Today we begin the proper Halloween special article. Enjoy!
So, what I do for the proper special Halloween edition? I review Sega’s/Compile’s Ghostbuster (1990) for Sega Genesis. Pretty appropriate, right?
I’ll be honest with you, this game scares me when I was kid. This character introduction for example. I know that Peter, Ray, and Egon are human but they look scary to kid me back then. Most likely because of sepia color on them. I bet you know the premise of Ghostbusters, right? If you somehow don’t watch the original movie, I tell you about it. Basically, there’s these lads who busting ghost with proton pack cannon and the ecto trap. Ghostbuster’s headquarter is used to be fire station so they can slide down the pole whenever there’s urgent call for ghostbusting. I’m fairly big fans of Ghostbuster. I watched first 2 movies (although within vague memory) and I have some Ghostbusters comic books in the shelf. I’m very bitter that I don’t get the opportunity to watch Afterlife and Frozen Empire. Instead, I watched Jurassic World Rebirth that kind of meh but serviceable enough, I guess. Anyway, let’s get into the game.
So, we’re into character selection screen. I know what you are thinking. “Why there’s no Winston Zeddemore?” My best guess is: Sega/Compile wants the trinity roster: balanced, slow but durable, and fast but fragile characters. The roster pretty much reminds me of Mass Destruction. But believe me that you don’t want to pick fast yet fragile character Egon for this occasion although he’s very important nerd character that invents the ghostbuster’s equipment and very knowledgeable about ghost science. I tell you this in the front. The game doesn’t give you much space for you to dodge and the ghosts will ram at you nonchalantly without caring your personal space. So, picking Egon is super bad idea. Conversely, picking tanky character Raymond is the best choice. However, I pick Peter not because he has receding hairline like mine but because I think you can’t go wrong with picking the balanced character.
One day, an earthquake occurs which is bad for everyone except for Ghostbusters because this mysterious earthquake raises the ghost activity. Naturally, it’s beneficial for Ghostbusters. Anyway, I notice that Peter is in the middle of playing Tetris on PC like what my late father used to do until he was absorbed to Zuma. Good thing the ghost activity is peaking up otherwise Peter will break Egon’s high score on Tetris.
Here's the level select. It’s quite easy to navigate. So, we have 4 stages here: 1) Home Sweet Home 2) Apartment 3) Woody (Wooden, maybe?) House 4) High Rise Building. The first level gives you the smallest reward $2,000. Next stage has increased reward by $2,000. So finishing High Rise Building gives you $8,000.
I decide to go to Home Sweet Home first because it looks the most sensible decision. Our client doesn’t look well because she lacks of sleep what’s with ghosts haunt her house. I’ll get them!
The control is pretty simple. D-pad to move your ghostbuster left and right. Holding down button by default, will make ghostbuster crawl and you can move him left and right while crawling which is pretty neat because there’s not much platformer game that allow you to move while crouch except Vice Project Doom. You can also use D-pad to ascend and descend ladder. Pressing “A” button will throw cartoon bomb that hit enemies on screen. Pressing “B” button to shoot in forward direction. Pressing “C” button to jump.
Then I clumsily fall into spike. Why would the lady have spike on her home? I have no idea. Luckily, there’s this ghost that act as spring to help me go back up there. He also harmless to touch. I like this helpful fellow.
You can find safes within level. You can break them open for bag of money or bomb. Who would store active cartoon bomb in a safe? But again, that’s what you get for looting in the middle of ghostbusting.
Another random thing is these falling candles from chandelier. They don’t fall in fixed time or direction. Speaking of chandelier, remember video game’s iron rule #24: chandelier always fall. Not this one. It just bops up and down. But not far from here, there’s chandelier that falls immediately.
These safes contain money bag but these eyeball ghosts guard them. I think the money belongs to the ghost and not the house owner. I feel less bad.
As you expected from haunted house, there are lots of objects that float mysteriously. Including this very durable coffee mug. I think it’s intended as joke by developer. The mug also become joke in AVGN game.
Here’s the first sub-boss. It’s headless gentleman with snazzy suit. Once in a while, he takes off his hat to reveal this fox/rat ghost that shoot green goop that can homing at you in small degree but flies fast. The ghost’s head is the weakpoint. The key to succeed in this sub-boss fight is correct positioning and aiming. There’s this sweet spot not far from the sub-boss where you can stand still and aim at the projectile and at his head.
