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Ghostbusters was released by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis on June 29, 1990. It is unrelated to the earlier Activision game, and is instead a straightforward run and gun game in which the player takes control of squat cartoon representations of three of the four Ghostbusters from the movie, with the noticeable absence of Winston Zeddemore.

Features[]

Four levels are available initially, which the player can complete in any order via a stage select similar to Mega Man. Although some levels pay more than others, the order of which they're finished is more of a matter of preference than strategy. After they are completed, a fifth level is unlocked, followed by a sixth and final level. The levels themselves are very non-linear, and allow the player to explore and complete them however they like. Though odds are, the player will have to go through most if not every portion of the level before it's finished.

Each level contains mid-bosses known as "middle ghosts" that must be killed before the players can fight the boss ghost. Some levels only have one, but most have two, and the last two levels have as many as four. After a middle ghost is defeated, it turns into a small green ghost which can be captured for extra money by pulling it down over a ghost trap. These middle ghosts can also be defeated in any particular order.

Between levels or even during one, players can visit item and weapon shops and buy various proton packs, upgrades, and power-ups, such as a 3-way shot or recovery items. Some of these items may be required to finish a level. Players earn money by finishing levels, capturing middle ghosts, searching safes, and killing minor ghosts.

Story[]

The game takes place after Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters are down on their luck due to lack of ghost activity, when suddenly several calls begin to pour in from around the city. Ghosts are seen all around the town, and an earthquake happens that leaves the team wonder if those events are connected.

There are four cases total, set in different buildings: a home manor, a building set on fire, apartment which is frozen by ghosts and high-rise building. Massive ghost outbreak takes place, and the team faces many powerful entities, including the Snow and Fire ghosts, and the eventual reappearance of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (although dialogue indicates it is not the same one from the movie, as the creature says he was originally a person who liked Stay Puft Marshmallows and became the Stay Puft Man after eating too much).

A part of stone tablet is found after each victory over the main ghost in charge. After the four cases are solved, the player's chosen Ghostbuster discovers that two others are gone, kidnapped by a man named Arthur, who left a message inviting the last one to a dark castle out of the city. Arthur takes the tablet in exchange for the life of the team, but fled with it inside his domain. The remaining Ghostbuster has no choice but to enter the plant-plagued castle. There, two others are found being possessed and eventually are saved from the curse. After defeating the master ghost of the castle, the Demon Plant, who ate Arthur, the tablet, along its final peace is found.

DARKWORLD

Peter Venkman in Janna's realm, the evil world

The three Ghostbusters piece together the mysterious tablet, inadvertently summoning a new earthquake and opening the portal to "the evil world", releasing a horde of ghosts. Now, they have to journey to this dark, underground realm which appears under the city, and find an artifact that could disable the tablet. There, the team fights many of already defeated ghosts, making their way to the evil mastermind behind the game's events: Janna, an evil goddess of death and destruction.

In the end, the Ghostbusters manage to defeat Janna and use the artifact with the tablet to close the portal, saving the city.


Characters[]

Main characters

Minor characters

Shops/Items[]

There are two shops in the game, which can be accessed at the start before playing a case, and during a case to the left at the start of the case. Item Shop - Run by a friendly shopkeeper, four items are offered in the shop, depending on need.

  • Gyoza - Fully restores the Ghostbusters life gauge while in the shop.
  • Peking Duck - Can be kept in the subscreen (inventory screen) to restore health as needed while Ghostbustin'.
  • Infrared Scope - Enables the Ghostbuster to see in the dark. Exclusively needed for the Case: Woody House.
  • Bomb - Adds a bomb to Ghostbusters HUD inventory. The default number a Ghostbuster comes with is three bombs at the start of the game.

Weapon Shop - Run by a inventor of weapons for the supernatural, later in the game he appears at the headquarters giving information about a customer named Arthur. At the end of the case that happened related to the dialog, the Weapon Shopkeeper payed for the Ghostbuster's work, to clear Arthur's name.

  • Normal Shot (default weapon) - Mid range single shot weapon.
  • Energy Regeneration - Fills up the energy gauge.
  • Explosives - Explodes when shot. Destroys several ghosts at a time.
  • Bubble Projectile - Envelopes the ghosts. Cannot be used on some ghosts.
  • Phaser Shell - The weapon can be used to cause high damage.
  • 3-way Shot - Fires constantly in three directions simultaneously. Long range weapon.
  • Energy Tank - These extend the amount of energy bars the Ghostbuster has in it's energy gauge.
  • Special Suit - Diminishes the amount of damage the Ghostbuster sustains.
  • Barrier - Protects the Ghostbuster from ghosts, but it eats up a lot of energy.

Ghosts[]

Minor Ghosts

  • Red Spitter - A red ghost that flies and blows to a bubble-like look and shoots a fireball.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case Castle
  • Single Cell Slime - A simplistic ghost that can leap around a few paces at a time.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case Apartment, Case Castle, Case Deep Hole
  • Animated Chandelier - At the start it is at the top area of a ceiling of the area. It will come down to either crash on the floor or it goes half way down and starts dispensing light candles.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home
  • Tablecloth Ghost - Covering a table, it raises and develops eyes and then after flying forward a bit will try to wrap up the Ghostbuster. Depending on how much the Ghostbuster moves around, it will release the Ghostbuster. It then leaves. During the time of capture, the Ghostbuster is defenseless to other enemies. The ghost can be defeated in its full form in the air.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case High-Rise Building
  • Animated Utensils
    • Plate - It flies up and down while moving slightly right and left.
      • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case High-Rise Building
    • Knife - It flies forward, diagonally up, and down bouncing off the floor and ceiling.
      • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case High-Rise Building
    • Cup - Hover, going in a circle.
      • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case High-Rise Building
    • Fork - Flied forward til under a Ghostbuster, then down the stab them. It misses, it stays on the floor.
      • Appears: Case High-Rise Building
  • Green Phantom (resembles Slimer) - It flies overhead in a straight line going forward. Defeating it will cause a pink egg to appear which will crack dropping a drop.
    • It drops power-up which could be: blue is for six bars for life gauge, red is for six bars for energy gauge.
    • Appears: All six cases
  • Bouncing Buddy - A blue floor ghost that do not harm player and provide to bounce up.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case Woody House, Case Castle, Case Deep Hole
  • Sphere Ghost - It flies diagonally up and down bouncing off the floor and ceiling.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case Apartment, Case High-Rise Building
  • Wall Spitter - At first not appearing, they will appear and shoot a fireball.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case Apartment
  • Iceman - Slightly taller than a Ghostbuster, they move forward trying to cllide with the Ghostbusters.
    • Appears: Case Apartment
  • Kraken - Big Cyan squid that is in the underwater parts of the levels. It has three limbs that can be destroyed, but only to regrow. To defeat it, hit it's top part on the surface of the water.
    • Appears: Case Apartment, Case High-Rise Building
  • Orb Miner - They are orange blobs with white feet and a pickaxe for destroying ice. Once the ice blocks are destroyed between you and one of them, they are easy to blast.
    • Appears: Case Apartment
  • Fire Beast
    • Red-Yellow version - Sorta like a squirrel, they tend to jump out of the fire walls, they some seem to be stand alone. This can be defeated with weapons.
      • Appears: Case Woody House
    • Blue-Cyan version - They are the blue version of they're red counterpart, and can not be defeated. They appear as a blue fire ball on the floor. They will awaken if the Ghostbuster gets close, but also become active when hit by a weapon. Distance is a friend when dealing with these spectral vermin.
      • Appears: Case Woody House
  • Eye-Bat - They are seen at first resting on the ceiling link bats. When the Ghostbuster gets close, they wake up and fly towards the Ghostbuster.
    • Appears: Case Woody House, Case Castle, Case Deep Hole
  • Carpet Worm - They crawl on either the floor or ceiling of a area and try to land on the Ghostbuster.
    • Appears: Case High-Rise Building
  • Plant Sphere - A plant that stops a Ghostbuster from going forward, it can only be defeated by shooting the sphere. Along with being annoying enemy that keeps shooting three projectiles at a time, it is also a rather time consuming enemy to defeat and requires a strong weapon to defeat it quickly.
    • Appears: Case Castle
  • Teddy Bear Ghost - At first seen sitting on a chair, they jump down and run at the Ghostbuster before blowing up.
    • Appears: Case Castle
  • Forgotten Prisoner - A skeleton like creature that appears behind prison bars, but when the Ghostbuster comes close, it will bind the bars and chase after the Ghostbuster.
    • Appears: Case Castle
  • Lightening Monster - They appear outside of windows and cause lightening flashes. They don't seem to harm the Ghostbuster.
    • Appears: Case Castle
  • Spines Shooter - Being normal or long versions, the Spines Shooters become active when the Ghostbuster gets close to one, then the three spines will come out of it aim at either the left of right, whichever is the direction towards the Ghostbusters. They can't be defeated, so avoid.
    • Appears: Case Deep Hole

