CV Ghostblasters: A Review.
Graphics: 10+ (See Below)
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 8
Challenge: 5
"If your ColecoVision is haunted by spooks, who you gonna call?"
"GHOSTBUSTERS!"
Well, uh, not quite...If you're a CV owner and you want to rid homes of annoying supernatural phenomena, then you'll have to go a few blocks down the street and call the GHOSTBLASTER!
In this latest homebrew by Daniel "newcoleco" Bienvenu, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the CCJVQ, you must use your handy, albeit unlicensed, nuclear ray gun to blast unwanted pesky poltergeists that have invaded ten different homes.
It all started when people purchased magical gems from some unnamed source over the Internet. These gems attracted strange supernatural creatures who have not only made themselves permanent guests, but are making the homeowners ill, too. To make matters even worse, they have completely rebuilt the homes in order to make everyone's lives more difficult. Much like a bureacracy.
Since efforts to remove the gems and make the spooks go away have failed, these hapless homeowners have- since the line to the Ghostbusters was always busy- called upon YOU, the GHOSTBLASTER, for help. Being brave, chivalrous, and in desperate need of money, you accept!
You must go through ten different levels, blasting ghosts and gathering up all of the bothersome gems and CCJVQ icons (this opens the EXIT door), until finally meeting up with the Boss Ghost on level ten. To properly finish the game you must not only collect each and every magic gem, but also eliminate every ghost, too.
Before playing the game you'll really want to read the instruction booklet that comes with the cartridge. In full color, with a look both professional and early homebrew, it starts out with a funny classified section, and then tells you everything you need to know about the game, even telling you the names of the ghosts you will encounter along the way. No tacky-crude effort here- this booklet is as good as anything from the big companies.
After plugging in the game, several screens describing the situation go by, while a familiar tune plays. You are then asked which method of jumping you prefer (button or joystick?), and then are given the option of either playing the whole game or practicing on specific screens. For this review, assume normal game mode.
Before each screen, you are shown the title for it. After several seconds, the actual game play begins. You are a small character capable of moving in a scrolling playfield in any of eight basic directions and armed with a nuclear backpack that can shoot a multi-colored ray either left or right. You must move through each stage gathering gems while avoiding and shooting the ghosts who are trying to stop you. Your life energy and nuclear ray power are shown at the top of the screen, and both can be replenished by finding the LIFE and RAY icons scattered throughout the levels.
Movement is achieved much as in many multi-directional scrolling games; you can move left and right, while vertical movement is achieved by jumping or falling. Since you can also move left or right while doing doing this, eight-directional movement is possible. To reach higher places, you must jump up on various platforms and the like, with only experience allowing you to determine how high you can jump and what platforms you can reach- note that some allow you to pass through from below, while others are invisible. Since falling cannot harm you, going back down is no problem.
The ghosts immediately appear, one at a time, one particular kind for a given level, swooping around, costing you life points every time they hit you. As you use your ghostblasting ray the power supply is quickly used up, although it does slowly regenerate (your life does not). Once your life points are gone, you turn green, and the game is over.
As mentioned before, in order to successfully complete a level, you must gather all of the magical gems, both the blue and the yellow ones. These are found throughout each level. If you fail to gather even one, you are forced to repeat the level.
You will soon notice that these ghosts have been busy redesigning the houses. Floating platforms, conveyer belts, invisible floors...and fake EXIT doors, no less. After the first two levels you are required to go outside, too, and against a beautifully-drawn moon and blue starry sky you will encounter more of the same. Sometimes you can even run on top of buildings, while in certain cases the only way to reach gems is to move in a certain particular way. This can even include finding small invisible floors.
Each level requires certain ways of completing it, and the architecture itself can hinder or help. Notice here how you cannot jump...
After you blast a ghost and eliminate it (this can take several seconds of ray contact), it will reappear. Luckily, it will only do so a certain number of times before finally giving up. At this point, the only thing you have to worry about is gathering the gems, since nothing in the environment can harm you- including falls. Some of the gems are in hard to reach areas, and some are in places that are easy to overlook, so be sure to check EVERYWHERE.
As in most such games, there are things to help you: a LIFE icon that will replenish your life points, and an ENERGY icon that will add to your blaster's power supply. Some are in places that are easy to miss, so keep your eyes open!
There are two ways to reach the end: either by grabbing all of the gems and zapping all of the ghosts, or just by gathering all of the gems. If you manage to do the former, you are shown the "true" ending, complete with "Happy Birthday to You" honoring the CCJVQ; if you do not get rid of all the ghosts (and this is quite possible), you reach the ending telling you that you have NOT succeeded at what you were hired to do- the places are still haunted. So, unless you want to end up declaring bankruptcy and having those other guys- you know who THEY are- calling you a loser wannabe, you'd best blast all of the pesky spooks.
This homebrew game from newcoleco, like Opcode's efforts, spares nothing in quality. From the translucent cartridge and label to the superb instruction booklet, gone are the days when "homebrew" meant cheap, smeary labels and slips of paper- this is a first-class effort all the way.
