Ghostbusters: The Video Game -- Final Opinion.

I've completed the single-player game of Ghostbusters twice over earning all of the offline based achievements. The production value of Ghostbusters is exceptionally impressive. The game looks and sounds and better yet feels like a Ghostbusters movie. And not a crappy one like Ghostbusters 2, but almost up there with the original. The graphics are great. The character models are impressive and detailed, especially the faces representing the characters from the movies. The environments follow the simple and clean approach that works wonderfully. The ghost designs feel right at home within the Ghostbusters universe. They have that slightly comic flair that is essential for them to feel as if they properly belong. The writing is as good as you're ever going to see in video games. The story and characters are perfect and smart. Everything just feels right and it continues to fire on all cylinders from start to finish. Much like The Simpsons game before it, it helps that the original writers were involved. It's their voice coming through loud and clear. It's not someone from a developer who may or may not even be a fan of the source material trying to mimic someone else's voice. It really shows. And I'd go so far as to say that Ghostbusters: The Video Game will most like walk away with the best writing in a video game for 2009. It's that good. Ghostbusters: The Video Game isn't perfect however. The gameplay isn't the deepest thing to ever grace a console. And Ghostbusters exhibits some of the worst moments of unfairness I've seen since Left 4 Dead. The stone angels sequence in particular is abysmal, especially on the professional difficulty. Overall the game is a must own title for any fan of the original movie. And I hope that the game is a massive success to the point of luring all of the celebrity talent back again for a second game as I'd like a go at another game flaws and all. I'm giving the Xbox 360 version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game a 8.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the Xbox 360. Ghostbusters: The Video Game was developed by Terminal Reality and has been published by Atari. The Ghostbusters property has long been associated with video games, and unfortunately like most licensed titles has languished in bad licensed game hell. Only two titles have amounted to anything, David Crane's original 1984 PC classic (especially the SEGA Master System port) and the SEGA developed Ghostbusters on the Genesis. Now we have Terminal Reality trying to add a third worthwhile title on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the original movie's debut. Ghostbusters: The Video Game takes place after the second movie in 1991 and is meant to be taken as canon. It's been credited as being written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis even though Ramis has admitted in interviews to merely having cleaned up the dialog as to make it sound closer to their comic voice. Either way, it has a lot to live up to, in both story presentation and gameplay. I've played through the first two levels, of seven. From the amount of time I've spent with the game I can safely say they've delivered on one of those aspects. And as for the other aspect, the jury is still out. And as for which one is which, that'll have to wait until next time.

Klonoa -- All in One.

And here is the all in one update that the previous post hinted at. I've completed Klonoa for the Wii. Klonoa is an update to the PlayStation game Klonoa: Door to Phantomile originally developed by Namco. This time around, Bandai-Namco had Paon Corporation handle the development. As an original PlayStation title from 1998 Klonoa: Door to Phantomile was a 2.5D action platformer that had perfect control, great visuals and music, good challenge, and a story that absolutely oozed charm. As a 2009 Wii title most of that has remain unchanged. Paon has faithfully recreated the world of Phantomile to Wii graphical standards. The art style of the original lends itself well to the Wii. The game looks great. The levels play out exactly as they did originally. Which means the gameplay is entirely intact. And that's a great thing. The story remains unchanged. Only this time around where the original used full motion video, the update uses in game graphics. I do have to say I think some of the emotional impact is lost because of this. They've included an English language track for the game. The original used the gibberish language of Phantomile. They've included the original gibberish track in the game and it's the one I used. The original track just conveys so much emotion that I couldn't even consider the English track. They've also added a new gameplay move attached to waggling the Wii Remote. I never even used the move as it's entirely unneeded. One change they made that actually does impact the game is in how many hearts you have in your life bar. They've doubled the number making the game far easier than it originally was. Unfortunately there isn't an option to change that one. Overall Klonoa on the Wii is a great success. Just in the fact that any time you can get a "real" game on the Wii it's a blessing. Klonoa is still a charming game and well worth the investment. I'm giving Klonoa for the Wii a 8.

General Update -- Pre Ghostbusters.

It's been nine days since my last confession, err, entry. I've been a busy boy even though it might not have seemed like it. I've completed a few games. One of which will have its own entry shortly. I've completed the arcade Shinobi via Xbox Live Arcade for the two-hundred achievement points. Yes, I recently played the arcade Shinobi via Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, but I could not help it, the lure of achievements was that strong. I've also gone through the Xbox Live Arcade version of Gunstar Heroes with Magus for the full two-hundred points. But that one also has another reason of Magus never previously experiencing the Holy Grail of the Cult of Treasure that is Gunstar Heroes. As he's not a fan of the genre, he came away with a sense of how technically impressive a title it would have been in 1993 and some insight into the minds of cultists. It was an entertaining experience for me none the less. I've also started Phantasy Star 2 for what would be my sixth or seventh playthrough. Again the lure of achievements. I've also been playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. We've been playing our offline campaigns chasing achievements we won't be concentrating on during the post Ghostbusters online experience we're intending to take us through most of the summer. I've completed the shadow campaign. I've earned the achievements for finding all the temples and finding all of the towns and I've mapped fifty percent of the world. Those are the major achievements out of the way. Now I'll have a sense of freedom in the game. Until it comes time to chase a couple other achievements, namely completing a campaign without dying, and completing a campaign with less than twenty percent of the map explored. I'll continue to work on a couple other achievements before taking a break when Ghostbusters: The Video Game arrives in a couple days.

