Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

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T imes Ghostbusters. have been Instead hard for of the
being treated like heroes after
saving New York from the evil
of Zuul, they were forced to
take the blame for the battledamaged
city and had to disband.
Now, four years later
they're called out of retirement
by a painting of an ancient Europsycho
named Vigo in the NY
Museum of Modern Art, the
presence of something supernatural
under the streets of the
city and Dana Barrett's baby.
Oscar...
Activision's game of the film
features three sub-games inspired
by scenes from the
movie In the first stage, you
have to lower Ray Stantz down
a I 20m deep airshaft on a cable
to get a sample from what is, in
fact, a river of slime running
along the Van Home underground
railroad, As Stantz descends
you have to zap attacking
spectres, ghostly hands and
cable-cutting ghosts, while
swinging him left and right to collect
three bits of a goop scoop,
as well as extra weapon supplies
and courage elixir from ledges
on the side of the shaft. The
prospect of getting a man on a
swinging rope to shoot ghosts
coming at him from six directions
while collecting extra weapons
might sound like a nightmare,
but in fact the clever toystick
control makes it surprising-
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ly easy. So easy, in fact, that it's -
not going to be long before
you're loading up the next section.
Having analysed the slime the
Ghostbusters have found it sensitive
to emotional energy. so
they decide the only way to rid
the streets of spooks is to use
positively-charged slime to animate
the Statue of Liberty, then
rally a crowd of happy New Yorkers
behind them and draw
power from their positive vibes.
This part of the game takes the
form of an unusual sidewaysscrolling
shoot 'em up with Miss
Liberty leading some dinky
citizen-sprites on the left of the
screen, and swarms of slirriers
and spooks flying on from the
light. The statue's torch draws
on a supply of good slime to produce
joystick-controlled fireballs
which you can use to shoot
down the encroaching swarms
of phantoms. Blasted phantoms
drop slime to the streets, which
a group of your folks have to
BY ACTIVISI ON
dash out arid pick up to top up
the slime tank. The graphics on
this bit are superb - tiny but incredibly
detailed ghost sprites
which look lust like the spooks
V Scoop the goop.
in the movie The shoot' em up
action is a little monotonous but
it's basically good, undemanding
fun, and the occasional sight of
having one of your fellahs picked
up by a slimer then dropped to
Wift: