Versions
The game shipped in three distinct forms that share the same basic story and the same recorded dialogue, but differ heavily in art style, gameplay, and which ghosts appear.
The realistic version, developed by Terminal Reality, used a photorealistic look modeled on the two films. It released for Windows PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and the Remastered edition added PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
The stylized version, developed by Red Fly Studio, used a more cartoonish aesthetic and leaned on puzzle elements. It released for Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. War Drum Studios handled the PS2 port. Aykroyd said he preferred the Wii version.4
A separate stylized Nintendo DS version, developed by Zen Studios, used the same cartoon look as the Red Fly games but played from a top-down perspective, with side missions that raise the public's opinion of the team and driving segments behind the wheel of Ecto-1 between locations, capturing ghosts along the way. It has no Rookie character; the player instead controls the four original Ghostbusters one at a time.
Comparing the versions
The Ghostbusters Firehouse acts as the main menu and hub from which missions are launched in the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii versions of the game.
Terminal Reality described their version's combat as "Gears of War Light," with a stricter emphasis on action. Their build included online multiplayer separate from the main story, and ran on Terminal Reality's proprietary "Infernal Engine" for the in-game physics that drive the destructible environments. In that version the amount of money earned for new equipment shrinks the more the player destroys the surroundings, while special achievements reward thorough demolition. The PC, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS versions are single-player only.
Red Fly's version emphasized puzzles, supported optional local co-op for the entire main game (with both a male and a female Rookie), and tracked collateral damage without charging the player for it. The Wii version let players aim the neutrona wand with the Wii Remote and release traps with a bowling motion of the Nunchuk. The PS2 and PSP releases are ports of the Wii version.
Both the realistic and stylized versions give the player a P.K.E. Meter and Paragoggles to scan and analyze targets, along with the Proton Pack's Blast Stream to wear ghosts down and a Capture Stream to wrangle them into the trap. The Slime Tether is a strategic tool available in both styles.
A comparison of Ray Stantz between the 360/PS3 and Wii versions illustrates the visual difference between the two approaches:
Some ghosts differ between the two styles. The realistic version features job-based ghosts such as Pappy Sargassi, plus bosses including The Chairman in the Museum and the Imprisoned Juvenile Sloar. The Red Fly versions cut most of the job ghosts and replace those two bosses with the Black Slime Behemoth and a Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton.
In the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, up to four players can take on the role of the original Ghostbusters in online multiplayer modes set in iconic movie locations, including the Museum, Library, and Times Square, competing cooperatively for the highest ghost-busting score. The Wii version offers split-screen co-op allowing two players to play through the entire single-player story together.
Plot
The events take place during Thanksgiving 1991, two years after Ghostbusters II and seven after the first film. The player is a new recruit, hired to test the new equipment built by Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz. On his first day, Dr. Venkman refuses to learn his name and simply calls him "Rookie."
The game opens at the New York Natural History Museum, where a woman flees the Gozer exhibit and unleashes a paranormal shockwave that spreads across the city. The same pulse reaches the firehouse and lets Slimer escape his containment, sending the team to the Sedgewick Hotel to recapture him. The Sedgewick proves to be overrun, and the team calls in Winston Zeddemore from his day off. He brings worse news: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has returned, now able to spawn "Marshmallow Minions." The team battles him through Times Square and saves the woman from the museum, who introduces herself as Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, an expert on Gozerian lore supervising the museum's World of Gozer exhibit.
Back at the firehouse, Mayor Jock Mulligan and Walter Peck arrive. Under pressure from City Council, the mayor has installed Peck as liaison through a new office, the Paranormal Contract Oversight Committee (PCOC, pronounced "peacock"), forcing Peck and the Ghostbusters into an uneasy partnership.
At the New York Public Library the team encounters the Library Ghost, also called the Grey Lady and remembered as the first ghost the Ghostbusters ever encountered, revealed to be the spirit of former chief librarian Eleanor Twitty, bound to the library to guard a Gozerian Codex from a man known as "the Collector," who had murdered her. After capturing her, the team is drawn through a Spirit Door into the ghost world to defeat the Collector. They notice a four-light symbol on the door, one light of which goes dark. The trail leads to the Museum, where they fight artifact spirits able to possess the living, including Peck, whom they free with the Slime Blower Mk. II loaded with mood slime from Ghostbusters II. Furious at the damage and the slime, Peck again threatens to revoke their license and shut down the containment grid.
Selwyn recognizes the symbol as what her colleagues thought was an old constellation; the team realizes it maps points where the spirit realm converges with the real world, each corresponding to a New York location. Returning to the Sedgewick, they confront the Spider Witch, who once lived in the hotel and held its manager captive, tracking her to room 1221 before shutting down another doorway. The next node sits in the middle of the East River, where Stantz's restored tugboat, the Ecto-8, carries them to a risen island bearing Shandor Castle, former home of the late Gozer-worshipping architect Ivo Shandor. The castle has been producing the rivers of slime that ran beneath the city during the events of Ghostbusters II. After defeating a juvenile Sloar and noticing a painting of a woman resembling Selwyn, the team escapes as the island sinks.
They return to find Selwyn kidnapped and the containment grid shut down. Tracking the activity to Central Park, they fight into an otherworldly castle expecting Peck, only to find both Peck and Selwyn restrained and Mayor Mulligan possessed by the spirit of Ivo Shandor. Shandor, having decided Gozer was unfit for his worship, intends to ascend to godhood himself through enough spiritual turbulence and the blood of his own line: Ilyssa, his descendant. The team weakens him, is dragged into a deep ghost world, and crosses their proton streams atop an otherworldly temple to seal him away. Thrown back to the real world, they revive Selwyn and the mayor and release Peck. With the spirit realm pushed back, Venkman offers the Rookie a franchise opportunity in another city such as Chicago, Cincinnati, or Los Angeles. Slimer escapes one last time as the credits roll.
Main cast
The realistic and stylized console versions are playable as the Rookie, with the Red Fly versions offering both a male and a female Rookie. The original four are voiced by the film cast: Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn is voiced by Alyssa Milano. Supporting roles include Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), Walter Peck (William Atherton), and Mayor Jock Mulligan (Brian Doyle-Murray). Major boss ghosts include Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Library Ghost, the Spider Witch, and Ivo Shandor, with several bosses exclusive to one art style.
Development
Sony was looking for a developer to create a Ghostbusters game, and Vivendi Universal took on the project with Terminal Reality. Around 2005 to 2006 a prototype demo was built in a Resident Evil style: a hotel level where the player tracked Slimer with a P.K.E. Meter. The demo did not test well because players wanted to shoot.5 A separate studio, Zootfly, pitched its own Ghostbusters game to Sony around the same time; after Sony declined, Zootfly released its demo without permission in January 2007, and Sony quickly had it taken down.5 Terminal Reality then began the first real build under tight secrecy, not permitted to discuss the game publicly until late 2008.
In November 2007, Game Informer revealed a December cover with the Ghostbusters logo, announcing a "world exclusive premiere." The first gameplay footage, taken from the Xbox 360 build, aired on G4TV's X-Play and showed the player chasing Slimer through the Sedgewick Hotel alongside Egon and Ray. Confirmed film characters at the reveal included the Library Ghost, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Vigo, and the Scoleri Brothers. A May 2008 GameTrailers segment on Spike TV confirmed the Slime Tether device and an appearance by Gozer.
Bill Murray's involvement was uncertain through much of production. He recorded his lines around the beginning of July 2008 after numerous cancellations; until then the team had several contingency plans, including writing Peter out of the story entirely, and Ernie Hudson and Aykroyd recorded some of those lines in case Murray did not appear. Before Murray signed on, the script had Peter moved to Paris with Dana Barrett, and another version sent him to Los Angeles to open a new Ghostbusters franchise.6 The team also considered recasting Peter. Their first choice was Vince Vaughn, and producer John Melchior got as far as agreeing a price with Vaughn's agent.6 Murray's brother Joel Murray, who already handled much of Bill's additional dialogue recording in films, was also considered.6 Murray's main condition for participating was that all of the Ghostbusters, including Ernie Hudson, be included and given equal screen time. He did not want the game to become "Peter Venkman -- the game."
Texas-based Red Fly Studio was approached to create a Wii version while already at work on "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars." Rather than attempt a direct port of Terminal Reality's build, which the Wii's hardware could not support, Red Fly built a new game from the ground up in a stylized aesthetic, sharing the same story, music, and voice acting.
Stylized version origins
Producer John Melchior pitched the stylized version as a more kid-friendly take in the spirit of The Real Ghostbusters. Marketing initially rejected the idea and the script had to be reworked, but Sony supported it as a different version for a different market. The actors asked that their likenesses keep their 1991 features rather than be given cartoon proportions, which made the approval process harder.7
Artist Dan Schoening, later known for his work on the IDW Ghostbusters comics, helped inspire the graphic style of the stylized versions. According to Red Fly CEO Dan Borth, Schoening was left out of the credits because there was not enough room.8
Publishing changed hands during development. In July 2008 Activision Blizzard, which had absorbed Vivendi's and Sierra's titles, announced it would release only five franchises, and Ghostbusters was not among them, leaving the game in limbo (though Sierra's PR team said it would not be canceled). In October 2008 Variety reported Atari had purchased the publishing rights, and in November 2008 Atari announced a June 2009 release to coincide with the first film's 25th anniversary. In April 2009 it was revealed that Sony, rather than Atari, would publish the PS3 and PS2 versions in Europe, with the other system versions delayed to fall.
Aspects that were cut
A number of ideas were dropped before release. The team wanted to use Janosz Poha but abandoned the idea when they could not get Peter MacNicol to reprise the role.6 When recasting Peter was on the table, they briefly considered making Louis Tully the playable fifth Ghostbuster, but Moranis, by then retired, politely declined.6 The Rookie ended up nameless, his likeness borrowed from associate producer Ryan French.
An online "Ghosts versus Busters" mode, in which players could take up the role of either side, was planned during development but was not included in the final game.
By the team's own account, six or seven levels were recorded with dialogue but never made it into the game.9 These included a Halloween rave in upstate New York, an Ellis Island level, a subway level with the Ghost Train, an Ecto-1 chase after Stay Puft, a Wall Street level, and a Temple of Gozer level (pitched by lead game designer Steven Cluff) that would have featured Zuul and Vinz Clortho.7 A Thanksgiving Day Parade level was also cut. Planned downloadable content at Vivendi, including a concept to introduce contemporary comedic actors as guest Ghostbusters for missions, was never executed once Atari took over.7
Sequel plans
The team developed a design document and synopsis for a sequel, plus a synopsis for a third game, working with Ramis and Aykroyd late in the development cycle.9 The main concept was to transition to a new team in a new city, with Ray Stantz acting as a mentor and Aykroyd the only carried-over cast member, the sequel's fate tied to whether a new film got made.10 Expanding the world with a more open, drivable city in the Ecto-1 was a key goal; the team had tried and failed to make Ecto-1 driving work in the first game.11 One idea sent the Rookie back to his hometown of Chicago to start a franchise, with Winston as a business contact and Ray providing lore. Another brought rival franchise teams, including one from Los Angeles, to New York to rescue the original team. Atari had no interest in making any sequels.9
Remastered
Saber Interactive remastered the realistic version, which released October 4, 2019. The remaster was leaked through several regional game-rating boards in May 2019 before PlayStation Europe officially revealed it on May 30. Producer Matt McKnight said the original cutscenes were recovered from a hard drive kept by the lead animator, since neither Sony nor Atari still had the source art; the videos were remastered in 4K, with textures and lighting also enhanced.12
In an October 2019 interview, McKnight detailed the process: Saber assembled a team of about 25, secured Atari's permission to access the game's code, and tracked down former Terminal Reality employees to license the Infernal Engine. Gameplay was largely left alone aside from tweaks to shadows, lighting, and hair. The multiplayer proved especially difficult, since it had been built by a separate company on an unfinished version of the game and existed in six different copies of code.13 Plans to rebuild the multiplayer were ultimately abandoned. Saber's Tim Willits later explained the team "had to focus on recreating the single player experience fans were expecting from us" because the original multiplayer code "just didn't cooperate."14
Beating the remaster on Normal unlocks the Ghostbusters II flight suit, and finishing on Difficult unlocks the Golden Proton Pack.
IDW Comics continuity
In the continuity of IDW's Ghostbusters comics, the events of the video game are treated as having happened, with many shared elements alongside several differences.
The broad strokes carry over: PCOC was a city oversight group headed by Walter Peck, who became possessed; Mayor Jock Mulligan was possessed by Ivo Shandor; and the Ghostbusters became bonded city contractors. The Natural History Museum hosted a World of Gozer exhibit with Dr. Selwyn involved, and the paranormal event again centered on Shandor, the Black Slime, the Cult of Gozer, and the Gozerian Codex, with Eleanor Twitty's disappearance from the New York Public Library placed in 1924. Many firehouse details and items match, including the Vigo portrait near Janine's desk, an experimental Proton Pack for the Rookie, the Slime Tether on the Slime Blower, and the Marine Ecto-8.
The differences are mostly in personnel and detail. Winston was given an honorary doctorate in parapsychology. Rather than a single Rookie, the comics establish that the Ghostbusters hired three recruits, one matching the realistic version (named Bryan Welsh) and two matching the stylized version (Maddie Collins and Chad Fuller). The Sargassi encounter is reframed as the team trapping a Class 4 spectral shark that had been devouring Pappy Sargassi. The stylized version was later placed in IDW's Dimension 11-W, with the team appearing as the Ghostbusters of Dimension 11-W.
