Ghostbusters (Sega Master System)
Posted: January 3rd, 2019, 11:12 am
Ah, Ghostbusters on the Sega Master System. A game near and dear to my heart! THE game that got me into video games. And there it was, under the Christmas tree! No, not Christmas 1987, Christmas 2018. My wife found it on Amazon. At first I was a little worried when I got the mail because I could tell that it was a video game, and I thought it was two stacked on top of each other. Only problem was, I had asked for Battlefield 5 and Smash on the Switch, so I was a little worried that she made a mistake and got me the Wii U version. Best case scenario it was Battlefield 5 and a DVD of "Titanic" as I had asked for. As it turned out, Smash on the Switch was in my stocking, and a video game case from the Reagan administration feels like 2 PS4 games stacked on top of each other when wrapped.
Rewind the clock about 31 and a half years or so, and you have me begging my friend next door to let me play this game. It drove him nuts, all I wanted to do was play Ghostbusters! We would get all excited when we were able to get that crazy-fast green car, which wasn't attainable at first. You actually had to get to Zuul, then get defeated. You would get an account number with the money you had accumulated catching ghosts. Only then would you be able to grab that coveted green sports car.
Alas, I was never too good at this when I was a kid. Always had to settle for the hunk-of-junk red car. Nowadays, catching the ghosts is quite a simple task, but then we're talking about the days when I couldn't even tie my shoe! Every now and then I would get to Zuul, then have trouble getting past Stay Puft. Again, a simple task in 2018, but not for someone who couldn't figure out that it was better to simply clean my room as my parents had asked instead of pouting about it for three hours, then having to clean it anyway.
Nowadays I routinely get to Gozer (Or "Gorza" as the game refers to her as), only to meet my demise there. Her streams take up half the screen, and they come quick. You get three tries, one hit your dead. Unfortunately she takes several hits, and her power bar resets each time you die. And no, you can't cross the streams! To this day, I have never beaten this game without save states.
But boy, the graphics were something! Bright and whimsical. You know, I notice that Sega tends to make a lot of games that way, even more modern ones like the "Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing". The Alex Kidd games were like that too. I don't mind the ever-persistent Ghostbusters song, but that's only because it brings back memories. But if you've never played this before, it will drive you nuts.
To be honest, this isn't a very good game. I guess you really do look at the past through rose-colored lenses. It's extremely repetitive, and you tend to lose via cheap shots. I actually figured out how to start a game with over a million dollars in your account. If you have over $10,000, you get to Zuul, so I end up just sitting around on Facebook waiting for the city's PK energy to build up enough to let me do so.
But I will never forget the impact this game had on my childhood and all those afternoons spent playing it. I wasn't even interested in Ghostbusters until I got my hands on this.
Rewind the clock about 31 and a half years or so, and you have me begging my friend next door to let me play this game. It drove him nuts, all I wanted to do was play Ghostbusters! We would get all excited when we were able to get that crazy-fast green car, which wasn't attainable at first. You actually had to get to Zuul, then get defeated. You would get an account number with the money you had accumulated catching ghosts. Only then would you be able to grab that coveted green sports car.
Alas, I was never too good at this when I was a kid. Always had to settle for the hunk-of-junk red car. Nowadays, catching the ghosts is quite a simple task, but then we're talking about the days when I couldn't even tie my shoe! Every now and then I would get to Zuul, then have trouble getting past Stay Puft. Again, a simple task in 2018, but not for someone who couldn't figure out that it was better to simply clean my room as my parents had asked instead of pouting about it for three hours, then having to clean it anyway.
Nowadays I routinely get to Gozer (Or "Gorza" as the game refers to her as), only to meet my demise there. Her streams take up half the screen, and they come quick. You get three tries, one hit your dead. Unfortunately she takes several hits, and her power bar resets each time you die. And no, you can't cross the streams! To this day, I have never beaten this game without save states.
But boy, the graphics were something! Bright and whimsical. You know, I notice that Sega tends to make a lot of games that way, even more modern ones like the "Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing". The Alex Kidd games were like that too. I don't mind the ever-persistent Ghostbusters song, but that's only because it brings back memories. But if you've never played this before, it will drive you nuts.
To be honest, this isn't a very good game. I guess you really do look at the past through rose-colored lenses. It's extremely repetitive, and you tend to lose via cheap shots. I actually figured out how to start a game with over a million dollars in your account. If you have over $10,000, you get to Zuul, so I end up just sitting around on Facebook waiting for the city's PK energy to build up enough to let me do so.
But I will never forget the impact this game had on my childhood and all those afternoons spent playing it. I wasn't even interested in Ghostbusters until I got my hands on this.