Surprise! Surprise! There’s 2nd phase. The headless gentleman is gone, leaving the red ghost fly around freely although somehow his head and body get separated. The head shoot the usual green goop while the body shoot white projectile that travels straight. Because the lack of skill and not using savestate, I’m died here. Especially the latter reason. Here’s another thing that scares kid me, your ghostbuster turns into mummy when died while looking at you with accusatory look and creepy red eyes. No comedic defeated animation like gooped like in the movie or turn into skeleton like Ghost n Goblin.
After destroying the separated ghost, here comes the iconic thing: trapping the ghost. Your ghostbuster immediately switches his peashooter to the famous proton pack! You can only aim the proton pack diagonally and you can only face at the ghost. The best way to describe how this iconic section works is: it’s like fishing. Holding “B” button will snatch and (hopefully) reel in the ghost if you hit it. However, pulling the ghost to low altitude alone is not enough. Obviously, you have to pull it to ecto trap which usually located in the center of sub-boss room. To drag yourself along with the ghost (hopefully) near the ecto trap, you have to release “B” button a bit. If you let the ghost too far, it will run away. But if you pull it too close, it will slip through the proton pull and suddenly ram at you, which doesn’t make sense to me. Another important note is the proton shot has short duration if it doesn’t hit the ghost and there’s noticeable cooldown time before you can fire the proton shot again. If you somehow manage to trap the ghost, you will get bonus $2,000 at the end of the stage.
After climbing a stair, I arrive at boss’ room and he’s not happy that I interrupt his sleep. Why ghost need sleep in first place? Do they not have enough sleep hour since they’re separated with their mortal coil?
What’s the boss ghost do to attack me? First, he shed his dozens scales and later they will home at me. However, by shedding all of his scales that makes his pathetic thin body open to your attack. But you have to be mindful with the scales that come flying at you. You have to shoot them first before you can safely shoot the boss.
After that he will roll around and then making same routine of shedding his scale. You probably think “You can jump over him when rolling”. Yes, but mostly no because he hops when I’m jumping over him. There’s no telegraph when he hops or not. Combined that with the size of room that relatively narrow, I get guaranteed hit when he rolls around. I like to remind you that this bastard is boss in VERY FIRST LEVEL! He’s hard to hit because I’m busy with the scales that want to cut my skin. By the time when I’m free from the scales, he’s already rolling around. His vulnerability moment is way too short. Then I can’t dodge his rolling unless I’m far away enough from him. Unless he doesn’t hop at all while rolling, this boss is very unfair.
My health is only one more block. Luckily, Peter has Peking duck stashed in his ghostbuster rucksack. It’s portable full health item and very useful. Heavy_sandwichtaunt01.wav
Eventually, the scaly bastard is re-dead. No idea the origin of him. Perhaps someone working on fish scales, trapped in intense overwork then he dies of exhaustion. Anyway, Peter is very happy that he wins. Good for him.
Peter finishing a case and he’s on newspaper right away. Good for him. This fake newspaper reminds me of Taito’s Crime City with Daily Taito newspaper everytime I finish a level.
The home owner looks very happy that her house is clear from ghosts. Now nothing can interrupt her beauty sleep. Maybe except rats and roaches but that’s not Ghostbuster’s department.
Besides the cash reward, Peter also obtained this piece of stone tablet from defeated boss ghost. Egon likes to investigate it but there’s still missing part. So, let’s get back to work!
But let’s check out the shops first. There are 2 of them. One is this item shop where the shopkeeper offers healing items, infrared scope, and bomb. Somebody immediately think Morshu the famous meme shopkeeper from Link: Faces of Evil. It’s because he’s fat and sells bomb, you see. Obviously, Peking duck is something that you must buy because it’s very useful portable full heal item however you can only carry 1 at a time. That makes sense because an entire fried duck will eat [Pun may or may not intended] lots of space in your bag. Gyoza also healing item but for some reason, it’s always sold out. You probably think the cartoon bomb also important because it affect enemies in entire screen but I don’t think so because the damage is too low or at least unnoticeable. As for infrared scope, it’s important but only in specific level. We will talk about it more later. As for now, ignore the googles.
