HOLY cow... Oops, sorry - wrong hype. Ahem. When there's something weird in your outside toilet, who you going to call? Not a plumber anyway. Suffice to say the present day equivalents of Peter Cushing, the Ghostbusters, are back.

As you enter the world of the Ghostbusters you will be treated to a wonderfully display of cunning Amiganess. Then, of course, it asks you to swap discs. Oh well.

This time large amounts of slime are forming an underground torrent and converging on the downtown museum. There is also the small matter of Dana Barret's (you remember her, played by Sigourney "I'm having a baby" Weaver) little sprog being snatched.

The first level of the game concerns Ray collecting a sample of the slime by abseiling down a haunted sewer. Swinging from left to right enable Ray to collect extra weapons, bits of the scoop with which to scoop up the slime at the bottom, and the odd bottle of dutch courage.

Floating down through the clouds of steam, ghostly hands come rushing up to meet Ray as he tries to collect the slime.
Some uncharitable ghosts in the shape of outsized fingers attempt to sever your cable as you descend. Altogether an unpleasant experience, especially from the gameplay point of view - the whole level is too difficult.

In contrast, level two is incredibly easy. It is possible to get through the whole thing by firing just a few shots. You control the giant Statue of Liberty, hot-footing it down to the museum and protecting gangs of mindless helpers. Nice animation of Miss Liberty.
Various squadrons of flying ghosts and denizens of the nether-worlds attack in formation, but they're nothing to worry about.

Lastly the action moves to the museum, where all you have to do is rescue the ungrateful sprog from the altar. You cannot just write off this final scene however, because there are still two fearsome baddies to overcome.
The first of these is Jonosz. He will terribly resist your efforts to snatch the sprog by firing at you. Unfortunately the entire range of death-dealing weaponry possessed by our heroes is not sufficient to give him cause for concern. Likewise Vigo, who emerges from the picture eventually.

The opening sequence and the filters between level feature excellent animation, digitised stills and good samples and arranged sounds. Animation and well defined graphics are equally brilliant throughout the game, though the disc swapping gets a bit of a pain.

While Ghostbusters II is undoubtedly an audio-visual feast, there is little game in it that is fun to play. Rather like a Peter Greenaway film, we are treated to a high degree of polish and art with very little underlying substance.

Five years later and once again the world is under threat. Evil slime has been building up under the city of New York ever since the intrepid Ghostbusters saved the world all those years ago and now, thanks to Vigo the Carpathian who is an evil spirit determined to live again through the baby of one of the GBs' friends, evil looks likely to burst forth and have us all wishing we would have never been born.

The game is divided into three major parts: the first part has you controlling a GB as he descends into the Van Horne airshaft to collect some slime. The problem is, the shaft is full of nasty ghosts that appear from above and below and from out of the walls. Everyone knows ghosts cannot really hurt you, but what they can do is scare you, so as the chappie descends, every time he gets hit by a ghost he loses a little courage (displayed to the right of the main display) and once he gets completely scared he falls off of the cable holding him and into the river of slime at the bottom, removing one of his three lives.

He can also fall off by having his cable cut by sawing ghosts. These customers attack the cable until destroyed by either the Proton beam or a PKR bomb. Bombs and shields can be collected during the descent by swinging the Ghostbuster from side to side and picking them up; bottles of elixir to restore courage are also collected in this way, as are the three parts of the scoop that are needed to get the slime. Make it to the bottom and fill the container with slime and you then go into the next section.

Here the Statue of Liberty has come to life and the race is on to make it to the Museum of Art before the New Year arrives. It is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up where the player controls the statue's torch which fires bolts of flame that destroys the flying and walking ghosts and turn them into slime which the people at the statue's feet collect and return to the statue, for it to keep moving.

Make it to the Museum and you are then into the final part of the game in which you control all of the Ghostbusters as they abseil in and try to rescue the baby Oscar and destroy Vigo. For ever?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

There are some nice digitised shots and speech between the levels and the rest of the game looks good and is well animated (especially the little people in the second section). Again the sound effects and title music are fine.

JUDGEMENT

The game is a good translation of the film and a worthy successor to the original game. As a game in its own right it is not the best ever written, but it is a lot of fun and will keep you playing for some while.

It has been five years since the Ghostbusters saved New York by bubbling a 100 foot marshmallow man and blowing the top three floors off an uptown high rise. Since then we have had countless spin-offs in the shape of cartoons and coin-ops. Now in the sequel we find that the citizens of New York believe that they had been the victims of a colossal hoax. The Ghostbusters now earn their living hiring themselves out for parties, running occult bookshops and appearing on TV shows.

Dana Barrett has returned to live in the city with her baby, Oscar. Then, as she walks through New York, Oscar is snatched by invisible hands and narrowly escapes death on the road. There is something strange in the neighbourhood, who you gonna call?...

Ghostbusters II is designed around three sequences from the film. First you must guide a Ghostbuster down an airshaft in order to collect a sample of slime. You must swing left and right on a rope to avoid assorted ghosties and collect useful items from the edge of the shaft. A courage meter drops each time you come in contact with the ghosties.

Next comes the race down Broadway. Having enlisted the help of the Statue of Liberty you must shoot ghosts to stop them attacking the Statue or the citizens. If you do not make it to the Museum of Art before the New Year then Oscar gets it.

Finally you take control of each Ghostbuster as he abseils down the museum in an attempt to save Oscar and destroy Vigo the Carpathian.

More often than not film tie-ins make pretty awful computer games, not so with Ghostbusters II. The graphics are large and detailed as well as being very varied and nicely animated. Colour is used to good effect and not only enhances the graphics but also gives the game atmosphere.

There are plenty of digitised sound effects in each level and lots of music as well (including the inevitable Ghostbusters theme tune).

Every level is like a different game, all three of which are extremely playable, and beautifully presented. Although each level is easy to get into, it takes plenty of practice before you can finish any.
My only gripe is the awful loading system, the whole thing is reloaded every time you start, creating annoyingly long gaps between games.
All in all, a game that will appeal to almost everyone.

After saving New York from being grabbed by the ghoulies the Ghostbusters were sued for making a hoax! Five years on, the Ghostbusters earn a living appearing on seedy TV shows. Dana Barrett now has a baby son Oscar, who is nearly killed by mysterious forces... The game comprises three key scenes from the film. In the first, Ray Stantz is lowered down a sewer air-shaft. At the bottom there's some slime of which he needs a sample. By swinging left/right you must guide Ray down to the bottom, collecting weapons and parts of the slime scoop on the way. Ghosts attack Ray reducing his courage and ghoulish hands scratch at the cable, weakening and eventually snapping it.

In the second scene, the Statue of Liberty has been brought to life. As it walks down Broadway, you must protect it from ghosts by controlling a shooting fireball. Getting hit by ghosts reduces the Statue's slime - replenished by sending people out to collect the blobs of slime dropped when ghosts die (?!).

The third and final section takes place in the isometric 3-D Museum of Art where, after abseiling in from the roof, you must rescue Oscar and destroy Vigo the Carpathian (the baddie).