Pocket Gamer TV posted their video review of Ghostbusters: The Video Game for mobile devices, which was published by Vivendi Mobile.  

Ghostbusters is a supurb and wonderful game which includes all the ghostly capes of the source material.  It will have you humming the theme tune all day long, itching for another ghost.

For the impatient, the review begins at 2:02.

I remember when I first witnessed what appeared to be a trailer for a Ghostbusters game, awhile back… it looked as if it took place in an apocalyptic world, with HUGE space marine-esk equipment, and the Ecto-1 had just appeared on “Pimp My Ride” and came out a pimp-a-licious wreck.

It was my greatest fear come to life. There was a buzz in the air for a new Ghostbusters game that had lost all the Ghostbusters charm! I didn’t want Peter Venkman as Master chief! No! I wanted the Venkman that I remembered and loved! Soon after, things quieted down and the idea of a Ghostbusters game left the public’s immediate consciousness. But recently news of an official Ghostbusters game resurfaced, and guess what!…it was the old Ghostbusters I know and loved! YAY!

But then I noticed some things.

With all this Ghostbusters game footage being released as of late, I have noticed many modifications to the equipment. Some subtle, some not so subtle. First is the PKE meter. The entire front plate is now a big screen with a bar graph showing the levels of Psycho-kinetic Energy.

Another subtle change I have noticed are the addition of new lights to the pack. What was once simply a label or hook/clamp is now a series of blinking or rotating lights.

Perhaps the biggest alteration to the classic equipment is the merger of the slime blower with the proton pack. It now appears to have a small slime canister attached to the left side with an extra tube feeding into the proton gun.

Now you may be wondering, “Is Too Zuul For School not for these changes? Is he talking smack about the new game?! Blasphemy!”. Not at all! As a matter of fact, I actually enjoy these changes! First off, the new PKE display makes perfect sense. I always felt the old design had a screen that was way too small to be practical in the field. As for the pack lights, I have always subscribed to the theory “The more flashing lights, the better”. This hold true with space ships, robots, ray guns, and proton packs. Why have a label with science mumbo jumbo when you can have flashing and rotating lights! WAY MORE FUN! And lastly, the slime blower attachment. This one had to grow on me a little, but I found it makes more sense than having a separate piece of equipment all together like in Ghostbusters 2. And the use of the slime as a tether is rather brilliant. Plus it was integrated in such a way to not destroy the design of the classic pack. Over all, it is a grand update on a classic look.

But this creates a whole new playing field in a specific sub culture of fandom…..THE PROP MAKERS! For nearly 20 years now, Ghostbuster fans have had a limited selection of props to recreate. You had your two movies, and to a lesser extent, The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters. With no Ghostbusters 3 released, it seemed like the idea of any new equipment was dead. But now you have “Ghostbusters: The Game” nestled nicely between the movies and the cartoons. How long before we find pictures online of prop replicas for the PKE meter (Video game variant), or the Proton Pack (with slime shooter attachement)?

As a matter of fact, I would like to set up a challenge right now! I want to see if anyone is able to recreate a full size prop from the video game BEFORE the video game is released this fall! And those who do, I would like to premiere the pictures on the Ghostbusters.net Blog for the world to see!

It’s a good time to be a Ghosthead.  Post your reply here.

Too Zuul For School