Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered Review

Ghostbusters was a hit phenomenon in the ’80s and early ’90s. After the massive success of the movies, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing the logo on something, whether it be a lunchbox, a t-shirt or even a sleeping bag. Despite such popularity, nothing was really done with the series after the second movie, unless you count some of the cartoons, one of which was great and the other we’ll just forget about. There was that one movie back in 2016, but many can agree that it should be left forgotten in obscurity. So it seems strange that 20 years after the second movie we would see the release of a full-fledged Ghostbusters video game, and 10 years after that we would get its remaster known as Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered.

This game could be considered the true Ghostbusters 3, as it doesn’t copy the plot from first two movies. Instead, this game comes with an original story set two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2, and it’s even written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. In fact, a large majority of the cast in this game has their original actors reprising their roles, most importantly the four Ghostbusters. Along with the new story comes a new character that you play as, simply known as the rookie. While most games feel awkward having unknown characters thrown into the plot, this game manages to pull it off well. Thankfully the story doesn’t revolve around your character. Instead the conceit is that you’re an equipment tester trying out the latest array of gadgets that could be used on the next ghost emergency.

There was a special amount of passion put into producing this game, making every aspect feel like a traditional Ghostbusters movie. The writing, characters, environments, and music were all handled with such tremendous care. Even something as small as the movement of the Proton Streams had a lot of effort put into animating them to feel authentic to the original movies. This game is also set in a bunch of memorable locations seen in the films, such as a hotel, museum, library, and even ghostly dimensions. These serve to expand the lore of the first two movies, while also exploring concepts meant for the original third movie that never got released.

While this is a relatively short game, the level of detailing in the stages is astounding. The environments have so many destructible objects in them that it’s fun to see what can be manipulated. One scenario has you exploring in a ballroom set up for a Bar Mitzvah and you can completely destroy every table, chair, decorations, food, etc. Even simple things like blasting a wall with your proton pack will leave a permanent burn mark on the wall. Though in true Ghostbusters fashion, you’re penalized for destroying too much property by having your pay docked. You also have a variety of equipment that can interact with the environment, so feel free to use your proton stream to move large objects or use a slime tether to move items with leverage.

You have a nice array of gadgetry to make your job even more fun. There is a PKE Meter that is used to find cursed objects, scan ghosts, or to find hidden passageways. The standard Proton Stream damages and grabs onto ghosts, which you can then toss a ghost trap down and drag the ghosts into it. You then have a Stasis Stream that can freeze enemies in place, a Slime Blower used to clean up black slime, and the Meson Collider, which can shoot out energy balls at enemies for a ton of damage. While this is a single-player game, you will often get to fight alongside the other Ghostbusters. Though if you’re not careful, there is a chance you could cross the streams.

Overall the game should probably take most people about eight hours or so to complete, which as I mentioned earlier is a tad bit short. When you’re having a great time playing the time really does fly by and it would have been great to see more content thrown into this remaster, although it’s understandable that this was probably an impossibility without spending a ton more money and trying to get the team to come back for more. The quality of content that is here is fantastic and it makes the game fun to replay if only to destroy more objects and environments.

Perhaps the true sin is the lack of co-op. The original versions of the game included online multiplayer, offering several missions for up to 4 players outside of the main campaign. Online co-op would have been such a great addition for this remaster, and it would have been nice for them to offer more multiplayer content than what was in the original releases. But as it stands now all we have is the single player story.

It’s worth mentioning that this game runs fantastically on the Switch with no visual oddities or slowdowns. Even in the most intense enemy packed areas with Proton Streams spraying everywhere, the game managed to run consistently smooth. That being said, there have been a few issues I stumbled across in this game. There are some objects in the game that you’ll need to press B to interact with, and a few times after pressing B the character will just continuously walk towards the object without ever triggering the cutscene. This only happened a few times, but the issue definitely stood out and perhaps it will be addressed with a future patch.

Fans of the movies and the franchise will have a ton of fun with Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered. It has released at the perfect time of the year with Halloween just around the corner. The game is still just as fun to play ten years later and is another fine addition to your Switch library.

Jordan Brewer

Jordan is a gaming fanatic who grew up in a home of shovelware. Years of discounted drivel has molded this man, shaping him into the seeker of quality he is today.