A new Ghostbusters game. Do we even care?

16th Nov 2007

Movie and game fans of a certain age are now buzzing from the news of Vivendi’s newly announced Ghostbusters game. It’s a license deal guaranteed to send geek excitement alarms wailing with ambulance sirens and flashingwith blue lights, but an important question must be raised. Why?

Ghostbusters is now a twenty-three year old movie, and aside from a few vague promises of a sequel from co-writer and star Dan Ackroyd and a couple of comic books, the franchise is largely dead. Previous attempts to turn classic movies into modern videogames have been rewarded with middling reviews at best, and Ghostbusters being a cult property, is there anyone left who still cares? Is there any need for this game at all now?

Yes. Yes there most certainly is. Ghostbusters has more going for it as a videogame adaptation than almost any other movie franchise you could think of, old or new. The list of reasons why this is a good idea is longer than a proton stream, and if you’ll accompany us, we’ll take you right through it.

Monsters

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.