On to weapon shop. It’s run by an Einstein’s twin. Let’s call him Zweistein. He’s Einstein of ghost science for 200 years even! He’s super senior to Egon, if you will. There are more items to browse than in item shop. In first row from left to right: 1) Energy refill (that once again always sold out) 2) Explosive gun that the professor claims to be the strongest weapon in arsenal 3) Bubble projectile that sounds silly and also stupid. In seconds row from left to right: 1) Phaser shell that claimed to fire powerful single bullet 2) Spread shot. It’s 3-way shot and as we all know it’s very useful and powerful in any video game. 3) Extra energy tank that increases maximum energy when purchased but keep in mind that the price keeps increasing for every purchase. On the last row: there’s special suit on the left, that reduce incoming damage. While on the right, is barrier that claimed to be able to reflect projectile! I don’t think I ever can purchase that last one because is so freaking expensive!
So, I go to -supposed to be- 2nd level which is grey-colored apartment. The client claimed that suddenly his place is full of water. Maybe you call wrong person, good sir. We’re not plumber.
Never mind. The place is filled with ice golems so it’s Ghostbuster’s department, maybe? But I can destroy it with our high technology gun so it’s our job after all. You should beware of big icicles that can fall on your head but you can destroy it with your ghostbuster gun.
The first sub-boss that I encounter is this crystal man. His geometries move around like anything in Contra Hardcorps or Treasure’s video game. First thing that he can do is swinging around on ceiling like hyperactive monkey.
Then the sub-boss shoots lightning. Unlimited Poweeeer! Not really. He just creates crystal that I can destroy pretty easily. I assume if the crystal left unscathed, it will bring trouble for me. Dodge his attack and shoot his head. It’s not hard to deal with this sub-boss unlike that sub-boss in first level.
Somehow, there’s water area in this apartment. So, the apartment owner said the truth after all. Inside the water area there’s jellyfish ghost. It’s easy to defeat but you must aware that his tentacle can regrow after destroyed. This swimming section is not bad. I don’t have to worry about Peter running out of air or anything.
There’s this large room with bunch of ice blocks. The ghostbuster can do nothing about it. You have to wait for these brown fellows to make way for you than you can kill it. Hey! I have to do my job as ghostbuster after all. Apparently, killing lesser enemies will add your cash but not by much. Around $30 dollars or so for each defeated enemy. So, I don’t think grinding lesser enemies for money is more of hustle than beneficial. At least, you can use the small sum of money to buy more bombs which is quite cheap.
Sometime you will meet Slimer! He keeps pulling out his tongue for some reason. Whether you like it or not, you must shoot Slimer because he’s restoration item container. When you shoot him down, Slimer will drop either blue or orange ectoplasm. The former will restore health. While the latter will restore energy. Since I don’t have any other weapon than the normal peashooter or defensive equipment. I don’t concern about energy for now. Like ghost enemies, Slimer can respawn if you leave the screen for awhile but he doesn’t respawn consistently. So Peking duck is more reliable health item.
The second sub boss that I encounter is this ghost lady. I want to say she’s Yuki Onna from Japanese myth but I think she’s possessed Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) if we make tie in with Ghostbuster the movie. First thing she does is flying around while firing 3-way projectile. You can’t hit her during this phase so you have to focus on dodging which is quite easy.
Then she splits into 3 and 3 of them shoots projectile. In this phase is where you can hit her only if you shoot at the real ghost. On her noggin. Some of boss or sub-boss, change their color when they sustain enough damage. Usually, red color indicated that they’re near defeated.
I manage to trap the ghost of fake Dana Barrett. Peter doesn’t look happy though. He gives dirty look at the trap, feeling disgusted or something. Other cast has happier look when they successfully trap the ghost though.
After some platforming and walking. Also ghost busting, don’t forget that. I encounter the boss ghost: snowman ghost which is another thing that scares me as kid. I mean look at that scary mouth. If some people scared of clown, the fear of snowman is justifiable, right?