Middle Ghosts

  • Spectre-Spirit - After the Middle ghost is defeated the Ghostbusters then sees the greenish ghost. A trap is in the room and you are expected to trap him. This is for points.
    • Strategy: Wait til the ghost is over the trap so it has lesser chance of escape.
  • Silk Hatton - Seems to be based on the Mad Hatter crossed with March Hare, both of Alice in Wonderland.
    • Forms
      • Form One: He walks around the stage with his being held by his hand while his head is missing. He also at points has his lower half walking without his upper half. Then there is the grand reveal of his Hare ghost in the hat which holds a fork and knife. He shoots a green projectile that flies around trying to crash into the Ghostbuster. It is destructible, so blast it. The only way to do damage to Silk Hatton is to hit the hare face.
      • Form Two: He loses the Mad Hatter part and the Hare ghost splits in two, his body and head, which are no hovering in the air. The head shots the same green projectile as seen before, while the body shots a blue energy ball from the neck. Both Parts and projectiles are destructible, and both parts of the Hare can be hit anywhere to cause damage. Once both parts are defeated then the trappable form appears.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home
  • Siren - A long haired woman that hovers above the Ghostbusters. There are three color forms going in this order: green/magenta, yellow/purple, and orange/teal.
    • Strategy: She seems to not take damage unless in her three in a row form. One of the heads will take damage if hit, usually either the top head or the one closest to the bottom. Dodge the fireballs and keep shooting her heads. Easiest to shoot from a diagonally aim such as "up + left" or "up + right". After defeating all three colors of her, she will turn trappable.
    • Appears: Case Apartment
  • Crystarobo - Likely meaning "Crystal Robot" it is a somewhat tall crystal looking thing. There are three color forms going in this order: purple, red, and yellow.
    • Strategy: There is a electric mode that has a development in front of it and then makes a small buildup of mass that can be destroyed. It when walking can be damaged by hitting the head and spike on head. It can swing in the air, it also can jump forward. After defeating all three colors of it, it will turn trappable.
    • Appears: Case Apartment
  • Fire Dragon - It is basically a Dragon head with a long neck that spews a long blast of fire out of it's mouth. There are three color forms going in this order: red/yellow, pink/magenta, and blue/cyan.
    • Strategy: Use a long range weapon and fire at the head.
    • Appears: Case Woody House
  • Fire Giant - A humanoid, made of flames. It has three color forms going in this order: yellow/red, purple/magenta, and cyan/blue.
    • Strategy: It mostly jumps around, so avoid it landing on the Ghostbuster and avoid its four directional fire ball attacks, aiming for the head with a suggested long range weapon.
    • Appears: Case Woody House
  • 100-Eyed Centipede - A ten piece eyed creature.
    • Strategy: They start out together as a ten part creature, but as pieces are defeated they will become desegmented and attack singlely. Once all parts are defeated, a trappable ghost will appear to trap.
    • Appears: Case High-Rise Building
  • Shell Beast - It is a flying winged beast. There are three color forms going in this order: green/purple/magenta, teal/pink/red, and cyan/green/yellow.
    • Strategy: A powerful weapon is needed for defeated the shelled beast. It in it's ball state can not be hurt and will bounce off the floor of the room, hurting the Ghostbuster. When it is up in the air and open showing the inner beast is when to fire. Keep in mind, it is also going to fire a big projectile to the floor, so dodging it is important.
    • Appears: Case High-Rise Building
  • Marionette - there will be two of them in "Case Castle", which possess the two Ghostbusters that went missing.
    • Strategy: The Ghostbuster will be seen with a spirit behind him, attached and controlling him. The Marionette will equip the Ghostbuster with whatever weapon the Ghostbuster trying to rescue him has. Firing on the attached ghost is how you hurt the ghost. After awhile the ghost will weaken, and at that point will stop possessing the Ghostbuster, making it a trappable ghost.
    • Note: Depending on which Ghostbuster is at the Castle, you will see two of the following, Egon, Ray, or Peter.
    • Appears: Case Castle
  • Broccoli Worm - A six piece creature.
    • Strategy: Once it appears as one creature it will split into six parts that are up in the air. All six parts are independent, and will fly down to hit the Ghostbuster. Once all six parts are destroyed a trappable ghost will appear to trap.
    • Appears: Case Castle
  • Reaper - A grim reaper type foe with a scythe to attack. There are three color forms going in this order: black/grey, blue/grey, and purple/yellow.
    • Strategy: It flies forward and attacks with it's scythe, it also creates flaming projectiles that go in a circle formation coming out towards the edges of the screen. The place to hurt it is the head.
    • Appears: Case Castle

