Ghostbusters The Video Game (PlayStation 3)

It's good. If you're a fan of Ghostbusters (and maybe even Ghostbusters 2), that's all you needed to know, so you can go out and grab your copy without worrying that you'll have to tread through bad game mechanics just to get a few good laughs. If for some reason you're a newcomer to the franchise, that's OK too. Ghostbusters The Video Game is a humorous and amusing third-person action-adventure with some clever mechanics and loads of personality. It's not all pleasurable, due to some tedious mechanics and other issues, but if what's most important to you is some lighthearted fun, then you'll find enough in this package to keep a smile on your face.

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No shocker here, but Ghostbusters The Video Game is funny. The script was penned by original film scribes Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, and while it doesn't quite reach the heights of the 1984 comedy classic, it rides the film's coattails quite comfortably. It's 1991, and you play an unnamed rookie joining the ghostbusting team, the members of which are voiced amiably by the stars of the movies: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson. There are some moments when the performances sound phoned in (Bill Murray sounds a bit too sleepy even for Bill Murray), but there's no doubting that these are the same characters that delighted us in the '80s. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis don't reprise their roles, but you'll hardly miss them as the plot careens forward, reuniting you with old spectral friends and propelling you through a pleasant variety of earthly and otherworldly locales. Not every joke soars, but you'll find it difficult to stop grinning, and you'll probably let out a few guffaws from time to time. Venkman's laconic womanizing, Egon's deadpan pseudoscientific explanations--there's wit here for fans and newcomers alike.

Thus begins a journey through museums, libraries, cemeteries, and even alternate dimensions. As you get to the bottom of the evil powers behind the increasing paranormal activity in and around New York City, you and the AI-controlled 'busters explore a surprising variety of environments and face off against a lot of interesting and creepy apparitions. You'll recognize a few of them, such as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, though your final face-off against this returning monstrosity is a disappointing letdown. Thankfully, you'll meet plenty of new, fascinating meanies and either grapple them into traps using your proton pack or simply vanquish them completely. The pack has four modes, but you'll use the default mode most frequently; not only does it emit a capture stream that lets you grab onto weakened ghosts and wrestle them into traps, but it emits a nice strong blast of energy called a boson dart, which is handy for weakening a number of different enemies. A second mode grants you a shock blast (think shotgun) and a stasis stream that slows some enemies down, while a third, the meson collider, lets you shoot a homing beacon onto enemies and then blast them with rapid-fire beams. A fourth mode is the second-most handy one; its primary firing mode, a stream of green goo, makes it endlessly useful, while its slime tethering capability helps you solve a few puzzles and offers an additional and clever way of trapping your apparitional adversaries.

The Sedgewick is all here for the trashing.

Weakening and trapping your enemies is the most enjoyable activity in the game. Generally, you weaken your enemy using the weapon most suited to the occasion, and then maneuver it into a trap using the capture stream. It's not as easy as it sounds. Some of the little buggers put up quite a fight, and even if you slam your target on the ground, it isn't uncommon to have a ghost wrangle itself away from the trap's capture beam. The more Ghostbusters you have dealing with the same enemy, the easier it becomes. You're never quite in control of these encounters, though the feel pleasantly authentic; it's like baiting a huge fish and trying to reel it in as it struggles. You can purchase pack upgrades that make this task, among others, a lot simpler. For example, you'll eventually be able to slam-dunk ghosts into a trap, which is a quick and satisfying way of ensnaring one of the pesky poltergeists.

You'll face off against an interesting variety of meanies, including some terrific-looking bosses. Some of them require using your various modes of fire, and they're often good fun. There are some minor tactics involved during these encounters, though bosses don't require a lot of creative thinking. For the most part, you'll be doing the same things throughout the game, which can get a bit tedious in time--especially when you realize that two of your four firing modes are doing the enormous majority of the work. The tedium is compounded some by the game's medium-paced tempo; your default movement speed is slow, and there are a few too many chunks during which you aren't trapping any ghosts. Yet while the action itself doesn't offer a lot of variety, the diverse environments, occasional puzzles, and wide array of enemy designs will keep you involved. Besides, trapping an enemy is so gratifying (again, think of bagging a humongous trout) that it's easy to look past the repetition.

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