Fortunately, he’s not hard to deal with despite his scary look. All he does is flying around and occasionally spawn snow minion either from his upper mouth or lower mouth. The boss himself doesn’t harm you. Well, unless you jump on him if you’re panic or anything. The snow ghost doesn’t fly into you in dickish manner unlike other ghosts. He left some margin for your safety. The only way he can harm you is via his minion that shoot nose carrot at you in fixed diagonal pattern. To harm the boss, you have to shoot his head that sometime get hindered by his minion but eventually you will hit the mark.
Now that I have quite lots of money. I decide to buy 3-way gun. Well, old man. It has good reputation because of Contra, you know?
I skip the -supposed to be- 3rd level because I hate it. For now, let’s go to High-Rise Building which has better money reward. I like that the cleared stages get big cross on them. It means the ghost problem is over and not the building mortgaged because of ghost problem. If you think the dark castle yonder is very suspicious and worth ghostbusting. Well. We will get to it later.
Another reason why I skip to the 4th level is we got to see the familiar face peeking through window. Michelin Man! I mean Stay Puft, yeah. On the less interesting subject, the ghost on my left is either ghost of green slinky or uncut futomaki.
The first sub boss that I fight is worm mad of eyeballs. It was whole long worm until I do them enough damage that they start separating! Luckily, I bought the 3-way gun because it’s very useful in this fight. They don’t have specific weak point because they’re giant eyeball! Because they’re multiple targets, naturally the newly bought 3-way gun work wonderfully here. Using the normal shot probably very difficult especially when you can only have 2 projectiles at the time and limited range. 3-way gun also has same range as normal shot but remove the 2 projectiles limit plus there’s 2 additional projectiles on each shot. Heavy_specialweapon08.wav
The Penthouse owner doesn’t like seeing me make temporary retreat. Look, ma’am! Even the infamous general Cao Cao knows the importance of retreat and later regroup. Obviously, he will cut down anyone who’s fully run away in fear. He very hates that kind of soldier. Besides, I managed to capture one of sub-boss ghost.
Anyway, you can retreat for awhile if you walk to the entrance of the building. Later, you can refill your health and energy at the shops. So that’s why you can buy Gyoza and energy refill but not finishing a level because defeating the boss will automatically refill your health and energy to the fullest. Gyoza does full heal but because you have to retreat first that means you have to restart the level all over again. But the game records sub-boss progress though. So, it’s generally good idea to refill your health and energy after defeating sub-boss. I mean you use the Peking duck however Gyoza is cheaper with price $ 500 which is triple times cheaper. Note that: once you retreat, you can't select other stage. It's unprofessional, you know.
Stay Puft doesn’t just peek you through window. Sometime he punches you through certain part of this building. It may sound dangerous. However, in my experience his punch doesn’t hit me when I’m standing. So crawling underneath it is quite unnecessary.
I can see why the apartment (the ice stage) has water area because melted ice becomes water. But why this penthouse has water area? Clearly this is not swimming pool. Like who the heck put safes inside a swimming pool? Besides there’s bomb inside of them and I’m very disappointed!
I hate this sub boss. He’s covered in that shell which makes him invincible and happily bouncing around seemingly without end.
When he doesn’t bounce around like ball in intense squash match, he flies around while sometime revealing a bit of himself. Sometime, he stops to shoot laser at you. I can bait him into shooting laser so I can shoot him several times. But most of the time, I have to wait and dodge his bouncing shenanigans which is very tiring.
As for the boss, you can
already guess it. It’s Stay Puft. First, he gives you his lore so I don’t
have to make it up. He says that he loves marshmallows, he ate too much and
then die. Overfeeding is very bad, buddy. Isn’t marshmallows sweet food? So,
I’m not keen on eating it. Although many cartoon depicts having marshmallow
when camping, looks appetizing.
Fighting Stay Puft is very simple. Shoot him in the face to deliver hurt on him. It takes special “talent” to miss hitting him in the face because his face is very Goddamn big! Obviously, he doesn’t stay idly when you hit him in the face. He can shoot eye laser like in the movie. [Liberty Statue-sized sarcasm]
He can also shoot fireball from his mouth. The fireball presumably helps him roast those marshmallows and also you! The fireball has 2 variants: short and long. The former covers short distance but it can turn very sharp so it’s hard to dodge by jumping over it. The latter covers long distance but it can’t turn sharply so it’s easy to dodge by jumping over it. Besides the laser and fireball, he also throws punch however it only in the corners. His punch can barely reach you unless you’re panic dodging the fireball. Unlike other boss, Stay Puft’s color remains white even if you have sent him enormous damage on him. It’s kind of disappointing because I want to see his color turns into like roasted marshmallow’s.
