As for the roaming ghosts… move over them and you’ll have a chance to catch them too once you start driving.

Drive Time

Driving along is simple enough and the time it takes to reach your destination depends on how long you were moving around the map (represented by the dots you left on the map) and the vehicle you selected as some are faster than others. If you didn’t drive over any roaming ghosts on the way, you can just sit back and watch the ride, but if you did then then pay attention as you’ll see these float past during your trip. Assuming you bought the ghost vaccuum, move your car towards them, press fire when they are near and the vaccuum will suck them up helping to keep the city’s PK levels down.

Anybody Seen A Ghost?

When you arrive at each location, the game switches over to the capture mini game. This is mode puts you outside one of the game’s locations with two of your crew and one of the offending ghosts. To capture said ghost, you simply position a trap, then moving two of your crew into place to guide a ghost over the trap before opening it, earning cash in the process. Miss and the ghost escapes after sliming one of your team, the city’s PK level rises and you’re off to the next job. It’s more a case of timing than anything else but still fun nevertheless.

One thing I did notice here is that the ghosts seem to be much smarter than they are on the Commodore 64 version and they are able to avoid being caught more often. Now whether it was just me struggling with the Atari version or they were genuinely tougher to catch I don’t know, but it did feel as if it offered far more of a challenge which was certainly no bad thing.

Resource Management

All throughout, there is an element of strategy to the game. From the beginning you have to make very careful decisions about what to spend your opening $10,000 on. While the temptation is there to go for a bigger and better car, that leaves you with less funds for equipment and gadgets. The more ghost traps you have, the fewer times you need to jump back in the car return to Ghostbusters HQ to empty them. And if you don’t get the all important Ghost Bait or Marshmallow Detector, you won’t be able to stop the attacks on the city from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

These can be devastating, not only to the city but to your cashflow as you’ll be held responsible to any damaged caused losing thousands from your virtual bank account and potentially ruining your chances of completing the game.

Completing The Game

The game ends in one of three ways. Once the city’s PK levels reach 9,999 then Zuul is unleashed and assuming your franchise is in profit at that stage you have to make your way to the centre building in the city. Here you’ll find a new building guarded by the Marshmallow Man. Just sneak a couple of your team past him and if you manage to successful they’ll close the portal trapping Zuul forever…

If you fail to do this, or if you don’t earn enough cash to get your franchise into profit then it’s game over!

One nice touch at this point for those of you who are successful is that you’re presented with a password at the end with details of a bank account number allowing you to play the game again with the amount of cash that you ended the game with. While this allows you to buy more next time around, it does add a fresh challenge meaning you need to earn more as well!

Graphics and Sound

While not quite up to the levels of the Commodore 64 original, this is a very faithful adaptation. Everything is there that made that such a great game with a superb adaptation of the theme music, solid visuals, plenty of variety in the background graphics and smooth scrolling and animation on the driving sections.

The only minor disappointment I had was with the speech. While it is incredibly clear and is identical to that of the C64, there’s no in-game speech when you capture any ghosts, get slimed or anything and that’s something I did miss during play. It might only be a minor aesthetic change and nothing that impacts on the gameplay itself, but when you’ve heard it on another format, it’s something that you do sadly miss.

Playability

Despite its outward simplicity Ghostbusters is incredibly addictive, helped by the variety in the different sections to the game. Looking back, what seemed at the time to be just a fun game going around the city capturing ghosts, there’s far more depth to it than that. The resource management and planning adds a whole new level to the game, and the intensity as the speed the PK levels rise near the end makes the game incredible tense.

This all adds up to make Ghostbusters such a compelling game and it’s no wonder its so highly regarded over 40 years after it was first released. Even today it holds up reemarkably well and there are very few games that I can say that about.

Overall

Despite working against the odds and having such a short time frame to develop the game in, David Crane and his team managed to create what I consider to be one of the best movie tie-ins ever released. The innovative bank account system gives the game almost endless replayability and increasingly tough challenges to keep you coming back long after you beat it and there’s enough depth and pure gameplay to appeal to gamers far beyond fans of the movie (although let’s face it, who doesn’t love Ghostbusters?).

One of the best releases in the Ricochet range and probably one of my all time favourite 8-bit releases regardless of the system its running on.

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