Avoiding the lazy way out: Behind Ghostbusters on the Wii

[.jayderyu]

I'm adding my 2 cents in here.

Red Fly is riding a wave of misinformation. These games are very different. I'm not going to claim I've played the HD version. I can honestly say I've only watched the first 5 levels on YouTube. Yes it's very sad. There is a difference and it's not so positive for the Wii.

First yes, for those who like pointing to turn and shoot the Wii Pointer is better. Yes if you like a more Saturday morning cartoon feel the Wii version is better. Past that these games are NOT THE SAME.

For the sake of the argument I'm going to leave graphical elements pertaining to draw distance, polygon count, texture resolution out of it. We know these are better on the PS360 and most developers don't use the TEV for the Wii architect. Ok with that out of the way

Red Fly Ghost Busters has no passion. After playing through it there is far too much cliche elements that just don't do it. I did enjoy the game. Not for the gameplay though. I enjoyed the game for the Story and Ghostbusters humour that comes across very well.

Graphically the game environment looks washed out. Much of the world looks faded rather than a rich in colour. Honestly the game might have been better with cell shading. There was no real art style in the Wii version. It was just simple models to fit the game world. I think they should have just done the "Real Ghost Busters" graphics.

The Ghosts didn't seem all that Ghostly. You don't get the feeling that they are ethereal beings at all. Harry Potter 6 for the Wii's Almost Headless Nick is more ghostly that most ghosts in Wii Ghostbusters. Most ghosts in the game seem to be more floating monsters.

Story and level design. DIFFERENT. First off in the 360 version your training mission has you capture an escaped ghost from the containment unit that you fight in the Firehouse basement. This scene does not exist on the Wii. On the Wii you sorta go under a building when dealing with Stay Puft while in the HD version you travel over though Times Square. Even the scripting is different. The script isn't drastically different but it there. There is also some levels in the Wii version that get monotonous and the other busters seem oddly quite or repetitive in there lines. Though that could be intentional due to being captured.

Spiderlady of Sedgewick. Near the end of the this part of the story much of the environment get's spooky looking and "webby". Not so in the Wii version. The hotel get's twisted there are some egg sacks, but nothing compared to the level of web bug feel.

How about Ghostbusting? It's fun, but simple. First you shotgun down the health of the ghost. Once you have the shotgun. Then you potron stream it and slam the second HP bar away. After throw your trap and the fights pretty much over. Once you get used to the fact that the ghost when stunned moved right towards you. Throwing a catching in the trap is easy. The HD versions while similar make trap catching harder. At least in the videos. You seem to need to keep the ghost in the traps light until it's just about sucked in.

Collectables. In the Wii version there you "scan" information(same as HD). In the Wii version you have to "complete" the scan/information by destroying the enviroment to find an art page. The HD version however has MORE scannable objects. Like haunted traffic cones, lamps, tv's, tiki masks each with there own little story. Nothing like that in the Wii version. It's been taken out.

I will have to state it again. I did enjoy the game overall, but by no means I would conisder this great nor do I feel that Red Fly should be boasting about it's non "down-port". The last difference I can get from this game. This game doesn't feel like it has passion. It feels like Red Fly was contracted to do a Wii game because Atari said so. It does not feel like they would have wanted to do this game on there own.

I enjoyed the game and importantly I did finish the game. Anyways that's my 2 cents.