Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered review for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

I?ll always have a soft spot for Ghostbusters: The Video Game. It was one of my favourite games of the previous generation, and I liked it so much I played it through on the Wii, and PSP, and PS3. I liked it so much, in fact, that I?m not exaggerating at all when I say that when news of its remastered re-release came out earlier this year, it instantly became my most anticipated game of the year.

Now it?s here, and…well?I may have inflated its worth in my memories just a tad.

I mean, I still see a lot of what I loved the last time around. The story and dialogue still stand up, as you?d expect from a script written by the writers of the first two movies, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Likewise, the voice acting is top-notch, with all the original Ghostbusters reprising their roles, as well as a couple of important bit characters. Even the score sounds like it was lifted directly from those original films. If you?re a fan of the movies — which, as a child of the ?80s, I most definitely am — you?d be hard-pressed to come up with a game that?s more in the spirit of the franchise.

The problem is that I don?t think that the gameplay has aged nearly as well, despite the fact the game is only a decade old. Ghostbusters: The Video Game is built around your character — a mute, unnamed new recruit — helping the team wrangle ghosts that are popping up around New York. While this is exactly in line with what you?d expect and hope for from a Ghostbusters game, in practice it gets pretty repetitive awfully quickly. You just blast away at ghosts until you wear them down (making sure to vent your proton pack when it overheats), then slam them a few times before wrangling them into traps. Maybe it?s just that I was spoiled by my first exposure to the game coming via the Wii and its motion controls, but on a PS4 controller it?s not nearly as fun as I remember it being.

The other issue is that, despite the game being remastered, it doesn?t look that great. It?s not as if the original game was all that stunning or anything, but there are plenty of moments here where Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered just looks blurry and kind of ugly.

That?s not enough to make me not recommend it, though. In fact, I?m almost certainly going to go out and buy myself a copy of the game on the Switch, just so I can have it with me at home and on the go. Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is likely only going to appeal to people who have some nostalgia for the movies — but if you have that nostalgia, it?s practically a must-play.

Mad Dog Games provided us with a Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered PS4 code for review purposes.