Open letter: Dear Sierra, don’t screw up Ghostbusters
Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 6:27pm by Derek
Infendo writer Derek has a chip on his shoulder this evening in this open letter to Sierra. The subject? Ghostbusters, what else?
Dear Sierra:I had to slap myself last week.
You think I’m lying, but the swollen red hand-print across my face says otherwise. I’m also having a hard time chewing with that side of my mouth now, so my food is only being half-processed before I swallow, which I’m sure will cause a whole new slate of problems.
But you know, I really don’t mind. In fact, I needed that slap to remind me that what I was experiencing was real and that I wasn’t lost in a cruel dream. You know the kind; those dreams in which all the things we’ve ever loved gather for a few moments of fictional bliss, and even after we’ve awakened, we squeeze our eyelids shut in a fleeting attempt to recapture it.
Desperately…for just one more second.
So as much as that slap hurt, it was a necessary evil. And it must’ve happened at some point after my marathon session with Super Mario Galaxy and before my hour-long observance of the devastating handheld dominance shown by my roommate in the hideously nostalgic Contra 4.
Yes, it must’ve happened somewhere in the middle. Because that was also the time when I read the news regarding the new Ghostbusters game you will be publishing for the Wii in 2008.
I was playing a Mario game, watching a Contra game and anticipating a new Ghostbusters from Aykroyd, Murray and Ramis. So actually, to say I thought I was lost in a dream would be false. In fact, I was convinced someone had covertly installed a Flux Capacitor in my car and that I had traveled back to those cherished days of my childhood.
Ah, those wonderful 1980s. I distinctly remember them. They were simpler and, in many ways, better times. We didn’t have to worry about disappointing movies, because every year or so, a Rocky or a Back To The Future or a Star Wars would appear, as if from Heaven, to appease us. Reality shows hadn’t been invented yet, so even television was great. And most importantly, a chubby little Italian plumber popped out of a green pipe and fire-balled Atari to death, so bad video games were becoming less of an issue.
Bad video games. That’s where you come in, Sierra.
Ghostbusters is one of those special things that comes around once every few millennia; take the best minds in comedy, give them proton-spewing backpacks and put them in the middle of a haunted New York City. It seems one would have to actively pursue “suckage” to screw up that formula, and considering how revered the Ghostbusters are, our expectations are high.
Let’s cut to the chase. I’m not entirely fond of you, Sierra. You’ve knocked a few out of the park, most notably with Half-Life and more recently with Geometry Wars: Galaxies on Wii, but even the worst hitters in baseball are likely to whack a few homeruns a year. Particularly on the console side of things, you haven’t faired as well. Spyro the Dragon? Scarface?
Suffice it to say, I’m not entirely impressed.
But my relative lack of faith in your console software doesn’t mean I have given up on your Ghostbusters project. In fact, aside from Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a few others, your Ghostbusters title is one of my most anticipated titles for next year. But being a Wii owner and critic in particular, my expectations go beyond pretty visuals and funny dialogue. Nintendo’s new console gives software the potential to be truly inspiring, innovative and groundbreaking. Despite the attitude some third-parties seem to be taking toward Wii, it is still a revolutionary console at its core.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a gaming revolution, but there is no reason for the Wii version of Ghostbusters to be anything but spectacular.
I noticed in your press release that there are two teams working on your Ghostbusters games; developer Terminal Reality is working on the 360, PS3 and PC builds of the game, while Red Fly Studios is handling the Wii, DS and PS2 versions. This little tidbit was the glaring siren, the falling bomb that called into question my euphoric excitement. With so many developers taking a “port the PS2 version with motion controls” attitude toward Wii software, and the results being anything but the revolutionary gaming experiences Wii is capable of, I would say my causes for alarm are justified.
But given your success with Geometry Wars: Galaxies, which is one of the best games to hit Wii this year, and considering that Red Fly Studios is also working on an ambitious 2008 title called Mushroom Men dedicated to Wii, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Let’s say your Wii team actually gives a damn about perfecting their build of the game.
Given that - which is still a presumption, mind you - let’s talk Ghostbusters expectations.
If there is any singular aspect of the Ghostbusters universe best suited for implementation into a video game, it is obviously proton-blasting, ghost-busting action. And if there is any singular gameplay aspect Wii has perfected, it is IR aiming with the Wii remote. Games like Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 have set a new standard for first-person aiming on a console, so the precedent is clear. And if you choose to implement a third-person view for the game, look no further than Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition for an already solid blueprint upon which to build. Quite simply, perfecting the aiming mechanisms for this game should be a no-brainer.
The Wii offers motion control, but the best games on the console have implemented it in unobtrusive, intuitive ways. There is no reason to force motion control into your software, and speaking of your own work, Geometry Wars: Galaxies is a terrific example of that. But for Ghostbusters, there is tremendous potential for tasteful implementation of some motion controls. Operating the Containment Unit and all its levers could be done similarly to how Metroid brilliantly handled mechanic interaction. Or perhaps flicking the nunchuk forward to cast out the trap?
Certainly, the potential for a very engrossing control experience is there. Factor in the wonderful ergonomic design of the nunchuk and its analog stick, and the Wii version should provide a tighter, more precise degree of control than any of the other versions.
And, of course, it should be unspeakably fun in the process.
But controls aside, even the most hardened Nintendo fan would concede that the Wii version will likely be inferior in one major regard: visuals. This has led developers to take a disappointing approach to the graphics of the Wii software, often settling for games that would be considered ugly even last generation. The Wii may not have the horsepower of the 360 and PS3, but it certainly has a lot more to work with than the PS2. Metroid Prime 3 hinted at it, and Super Mario Galaxy has proven it. Wii is more than capable of providing lighting of all sorts from proton beams and glowing ghosts, particle effects from blasting spirits and even mapping textures for massive bosses. There is no reason for the Wii version to not look substantially better than the PS2 version.
And what of WiiConnect24, the WiFi abilities and even Weather Channel integration? How cool would it be if New York City’s real life weather matched that of the game as you played?
By no means am I a game designer or developer of any sorts. I am merely a critic, and I certainly don’t mean to make demands contrary to your own vision for the game. After all, I wouldn’t be writing you, Sierra, if I didn’t have at least a glimmer of faith in you. I wouldn’t waste my time if I didn’t think you capable of a terrific Ghostbusters experience on Wii. My concern is not your capabilities, but your intentions; is the Wii version merely meant to cash in on the system, or has some real effort and budget gone into it?
The precedent has been set. We’ve seen the proof; Wii games don’t have to look like PS2 games, and they don’t have to force players into needless waggle. The Wii has more distinct attributes and features than simply a magic wand for a controller, and those features are still largely untapped. And despite Zelda, Metroid and even Mario, software on Wii can look and play even better than the best of what we’ve seen since last November.
You can bet Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis will do their job flawlessly. The rest is on you, Sierra. So please, don’t break my ghost-busting heart.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
BRAVO!!!!
November 26th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
And yet, when you do send it to Sierra; it’s going to the trash can.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Great article!
November 26th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Great read,m truly inspiring.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
The separate Wii version is what pretty much sealed the deal as far as getting a 360 goes. I was on the fence with Rock Band, as I knew sooner or later it will come out for Wii. But there’s no way in hell I’m playing a cartoon version of the characters when I can actually play alongside character models that actually look like the actors. I mean come on.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Which is why I must sadly steer away from western developed games for the Wii…I’ve learned that no matter how good it sounds or seems, your ALWAYS getting the short end of the stick.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Yeah, my stance is actually to buy the 360/PS3 one, and wait and see on the Wii version.
Historically speaking, Wii has been getting the cross-platform shaft. I hope the stylized version is being made FOR Wii, THEN ported to PS2/PSP as the afterthought.
