Ghostbusters (Wii) Review: An Overlooked Wii Title
My First Review, Kotaku style.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the Nintendo Wii has been neglected. Reviews around the interweb about Ghostbuster's red headed stepchild have been lazily copied and pasted without an actual detailed look on the Wii's unique control scheme and graphic design. Does the controller melt into your hand, or is it becoming a withered claw after a few minutes of game play? Well the short answer is yes, you do feel like a ghostbuster and it feels pretty intuitive.
What I liked:
- The Wii-mote and nunchuk button layout has been fully utlized. Ghostbusters controls in third person perspective with first person aiming similar to Metroid Prime or Call of Duty, so aiming is pretty tight if you're use to that control scheme. No Wii-Mote sensor spazims here, as the reticle is very smooth. Slamming spiritual baddies is handled No More Heroes sytle with an arrow indicator that asks for you to swing the Wii-Mote in a given direction. This works well, very well. The directional pad on the wii mote controls which weapons are equiped, and each weapon has an alternate fire, B for primary A for Alternative. Z will throw a trap out while using a bowling motion with the nunchuck to give it alittle more distance while the C button is used for targeting. The layout doesn't feel stapled on and feels right. The motion controls don't get in the way in this title, but bring the player closer to the Ghostbusters team.
- Cartoon-like Graphics: I've seen the realistic models on the PS3 and 360, and the graphics are very good. However, I find myself being more partial to the cartoon character models on the Nintendo Wii. While it can be said that the graphics are not in HD, a practical standard in new generation consoles; the more lighthearted visuals are reminisent of the Ghostbusters Cartoon series. The cartoon visuals are more expressive, which adds a little more life to the voice acting. It seems that the voice soundtrack is about the same on all three consoles.
- Wrangling ghosts feels good! When you're walking down a corridor and a ghost suddenly appears you may panic and miss depending on your alert level. When you're aiming you can get a more accurate shot at your target with the lock on feature and the steadiness of your hands. After trapping the ghost you even feel like doing a victory dance, it really sucks you in!
- Co-op multiplayer... Take what I said about wrangling ghosts, and multiply it times another player. It's fun!
What I Hated
- Camera angles are bad in tight corridors. There are times a ghost will rush into the scene and my camera is trying to get the best shot at my face. Since I picked the girl, it's not a problem. But since I'm also not trying to get possessed, it's a major downer, literately. Thankfully it doesn't happen TOO often.
- Loses alot of the creepy ambience of its PS3 360 counter parts because of its brighter color pallet. I remember the library level when I played this game on the 360, some parts really creeped me out. When the brightness is adjusted just right, you can get surprised. The Wii version unfortunately, is so bright you can see everything, even with the brightness adjusted. There isn't more lighting, there's just brighter colors.
- Not alot of extras. When you beat the game, you can collect information and designer art of all the ghosts in the game, but that's it! Co-op is just story mode with another charcter, but no multi-player objectives like the PS3 and 360 verions of the game. There's nothing that would draw the player to keep playing this after completion except to have another friend experience the game with you.
Ghostbusters on the Wii is pretty good for a Wii / Movie Tie In game. The characters are more or less pretty faithful to their movie couterparts as you've heard in countless other reviews, and still pulls the same basic emotions that you would have gotten playing it on other consoles albit the creepiness factor. While some might say the camera angles, and lack of extras might deter the game as a whole, the single player succeeds on being as fun and nostalgic as its more powerful counterparts. In the end, the tight and responsive controls successfully gives the player another layer of immersion, even though it's a rather thin layer.