The reward is not too much. Stick to the contract, ma’am. We’re professional ghostbuster. We saved your penthouse’s value, after all.
After collecting 3 out of 4 pieces of tablet and also done lots of ghostbusting, Peter feels an urge to have a date with Dana Barrett. I know you carry the team, Peter. But we’re close to completing the tablet. Hang in there, bud.
With nowhere else to go, I went to *sigh* level 3: Woody House. I think it’s supposed to be wooden house but I pretend the owner’s name is Woody. Mr. Woody here is understandably sad. He got some injury on his head and her wive is hospitalized. His house is on fire but it can’t be doused with water so he concludes that the fire is ghost’s doing. I don’t like this level but I must do this for Mr. Woody’s sake here.
This is how the level starts. You’re trapped in the pitch dark. You think house on fire is supposed to be lit because of -you know- the nature of fire that lit surround but no! I mean you can say that this is unnatural fire made by ghost so it kind of make sense that the fire doesn’t behave normally. It’s like dark fire in Cursed of The Dead Gods. Remember the infrared scope in item shop? It’s only useful in this level and very mandatory. Without it you can barely see anything.
Dammit, Sonic! Actually, this ghost is blue fire hedgehog and not the famous Sega mascot. The reference is more subtle than Sonic’s direct cameo in Crusader of Centy. This blue ghost appears as blue fire and if you shoot it, it turns into this blue bastard that you can’t destroy. Then there’s fire pillar that can spawn red fire hedgehog endlessly. With all the fire hedgehog, the fire pillar, the darkness, and fire pit, no wonder I hate this level. Not even with compassion.
Here's the fire dragon sub-boss. I talked about him ages ago when I reviewed Tumblepop. He only has 1 routine: pop up on random spot than breathes long fire which tracks you quite accurately. Simple yet deadly. The key to success in this sub-boss fight is: you have to shoot his head under his nose, quite literally. His response is: he will lower his head first before breathes the fire. That should give you enough time to jump away to safety.
I didn’t know that this level has 1up item which is doll of ghostbuster. Pretty cute. The log that serves as platform to get into this 1up place, is pretty small. So, watch your step!
The next sub-boss is this flame tall man. He randomly jumps in various height while throwing sparks in mid-air. The pace of this fight is quite inconsistent what’s with the randomness of his jump and its affect his projectile’s position. Jump or crawl necessarily. Shoot his head. That’s all my tips.
This map is not so useful. I mean it marks where the boss’ location. However, the map is too blocky and lacks of details to be accurate. The details are ladders, walls, or doors for example. As you can see on my weapon slot. I bought the phaser shell gun and also the special suit that’s quite useful to reduce damage that I took.
The boss is this huge red face. Surprisingly, I can dodge any of his attack rather easily if I simply stand the opposite corner from where he appears. Naturally, playing safe alone is not winning the game. I have to hit his weak point which is his mouth when it opens. It’s complicated to send him some damage! The face appears in either corner in two variants: normal and upside down. Then he attacks in two ways: either he shoots 3 bubbles that have pattern related to your location or he spits fire slime that slowly crawl to fire pit in this room. I try using phaser shell and as you can see it doesn’t go well. It takes time between the button press and the actual projectile to come out. Plus, the projectile is slow although it can travel for entire screen unlike the normal shoot that has distance of roughly half of a screen. I can’t just jump and shoot his weak point from across. I have to be near him and shoot diagonally to his open mouth. Also watch out for the fire pit below. So far, any of boss/sub-boss fight don’t have time limit so you have to be patience. But not for this one, I think. I don’t know if this true or not. From my experience, the boss decides to die before I can land a finishing hit on him. As for what the lore of this ghost. I’m guessing he’s collective of poor souls from Team Fortress 2 mercenaries that got burned alive by Pyro. As representative of all Pyro, I apologize. NOT! :P
With the ghosts and the weird fire defeated, Mr. Woody is happy. His head is no longer bandaged too. I’m also happy because I have been through worst level so far. We’re all happy.