Boss Ghosts
Note, many of the bosses appear as "Middle Ghosts" in the last stage, and at that point can be trapped.

  • Scalon - Likely mistranslated and should be spelled "Scallion", also called a green orion. There are three color forms going in this order: green, teal, pale pink.
    • Strategy: he has three forms, one being when he moves his full body and him usually to one corner and to center of room. He in another form releases his scales that fly around. This is the form to fire at him as he has no cover for protection. The form after that, his head falls to the floor, then starts rolling around the stage, before forming a base for its head to land on. Once he is defeated a halo will form above his head, which will rise and discard its eyeballs before it blows up.
    • Appears: Case Home Sweet Home, Case Deep Hole (as Middle Ghost)
  • Snowman Ghost - He appears to be as the name suggests, a haunted snowman. There are three color forms going in this order: cyan/red/black, yellow/yellow/green, orange/green/red.
    • Strategy: The Snowman overall flies back and forth in the air, aiming for its top head is the only way to cause damage to him. Both mouths of the snowman release mini snowmen that attack by shooting off the carrot nose and running into the Ghostbuster. The ghost in his orange form will start to melt which signals he is done.
    • Appears: Case Apartment, Case Deep Hole (as Middle Ghost)
  • Wall Man - He is the front half of a face that will appear coming out of the wall. There are three color forms going in this order: red/yellow, pink/magenta, and dark green/green.
    • Strategy: It can appear side up or up-side down on the lower or upper parts of the right or left walls. It will either spew Single Cell Slime or three projectiles. Best way to defeat it is to be in the longer piece of the floor and to fire using a long range weapon. After the third color form it will show it is defeated by turning dry and showing it's face cracking.
    • Appears: Case Woody House, Case Deep Hole (as Middle Ghost)
  • Marshmallow Man
    • Appears: Case High-Rise Building
  • Insect Trapper
    • Appears: Case Castle, Case Deep Hole (as Middle Ghost)
  • Bazoozoo/Janna
    • Appears: Case Deep Hole

Cases[]

In this game the stages/levels are referred to as cases.

Canon Debate[]

It clearly is based on the events that happened after Ghostbusters,[citation needed] however it doesn't note Ghostbusters II events in it. In Ghostbusters II, it was suggested that there were no major cases after the defeat of Gozer. So it conflicts with the Ghostbusters II film.

It also conflicts with the reappearance of Stay Puft in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, as Ray noted it wasn't me this time, which itself doesn't suggest that the Stay Puft in this game happened.

The Game also does not follow the into the canon of The Real Ghostbusters, as "Citizen Ghost" episode takes place right after the events of the first movie.

It is concluded it is only canon in a timeline that includes the Ghostbusters film by itself.

Game Genie Codes[]

This is a common cheating device that was used on the Genesis. Due to the nature of the device, we are not officially suggesting to use one or the codes.

Expand/Collapse Area
Code What Happens
BWST-AA54 Protection from most damage
96CT-BTAR Start with 24 life bar ticks instead of 16
96CT-A2AR Start with 12 life bar ticks
96CT-ATAR Start with 8 life bar ticks
96CT-AJAR Start with 4 life bar ticks
ATCT-AAAG Start with 5 rounds
AYCT-AAAG Start with 6 rounds
A2CT-AAAG Start with 7 rounds
A6CT-AAAG Start with 8 rounds
BACT-AAAG Start with 9 rounds
BECT-AAAG Start with 10 rounds
96CT-BYA0 Start with 26 energy bar ticks
96CT-A2A0 Start with 12 energy bar ticks
96CT-AJA0 Start with only 4 energy bar ticks
ACTT-ACH6 $10 ghosts worth $100
ACTT-BAH6 $10 ghosts worth $1,000
ACTT-BAS6 $10 ghosts worth $3,000
ACTT-AEH8 $20 ghosts worth $200
ACTT-AAS8 $20 ghosts worth $2,000
ACTT-BA18 $20 ghosts worth $5,000
ACVA-AGAA $30 ghosts worth $300
ACVA-BAJA $30 ghosts worth $3,000
ACVA-BATA $30 ghosts worth $5,000
ACVA-ALAC $50 ghosts worth $500
ACVA-BATC $50 ghosts worth $5,000
AV0T-AA4C Infinite bombs
NNCT-AABN Start with 99 bombs
CJCT-AABN Start with 18 bombs
EYCT-AABN Start with 37 bombs
AACT-AABN Start with 0 bombs

Trivia[]

  • In Beep! MegaDrive July 1990 issue (Japanese Video Game Magazine), it featured a review section for Ghostbusters. The back cover features an ad for Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and Ghostbusters. The same ad has a screen cap from a prototype of the game that shows "Case Home Sweet Home" scene outside the house with the Ghostbusters coming in.
  • On page 15 of Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #2, on the lower right side, are Peter, Ray, and Egon, from the video game.
  • In Ghostbusters Issue #2 page 10, Silk Hatton appears to the right of Gorgar
  • On page nine of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #9, Silk Hatton makes a non-canon cameo in a photograph on Egon's board.
  • On page 8 of 35th Anniversary: Ghostbusters, in panel 3, on the left is an ice cream ad visually inspired by Snowman from the Ghostbusters Sega game.

References[]


Gallery[]

Overall[]

Characters images[]

Shops Items images[]

Ghosts images[]

Middle Ghosts/Boss Ghosts images[]

Note, Spectre-Spirit are included here due to them only appearing after Middle Ghosts defeats. Images for Marshmallow Man, Insect Trapper, and Janna can be found on their respective articles.

Advertising[]

Note that all scans of Beep! MegaDrive July 1990 issue came from SegaRetro.org.

Secondary Canon[]

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