Zzap


The Real Ghostbusters
By Activision
Amiga 500

 
Published in Zzap #51

The Real Ghostbusters

New York City is under siege from paranormal pests and once more it's the decidedly low-rent Real Ghostbusters who come to the rescue in their converted ambulance. First stop is the rooftops of the famous Manhattan skyline, after that it's nine more levels of ghoulish mayhem in increasing bizarre environments. Either one or two players can take on the hideous ghosts, and scrolling is multi-directional. You can choose one of several, ghost-infested routes to the end-of-level guardian which must be defeated to complete the level.

Your armament is a gun and proton beam. Both can be used to destroy ghosts but only the proton beam can collect the harmless white ghosts which appear when their physical forms are destroyed. If you have 50 ghosts at the end of the level you get an extra life. You can also collect various special objects to give a shield, super bullets and Slimer - the friendly green ghost which will circle around you killing enemy ghosts.

Stu

The basic gameplay is potentially good, but spoilt by terrible execution. The graphics are embarrassingly bad, the sound mediocre, and the collision detection decidedly dodgy. In two-player mode the size of the characters, and the fact that they can only move in about half of the screen, makes for even more irritation. I'd hoped for an arcade perfect conversion on the Amiga; sadly this most definitely isn't it.

Robin

The Real Ghostbusters

The Data East coin-op has proved an elusive beast on UK shores. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hiding in an attempt to disown itself from what must be the worst Amiga coin-op conversion yet (and this from the makers of Elite!).

The graphics are disappointing and very poorly animated. Sound is adequate, but the collision detection is appalling - tempting you to throw your Amiga out the nearest window. Don't! It's just this game. Avoid it and know true happiness.

Verdict

Presentation 26%
Thoroughly mediocre.

The Real Ghostbusters

Graphics 23%
An Amstrad CPC could do better.

Sound 30%
A banal rendition of the famous tune.

Hookability 24%
Abysmal collision detection, no sense of 3D and lousy presentation make for immediately frustrating gameplay.

Lastability 29%
10 levels, but you're unlikely to want to complete them

Overall 26%
A very scary product indeed.