Fans of the Ghostbusters series can finally get their ghost-busting fix thanks to the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game.  Old-school ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, teamed up to pen the storyline for the game and to bring Ghostbusters back into the limelight.

The DS version follows a slightly different storyline.  You start off playing as one of the 4 main Ghostbusters (instead of a new ghostbuster representing yourself) on your quest to rid the town of supernatural anomalies.  You’ll recognize some of the first areas as they are featured in some of the past movies and cartoons.  Your HQ is very similar to the one featured in the movies complete with fire poles and a board that shows your current jobs/missions.

Gameplay-wise, Ghostbusters features a full 3D environment to hunt ghosts.  You’ll hop in the Ecto-1 and drive around town in a 3D environment.  No this isn’t like Chinatown Wars perspective, this is full, behind the car 3D which is nice to see.  Once you arrive at the hotel or mission setting, you’ll transfer to a top-down perspective.  In this mode you’ll control your blasters using the touch screen and stylus.  Once you have a big bad ghosty, you press ‘L’ to throw out the trap.  You can also switch between any of the ghostbusters just by tapping their icon on the touch screen.  The missions are fairly repetitive and you’ll find yourself facing the same enemies over and over.  However, there are different items to collect such as slime (to research new ways of catching ghosts) and parts for new weapons.

The customization and RPG elements is where Ghostbusters DS shines.  As you progress, your character’s abilities will be upgraded as well as the kinds of tools he can use.  This is unique to the DS version of the game and is one of the few, nice features about the game.

Graphically, Ghostbusters DS is fairly decent.  The town is rendered in full 3D, but you can’t interact with much of it and the driving engine is clunky at best.  You’ll encounter traffic on the roads but hitting them has the same affect as driving into a building, so not very fun.

The game doesn’t feature any multiplayer mode and doesn’t really have much else as far as re-playability is concerned.  My main gripe with the game is the repetitive nature and the fact that you can’t play with a friend or two.  It would’ve been pretty fun to team up with a few friends and bust some ghosts.  You’re better off renting this and deciding for yourself, but I wouldn’t consider this worth a purchase.

Final Score: 6.5/10