I ain't afraid of no ghost.

To prove that I ain't afraid of no Ghost, Today I'm going to take a look at one of my fondest childhood memories, Ghostbusters and its expanded universe. 

So strap on your proton packs, and say it with me, 

Who ya gonna call? 

Ghostbusters!

Ghostbusters.

The first and by far the best example of the Ghostbusters franchise. I’m only going to give a very very brief rundown of the plot, if you have not seen Ghostbusters by now… Shame on you!

Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler set up a paranormal pest control agency, they are quickly joined by Winston Zeddemore, when they find themselves unable to control the vast number of ghosts.

Bad things happen, Ghosts get busted and the Ghostbusters end up head to head against Gozar the destroyer (who happens to take the form of the Stay puft marshmallow man) The Ghostbusters save the day and send Gozar back to whence she came.

Ghostbusters was written by two of its stars, Dan Aykroyd (Ray) and Harold Ramis (Egon) and to this day stands as one of my all-time favourite films, from the goofiness of the encounter with the library ghost and slimer, to the all-out action of the fight against Gozar, there is very little about this film that I don’t love, and the bits I don’t love I still like (more than a friend)

Sure the special effects are dated, and on watching it as an adult its appeal is more nostalgia than appreciation, I would still recommend it to anyone, and intend to get my children to watch it as soon as they are old enough.

Ghostbusters 2.

The second and (at the time of me writing this) Last Ghostbusters film puts Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston  one more into the thick of the paranormal world.

Their fame has faded a little since the events of the first film, and this film starts with the Ghostbusters doing children’s parties, but soon enough a possessed painting and a river of slime make the Ghostbusters strap on the proton packs for a second time.

This film, is not as good as the first, that’s a given, the set pieces seem a lot more forced than the first film, the bad guy is no way near as epic, and as much as I like it, the whole statue of liberty scene feels like an attempt to recreate the magic of the Stay Puft marshmallow man.  

However I still enjoy this film immensely, it has some great set pieces, some great action and some hilarious moments. I recommend it as much as the first one, and it makes a great companion to the first film.

The Real Ghostbusters.

Like all great films of the 80’s the Ghostbusters got their own animated series, named the Real Ghostbusters (after filmation beat them to releasing a animated show called “Ghostbusters” )

Released in 1986 this series followed the continued adventures of the main protagonists from the film, now joined by slimer rewritten from the films as a sort of loveable mascot/pet.

The Ghostbusters universe was changed slightly for this series, but it did pay homage to the films on multiple occasions, with Gozar being mentioned a few times, and Stay Puft making a few appearances.

I remember the first two series fondly, it was quite grown up for a kids show, and could be frightening at times, all the element that appealed to a young Monday Richard. However by the time the third season came around, the show became much more “kiddy” for want of a better word, episodes got lighter and less scary and Slimer became the focus of the show, going so far as it being renamed “Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters”

It can be hard to track down now, but if you can this series is well worth a watch.

The Real Ghostbusters also spawned a comic series, also entitled  “The Real Ghostbusters” I’ve never read it, but from what I can tell, it follows the same ideas and story of the cartoon.

Extreme Ghostbusters.

This 1997 reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise was set years after The real ghostbusters, Ghostbusters has long since gone out of business, each original Ghostbuster having gone their own separate ways. Egon now teaching classes on the paranormal is forced to recruit some of his students to form a new crew of Ghostbusters when paranormal activity restarts with vengeance

To be honest, I never watched Extreme Ghostbusters when I was younger, so can’t say much on it now, I’ve watched a few episodes as research for this post, and it seems like the kind of thing I would have liked as a child, but as an adult, I miss the original ghostbusters, and find it very hard to connect with this new younger crew.

The series also seems to put a lot of emphasis on the “relationship” between Egon and Janine, a plot I never much liked when hinted at in the films.

I’m going to investigate this series further if I can, and if I come to any other conclusion, I’ll let you know in an upcoming post.

Ghostbusters: Legion

This comic book mini-series is what compelled me to write this post in the first place.

It was released in 2004 by 88MPH studios, but has only come to my attention since I have started reading Comics on my iPad,

Legion is set after the events of the first film, following the events of the Ghostbusters defeat of Gozar and follows what happens as fame starts to fade, and day to day ghost capture takes over.

The story is so far every compelling, (without giving anything away, it’s all to do with someone from the Ghostbusters past) the art is great and I’m very much enjoying it.

My only issue with the series is it being retconned into 2004, with technology and pop culture reflecting the time. I see why this is needed, but in my head, the Ghostbusters and the 80’s go hand in hand.

Video Games.

(I’m only going to touch on the early games, if I talk too much about them, I’ll be here all day, I suggest watching the Angry Video Game Nerds Videos about them, he does a much better job than I could at explaining what makes them so very very bad)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Released on the Arati 2600, the sega master system and the NES this game is mostly a bad ghost busting mini game, or an even worse driving mini game while waiting for Gozer to turn up. The penultimate level is painful, and the final boss is no fun at all.

But if you want to try it, there is an “enhanced remake” of the spectrum version available as freeware for the pc and available from this link.

The Real Ghostbusters (1987)

This was an arcade game, and from the video I have seen online, seems kind of fun. You and up to 3 friends take control of the Ghostbusters and bust some ghost. It was later ported to home consoles, with the only change being it only had 2 player multiplayer.

Ghostbusters II (1989)

As its name suggests, this game loosely follows the events of the second film, you play as Ray and armed with your proton pack you fight off ghost attacks while plating though levels themed after major events in the film. You also get to play as a floating fireball protecting the statue of libity from hard, and then in the final level, you get to play as all four Ghostbusters vs Vigo.

Ghostbusters (1990)

The first game on this list I owned at a child. In this mega drive game, you play as a caricature of one of the original Ghostbusters, (but not Winston) from what I remember it was a frustrating run and gun type game, and very disappointing from a Ghostbusters fans prospective.

Ghostbusters II (1990)

This was a NES game also based on Ghostbusters 2, and like the early game of the same name, followed the events of the second film. This game is notorious for its difficulty, being very hard to complete, not only for the lack of a health bar and quick level scroll, but also for a punishing time limit and complete lack of a pause feature.

New Ghostbusters 2 (1990)

A Japanese only game for the Game boy and NES, I know very little about it. It seems that you (and a friend) can play as one of the 4 Ghostbusters (and Louis in the NES version) and capture ghosts.

The Real Ghostbusters (1993)

This was a strange game. Only the North American release of it has anything to do with the Ghostbusters, in the Japanese release, it was about micky mouse, and in the Europe version, it was about Garfield. From what I can tell, it’s a puzzle action game that emphasised collecting stars. What made it very weird was that while you had a proton pack, it did not work on ghosts, and instead you needed to use Bombs to fight them.

Extreme Ghostbusters (2001)

A Game boy colour game, you play as the characters from the cartoon of the same name, each character had its own strength and weaknesses and could be changed midgame.

Extreme Ghostbusters: Code Ecto-1 (2002)

Another game boy colour game. Two members of the Extreme Ghostbusters have been captured; you take control of the others and track them down. Featured some great driving levels for a Game Boy Game.

Extreme Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Invasion (2004)

This was a lightgun game very much like time crisis, you could play as any one of the 4 Extreme Ghostbusters, and battled ghosts across three modes, adventure, training and replay.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009)

Now this is the Ghostbusters game I have been waiting for since my childhood. All four original Cast members returned to voice their characters and the player takes control of a unnamed rookie Ghostbuster. I’m not going to ruin the story, but you will find yourself facing some familiar foes from the films, get to trash some new York city landmarks, and find out the truth behind a couple of unexplained events.

Gameplay is exactly what I would want from a Ghostbusters game, the proton pack is hard to aim and destructive, the set pieces are cool and well handled and the dialog between the main 4 Ghostbusters is exceptional and worth the price of admission on its own.

You can pick this game up for about £15 now, and if you’re a fan of the franchise, I highly recommend it.

I know the Wii version of this game is very different, but as i have never played it, i can't really say much, I know its got much more stylized graphics. 

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime (2011)

This sequal to the 2009 game, sadly has very little to do with its predecessor. You play as a member of a new team of Ghostbusters, the voice acting is gone completely, replaced with text on screen, and the gameplay itself has gone from a over the shoulder shooter, to a top down twin stick shooter.

From what I have played of it, I’m not exactly sold on it. But I am interested to see how it plays multi player.

Monday Richard is dead, Long live Monday Richard. 

Back to the Future.

Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan, and told me if I didn't talk about Back to the Future this week, he'd melt my brain.

So dear Readers I want you to come back with me, back to the 80's to the year before I was born, and to the birth of one of my all time favourite franchises.

Among other things I'll give you a very quick run down of the films, review the BTTF card game and take a look at the new(ish) episodic games from telltale.

Films.

The back to the future films are undeniable classics, Michael J. Fox gives a great preformance as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd is unforgettable as Dr. Emmett Brown. I think I first saw the films when I was about 5 or 6, and I think I fell in love with them on that very first viewing. Since then. I've seen them countless times, I've seen the original twice in the cinema, once with the original 1985 film stock that actually broke during the screening. I even had my very first kiss to the opening of BTTF part 2. Its pretty safe to say they have a special place in my heart.

I'm not going to talk much about the story, as if you don't know the plot of BTTF at this point you should stop reading immediately, and go and watch all 3, then when your done come back and finish reading

What do you mean they have never seen Back to the Future?

.Not only are the films cinematography impressive they have an awesome and memorable score, the humour is well-placed and appropriate and unlike most time travel films they don't fall into the larger possible plot holes.

In my option the most impressive parts of the film are the changes to Hill valley, in the films we get to see Hill Valley at 3 different points in its history (and one alternative version of Hill Valley), and in my option the masterful way the film makers showed how history, and the events of the film, changed Hill Valley is why, of all the films of the 80's, BTTF will always be my personal favourite.

Card game.

You might not know about this one, but I recommend checking it out.

Made by loony labs in 2010 the Back to the future card game is essentally a remake of the older loony labs game “Chrononauts” like Chrononauts this game revolves around a central time line laid out with cards in the centre of the table, you play as a descendant of characters from the films and you must alter history to ensure your own existence, then win the game by un-inventing time-travel itself

That's where the similarity to Chrononauts ends, in the BTTF card game they removed the “patch” system so you no longer have to patch paradoxes to prevent the universe ending, instead time ripples and changes in a way much closer to the films, they also removed the mission cards simplifying what you need to do to win.

This makes for a very entertaining game that works well as a simpler version of Chrononauts perfect to introduce people to Chrononauts as well as being a fun game based on a great series.

I highly recommend it if you can get hold of it.

Telltale games.

This series of games set after the films is not only fun to play, but gives a great wrap up to the series.

The story goes that after the end of the last film, Doc went off to live his life with his wife and kids, still travailing through time, the doc gets stuck in prohibition era Hill Valley, the DeLorean's safty feature kicks in to return to 1985, just in time for Marty to return to save the Doc from once again dying in the past.

I'm not going to go much into the story beyond that, since unlike the films, I don't expect you to have played the games, and the story is actually pretty good, and I don't want to spoil it for you.

The voice acting is great in this game, some of the original actors returned to voice characters, but they got some amazing sound alike to voice the ones that did not, the story is just a joy to play through, you get to see another couple of versions of Hill Valley and learn much more about the Doc, including getting to interact with his younger self.

There are a couple of cheesy premises, the DeLorean you use in the games is not the original, but a “temporal copy” created when the DeLorean was struck by lightning at the end of the second film, unlike its counterpart destroyed at the end of BTTF 3, this version is intact, right down to its time circuits and its a hell of a lot of fun using it to explore the times of the games.

I have been playing the games on my iPad, and that's a real treat, but it is available for the PC and Mac and you can download them, or buy a physical version of them here http://www.telltalegames.com/bttf I highly recommend it.

The animated series

You read that right, believe it or not, there is in fact a Back to the Future animated series, although its bloody hard to get hold owing to the fact that it has never been (officially) released on DVD, you can watch some of it on YouTube

Unlike the films the animated series focused on The Brown family and Doc's children with only occasional appearances from Marty and Jennifer, The show also featured a much upgraded version of the DeLorean including voice activated time circuits, the ability to travel in space as well as time and the ability to fold up into a suitcase.

The creators of back to the future have said that the events depicted in the animated series are an alternative time line for the story and should not be considered cannon but either way, its worth checking out if you get the chance, just for the weirdness of it, I remember watching it fondly as a kid, but the information you see here is about all I can remember about it, so make of that what you will.

The animated series also had a very brief comic series detailing further adventures, I have never seen it personally, but it is spoken about fondly in some Back to the Future circles, if you have any of it, let me know, I would love to see it.

The Ride.

One of my biggest regrets on this earth, is that I never got to ride BTTF the ride at universal studios, as it was sadly removed in 2007 to be replaced by The Simpsons ride.

All I know of the ride comes from internet research and the video footage on the blu-ray release of the trilogy, so I'll keep this really short.

Basicly in this version of the BTTF time line, Doc and his family moved back to the 20^th century after the events of BTTF 3, doc opened the “the Institute of Future Technology” and continued inventing.

Riders play the part of "volunteers" testing out Doc's newest invention; the eight-passenger DeLorean time machine. Only Biff turns up and steals the original DeLorean, leading the riders on a chase through time to bring him back.

It looked like great fun, and a nice tribute to the films, but sadly without your own DeLorean time machine, your never going to be able to ride it in the future, and in this fan's option, it will be sorely missed.

Other games.

There exists more BTTF games that just the Telltale ones, they are all pretty terrible, but i'll give you a super quick run down, just for completions sake.

Back to the Future (1985)

Available on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. In this 'adventure' game you try and get George and Lorraine to spend enough time together to fall in love,

Back to the Future (1989)

Available on the NES. A bizarre game, you bassicly collect clocks to win levels, its so bad it hardly counts as a game and even Bob Gale, the screenwriter of the films called it “one of the worst games ever” insisting that fans of the films don't buy it.

Back to the Future Part II & III (1990)

Available on the NES, this game as the title suggests follows the events of the second and third film, and is a side scroller, you play as Marty and do a bunch of stuff. Its major problem is the fact that its really long, completely lacking any sort of save or password function, and frankly, quite boring.

Back to the Future Part III (1991)

Available on the Mega Drive, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Master System, and the ZX Spectrum. I know this game has 4 levels, but frankly the first (that has you riding a horse as doc to rescue Clara) is so frustrating that even though I owned the mega drive version of this I've never played the other 3, I guess it follows the story of the 3^rd film, but its one to avoid.

Super Back to the Future II (1993)

Only available in Japan as far as I know, for the super famicom, this is a 2D platformer where you play as Marty on a hoverboard, it has hardly anything to do with the film, but its pretty good compared to the other games on this list.

Universal studios Theme Parks Adventure. (2001)
released for the Game Cube, I was unfortunate enough to own this 'game' most of it is really rubbish mini games based on rides at universal studios, but it also featured a really rubbish mini game where you get to drive the DeLorean, so that's something.

Back to the Future: The Pinball

One word. WANT!