The game itself is well-designed and fun, with excellent movement and large, superbly-planned levels. The challenge, however, is not too great: once you figure out how the ghosts move- and this only takes a few games- it is not at all difficult to figure out how to beat them. Even the Boss Ghost, while never EASY, is not hard to beat after no more than a dozen or so plays.
Sound is good, with that familiar theme playing constantly in the background. You should easily recognize at least one of the sound effects: when the ghosts appear, it is just like the sound of the Eyes appearing in Pepper 2. Overall, the sound effects are good and fit in nicely with the game. I especially like the sound of the ray hitting a ghost; it actually sounds as if you are accomplishing something.
However, the best thing about this game are the graphics. Why did I give it a "10+?" No reason in particular...except newcoleco has managed to achieve what many, if not most, people, even dedicated CV fans, was thought to be impossible on a ColecoVision.
There are a number of CV games with excellent playfield graphics (e.g. Mr. Do!'s Castle and Illusions). This is nothing new, although the playfields here are truly superb.
There are also a number of CV games with smooth scrolling: Cosmo Fighter 2, Nova Blast, Matt Patrol, River Raid, Galaxian, Defender, and B.C.'s Quest For Tires, for example.
However, due to the fact that a CV does not have built-in scrolling and can only show two colors per line per space (two and only two- this includes background, which is why Opcode's Ms. Pac-Man has single-colored mazes), it was widely held that a CV's scrolling abilities were sharply limited. Many a pro-5200 website has boasted about this. A CV could no doubt more likely smoothly scroll a detailed playfield vertically than horizontally, but only months ago at another website I was told of other problems that would make even that unlikely. Bump `N Jump was about the best you could hope for.
Well, this game is a fitting celebration of the tenth anniversary of the CCJVQ. Just as Smurf Rescue astonished us with what a CV could do back in 1982, this game does it again in 2009. Really.
Ghostblaster not only manages to combine both great graphics AND smooth scrolling, it does so IN ALL EIGHT DIRECTIONS! That's right- and at no time does it ever become sluggish or patchy; this is something that would be impressive on a 7800 or NES- heck, even an early SMS game. I actually contacted Mr. Bienvenu and asked him if this game was enhanced with some sort of special graphics chip, but no- this is just what a normal CV is capable of doing...in the hands of a truly knowledgeable programmer.
Oh, wait- THERE'S MORE!!
Did I mention that the game uses multi-plane scrolling?
That's right, as if seemingly-impossible scrolling on one plane wasn't enough, this game took it well beyond that. The dots on the ground, the stars, and the detailed moon all scroll vertically at a different pace than the houses and other items. You can even see this through the windows of the houses, which scroll by horizontally while the background remains still- an effect that would be splendid on even on later fourth-generation console games, let alone a third-generation ColecoVision.
Looks almost like an NES Mario Bros.-style game, no?
What's more, detail was not sacrificed for the scrolling. The conveyer belts have a chevron-pattern which moves one way or the other. Gems, Life icons, and Energy icons are all multi-colored (three colors, in fact!) and wonderfully detailed, the gems actually looking as if the CV can show more than just sixteen colors (much as Cosmic Avenger did). The bricks are themselves multi-colored, giving them a three-dimensional look. There are yellow and black blocks that look as if they will fall off the screen and on to the floor. And is that some white in them, too?
Even the multi-colored ray your weapon shoots moves vertically if you do, without any problem. It can even be blocked by obstacles.
Characters are also nicely detailed and animated, all being multi-colored. "Iota," the ghost you encounter in levels eight and nine, is especially impressive. If there's a problem, it's with the protagonist- man, he is ugly with a capital "ug." I'm surprised he doesn't just scare off the ghosts just by being there!
There just isn't anything about the look of this game that isn't amazingly well done. I cannot play this game without wondering what games like Dark Chambers and Guantlet could look like (my earlier views are obsolete now), and how much better existing games could have been.
The only thing keeping this game from being just about perfect is the fact that it's not all that hard to beat. Still, there are other ways to play it: for example, once you have beaten the game, why not try something else? For example, try to get through the game without being hit even once by any of the furious phantoms...
Overall, an incredible effort. Hopefully, there may be future games using this kind of scrolling- Snap Jack, perhaps? Space Odyssey? An Armidillo Knight-style game? Between newcoleco and Opcode, we may yet see a good version of Magician Lord for this console...
This game might cause a bit of bother for existing "CV vs. 5200" comparisons. It proves that the CV was capable of far more than even most experienced CV programmers and fans thought possible; the idea that a CV can't do a smooth scroll with great playfields has been proven wrong once and for all. How could Time Pilot, Frontline, and other such games have actually turned out? Just how well could a CV have stacked up against an NES? Once again, I find myself wondering if both the CV and 5200 could have held off the NES and SMS if only they'd been managed better a quarter of a century ago...
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Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro
