Ghostbusters II Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
213Developed and published by Activision in 1989.
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When you release a box office smash like Ghostbusters that earns millions of dollars through ticket sales, launches a hit cartoon series and a huge range of popular kids toys and other merchandise, you'd be crazy not to try and create a sequel.
Unfortunately, such sequels are usually inferior when compared to their predecessors and can do more harm to the brand than good. The Ghostbusters II movie couldn't live up to high watermark set by the original film, and, unsurprisingly, neither was this video game sequel.
Understandably, the developers of this sequel decided not to rehash the original game's structure, but the end result is much more formulaic.
The game is split into three sections, each focusing on a key scene from the film. Before each section comes a brief summary of the story so far and what is is about to occur. If nothing else, I was quite impressed that the entire Ghostbusters II plot is contained in about 30 seconds of cut-scene, and even that is abridged!
The first level is based on the Ghostbusters descent into the abandoned Van Horne railway station below the streets of New York. The objective is to lower your Ghostbuster through the shaft in order to take a sample from the river of slime flowing through the tunnel network. In order to collect the slime, the player must collect parts of the slime scoop, which are positioned on platforms protruding from the walls of the tunnel.
Moving left and right on the joystick will swing you backwards and forwards, but the items can only be collected if when you're facing the right direction. The only way to turn is to hold the fire button down and push left or right, which means you'll end up firing your proton pack and draining the battery just to turn around!
Ghostly hands and apparitions adorn the walls, grabbing the player and spitting gobs of ectoplasm that will drain health on contact. To These ghosts can be temporarily stunned with a blast of the proton pack, giving you a few seconds to lower yourself further into the tunnel. The only real challenge here is from the ghosts that attempt to chew through the cable from which the player is suspended.
The second stage sees the Ghostbusters atop the Statue of Liberty, striding down Broadway in a horizontal shoot 'em up section. This section must be completed before the clock strikes midnight, else you'll lose a life and be forced to replay the level from the beginning.
You control some kind of magical projection of the flame from the statue's torch and must shoot waves of ghosts before they hit the statue.
Both getting hit by ghosts and shooting fireballs use up slime energy, represented by the beaker of slime in the bottom left of the screen. This can be restored by sending the citizens following the statue to collect slime droplets released by destroyed ghosts, although care must be taken not to touch them with your torch flame, or let them make contact with any of the ground-based ghoulies.
This design mechanic is quite interesting, but seems poorly implemented due to the fact that the slime droplets seem to disappear at random before your men can collect them. I couldn't work out why the slime would sometimes stay on the ground and why, at other times, it vanished into thin air.
The third and final section sees the Ghostbusters take on Vigo the Carpathian in a showdown in the Museum of Art. The objective here is to first rescue Dana Barrett's baby, whom Vigo needs in order to resurrect himself. Of all the sections in the game, this is undoubtedly the worst. The only way to defeat Vigo is to hit him using the proton beams from two Ghostbusters simultaneously, but the game seems to be extremely selective in registering when both beams are hitting him.
Should you actually manage to banish Vigo, his spirit possesses one of the Ghostbusters and you must then repeat the process of trapping him, although this time it must be done next to (or near) the painting canvas. This proves incredibly difficult as Vigo will be shooting plasma bolts all over the place and will quickly kill off your Ghostbusters if you're not careful.
Sadly, Ghostbusters II is definitely a game that is the sum of it's parts, and all of those are rubbish! The graphics and audio can only be considered average at best and there's very little depth to any of the sections. What makes matters worse is that the game is a multi-load, but only takes half as long to complete as the original Ghostbusters, which was both a single-load and considerably better game!
Ultimately, Ghostbusters II is a game burdened by the player's sense of expectation, only to be buried under the weight of it's own mediocrity.
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