Infamous -- Final Opinion.

I have fully completed Infamous for the PlayStation 3. Infamous is the first game I've played (I haven't started Little Big Planet) with trophy support. And as such it caused me to essentially play the game through twice and make sure I completed every last thing there was to do for that coveted platinum trophy. I collected all three-hundred and fifty blast shards, twice. I completed all twenty-one stunts. I collected all thirty-two dead drops, twice. I purchased all the power upgrades for both good and evil. I completed both the good and evil games, one of those being on the hard difficulty level. The allure of achievements, and now trophies, is just that strong. I say that because I believe if there weren't any trophies I wouldn't have likely put in the effort on Infamous. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Infamous for what it was. A good, but flawed game. And most certainly not Game of the Year that the Sony faithful are touting it to be. I own all three console systems so I don't have a sense of we've finally got one that certain vocal PlayStation 3 only owners are expressing. I don't feel the need to bolster a title's worth because of whatever else may or may not be on the system. Infamous shines in its story and presentation, in spite of its characters. And the graphics are on one hand detailed and impressive. But on the other hand at the same time they're kind of drab. How can a title be so seemingly at odds with itself? Well, the comic book super hero origins tale is told with great looking moving comic book panels and voice over. The art and presentation are all top notch. And the story is well told. It leads to an interesting twist most people will not see coming and it sets up a sequel with interest piqued. But in spite of that, the game's characters aren't all that likable. I didn't really care for any of them. The main character, his best friend, his love interest, and the villain are just sort of there. None of them moved me in any way. I remained completely indifferent to them throughout. Graphically, the game is full of interesting details everywhere you look. The city is full of interesting locations. But they're all very gray and brown and drab. Not the widest use of color in the game for the city itself. It's good looking and at the same time quite boring. The combat is going to be very hit or miss for most people. It's a bit chaotic at best. Mindless at worst. The enemy AI, especially on hard, suffers from being too much the sharpshooter. It's compounded by their ability to shoot you from beyond your radar. They'll nail you in the head from half of a city block away before you're even aware of them. And for half of the game you'll have no recourse as you can't hit them from said distance. There is a bit of the Assassin's Creed complaint with the game as well in that the missions feel too much the same. You're going to be doing the same few things over and over. Rinse and repeat. There are a few standout original missions tied to the story that show how creative things could have really been. On a technical level Infamous feels really solid. As in the game code is strong and bug free. There are noticeable frame rate issues as well as some draw in that still plague the genre. Infamous isn't the one to escape them. I'll be interested to see where they go with the sequel. Infamous feels like a great first effort from a team trying to move on to bigger and better and with further polish could have been a truly great game, instead of being a good game. I'm giving Infamous a 7.5.

Punch-Out!! -- Final Opinion.

I've taken Punch-Out!! on the Wii about as far as I'm going to take it. I've completed the career mode. There is a considerable amount of game left to be had after career mode for those wishing for more. Once you've completed a fight in career mode you're able to enter challenge mode with each boxer. Challenge mode has you attempting to accomplish three goals with each boxer. They're specific to each boxer but follow the basic formula as knocking out an opponent within a set time or number of punches or finding every counter. What they really amount to is being able to fully understand and exploit each fighter. Once you've completed the career mode for the first time, title defense mode unlocks. You're able to defend your championship title against the boxers again. This time around the boxers are considerably tougher. It's not just a matter of balancing them to make the boxers harder. They've gone and given them new combinations and routines. You're also able to enter challenge mode for each of the title defense versions of the boxers. In this mode the challenge is ramped way up to being for the truly dedicated and or insane. Overall Punch-Out!! on the Wii is a great looking game. The animation for each boxer is impressive. The graphics aren't exactly impressive in that they're technically sparse but the cartoonish art style is very appealing. The music features a remix of the Punch-Out!! theme for each individual boxer. The characters are now voiced entirely in their native languages without any subtitles. While the voice is cool, not knowing what they're saying is slightly annoying. The boxers all ooze character in the ring. Which is rather impressive given it's a boxing title. The game allows for the classic NES style controls when holding the Wii Remote sideways. So the control is perfect during the matches. There is an annoyance in not being able to navigate the menus with the Wii Remote held sideways. Having to switch from sideways and back to pointer and back over and over started to grate on me. Something so seemingly minor probably shouldn't have bothered me, but it did. Another annoyance is the surprisingly long loading times. You are able to skip the victory and defeat scenes but you're still going to be facing considerable load times in and out of the matches and throughout all the menus. Overall I have to say I enjoyed Punch-Out!! and it was great to see the series return. I'm giving Punch-Out!! an 8.5.