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Ghostbusters fans have waited far too long for a good video game. After demo footage leaked of an independent project sporting the branding, rumors were immediately sparked about a new, next-gen Ghostbusters title. That footage was fake, but apparently helped prove the excitement level for the game, making it easy for Terminal Reality to grab the rights to develop the title under Activision’s publishing. Once Activision and Vivendi merged, the game was thrown into limbo, and the return of the Ghostbusters was anything but secure. After a frightening few months, it found its way into the questionably stable hands at Atari, but the initial damage was done. The fact that it took so long to find a publisher caused some doubts about the game’s quality, and many worried that the Ghostbusters return wasn’t going to live up to the hype. Luckily, these worries were mostly unfounded, and there’s no reason to be scared of these ghosts.

The story is set in 1991, just two years after the events of Ghostbusters II. Since then, a new, Ghostbuster-friendly mayor has been elected into office, making it much easier to be in the poltergeist hunting business. After a strange paranormal event resurrects Gozer, the city is once again filled with a variety of ghosts, and it’s up to Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Raymond Stantz, Dr. Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddmore to save the day. Thanks to the writing of Aykroyd and Ramis, the story’s dialogue is stellar, and the narrative really feels like a third Ghostbusters movie. The characters are all incredibly familiar, despite the nearly twenty-year gap, shooting out one-liners that sound right out of the films. This is helped significantly by having the original cast back for the game, really selling the Ghostbusters experience. While the characters of Dana and Louis don’t make returns, the inclusion of Alyssa Milano, voicing Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, shows exactly how far they were willing to go to make up for it.