Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the Wii is something that one can’t help but approach with skepticism. Like so many games that are “cross-platform,” it will inevitably suffer when compared to its visually superior HD counterparts. Likewise, it has to work extra hard to assure gamers that the changes necessitated by the less powerful Wii do nothing to impair the experience. They have there work cut out for them here: the 360, PC, and PS3 versions of Ghostbusters all feature extremely detailed, approaching-the-uncanny-valley recreations of the Ghostbusters, along with a more nuanced upgrade system and more expansive levels and cutscenes.
I’m happy to say then, that Ghostbusters Wii could hardly be said to suffer when compared visually or stylisticly to its brethren. Far from it in fact. The Wii game takes a stylized, almost comic book take on New York, the ghosts, and especially the Ghostbusters. It feels right, and is much less alarming than the creepy, plastic versions of the “rookie” (your avatar) and the famous Ghostbusters. Since all of the original cast (and the writers) wholeheartedly flung themselves in to the script and story, it’s not surprising to find that the game feels just like Ghostbusters. Everyone sounds spot on, aside from Bill Murray’s strangely murmured, hard-to-hear delivery.
Ghostbusters starts a few years after the forgettable Ghostbusters II. Venkman and company are surprised when a large explosion rocks New York. Soon, their old nemesis Slimer, and Gozor’s delicious manifestation, the Stay-Puft man, are tearing up Manhattan. You make your way to the Sedgewick Hotel, the location of the Ghostbusters’ first and most amusing paranormal job from the movies. It’s obvious, from the voice work to the complete Ray Parker Jr. theme, to the locations and enemies, that Red Fly and Terminal Reality want you to know this is the real deal.
Of course, this kind of detail and tone can only carry the game so far. You need good controls, a story that works with the game its appended to, and fun gameplay. Ghostbusters uses an over-the-shoulder camera for its entirety. Unlike the next-gen versions, there’s no first person PKE meter mini-games to distract from the regular gameplay. Instead, you get a simple "hot and cold" beeping sound that lets you know when paranormal disturbances are close. This also means that the ghost-wrangling and trapping is all Wiimote-based. In general, this works well. The aiming is precise, and the controls are responsive enough that you’ll never be stuck watching your reticul trail your intended target, as with some slower games.The problem comes in the form of the game's badly-implemented motion control mechanics.
When you’re doing anything else besides aiming, the Wiimote turns into your worst enemy. One kind of puzzle involves your character using the proton rifle as an impromptu gravity gun, carrying around items and popping them into slots to accomplish objectives. It’s boring, but “tactile”, I suppose. The problem arises when it becomes clear that your control over the object is awful. One puzzle involving two electric generators that needed to be popped into two sockets, stymied me for almost an hour. Instead of the puzzle being difficult or tricky, the game’s physics engine just couldn’t fit both generators in. I eventually got them to plug in, but it took a long time, and used up most of my patience.
This was unfortunate, not only because I was barely an hour and a half into the game, but because around the same time I was coming to terms with the game’s awful wrangling controls. As opposed to the PS3, 360 or PC controls which have you slamming snared ghosts in whatever direction you please to weaken them, the Wii asks you to whip your remote in whichever direction the game prompts you to: up, down, left, and right. Again, due to the fuzzy, unresponsive Wiimote implementation, this often takes long minutes, spent failing to slam a ghost, reacquiring your hold on him, losing him again, and only trapping him after you’re ready to turn off the game.
The rest of the game is perfectly passable. You’ll listen to the Ghostbusters trade banter and insults as they encounter their old nemeses, Gozor and Walter Peck. You’ll witness the rise of new, even more ghostly and deadly villains, and the ridiculous romantic antics of Venkman and Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn. It’s all well and good when you aren’t playing, but even in the relatively well-written story scenes, there’s something missing. First off, there are lines of dialogue that were strangely cut from the Wii version. Watching the same cutscenes in the PC version reveals that the more expansive, graphically intensive cinematics on display house jokes, conversations, and bits of dialogue cut from the Wii version.
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