I like your letter, and I hope that someone at Sierra takes it to heart.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Don’t dismiss Radical Entertainment for Scarface. Were you aware that they were the developer responsible for The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction? I actually think they were the best possible choice for this assignment at Vivendi Universal and I’m assuming they just didn’t get it because they were busy with something else. I don’t know why else they’d look at the incredible success of Scarface, decide they needed more licensed titles, and toss Ghostbusters to the guys who made the Aeon Flux game a couple years ago (yes, that’s Terminal Reality) instead of the team who made Scarface.
The most shocking thing about what they’ve shown so far is what little use they’ve apparently made of the license. Even David Crane’s archaic Ghostbusters was made with the understanding that the activity of ghostbusting would involve responding to ghost threats around a city (with some light cash management aspects.) The Grand Theft Auto 3 template would be really ideal; instead, everything they’ve shown so far looks like a set of linear stages based on scenes from the first film.
Why are we fighting Slimer in the hotel? This is 20 years after The Real Ghostbusters was on the air. Writers on that show (many from the world of superhero comics) treated Ghostbusters like an ongoing comic series; the Ghostbusters traveled the world and encountered creatures from numerous folkloric and fictive sources; we saw who knows how many new pieces of toyetic gear; we saw the inside of the containment unit. The movie was used as a lunching-off point for exploring a far broader range of concepts on the TV show. Count me among the bunch who’ve had ideas like that stewing in their brains for two decades and would very much like to try anything but walk through re-enactments of what Murray, Ramis, Hudson, and Ackroyd were doing.
Consider this: unless that Slimer sequence is a tutorial, with nothing at stake other than teaching you the controls, there is a very real possibility that you can die in this game from getting slimed too many times by Slimer. That’s horrifying.
I don’t know what Red Fly is doing, but they’ve got a fine chance at producing something more interesting than TR’s game. The frustrating part is that, despite the colossal potential of this license, any hunk of junk that gets produced is going to get a pass just for the involvement of the original cast/creators voicing these characters again.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:56 am
I’m biting my nails over the Wii version. As soon as I saw the Wii, my first thought wasn’t swinging a sword in Zelda or aiming in a FPS – it was, “How amazingly awesome would a Ghostbusters game be for this thing?!”
And hot damn, it’s actually happening!
So part of me can’t help but feel like the Wii should be the LEAD platform for a game like this, even to the PS360.
But that all depends on the direction the game takes. If it’s going to focus on story then, while I usually don’t like them, I’d rather this game have more cutscenes than gameplay elements to it…and in that sense, I’d rather have the PS360 version of the game.
Frankly, that’s actually how I’d PREFER it to be, too, if there really isn’t going to be a Ghostbusters 3 as a result.
But if there’s going to be more emphasis on gameplay and such, I’d rather have the Wii version.
I also HATE that they went with that stupid cartoony style for the Wii/PS2 versions. I’d have rather had a game with Resident Evil 4 style graphics over that, since it’s supposedly going to be the exact same story and such as the PS360 versions, with cutscenes and such recorded from the PS360 game.
Either way, I at LEAST hope that they’re developing the Wii version FIRST and the PS2/PSP version SECOND, instead of the other way around like usual.
So yeah…I loveloveLOOOOOOVE Ghostbusters, but I’m a bit nervous over what I’ve seen of the Wii version so far, especially given it’s potential.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Personally the Wii games graphics style make no difference to me. In fact I might prefer it if the 360 game goes “Polar Express” on our asses. The uncanny valley is a fear I’ve often had about games this gen and only a few seem to be able to disguise it a bit (Mass Effect).
It looks a little Team Fortress 2 and I liked that games art style.
For me its the gameplay and overall technical proficiency that has me concerned.
I think it’s the ….and PS2 bit.
November 27th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Personally, I’ve already pretty much been sold to buy the 360 version based on what I’ve already read, mainly that the 360/PS3 version is by one team, and the Wii/PS2 is by another. Which screams that the Wii version will be the PS2 version with the Wii controls slapped on, since that seems to be the case with every othetr Wii-PS2 port. And the other point was that the Wii/PS2 will be a “cartoon” version. I’m at the point that I will not support stuff like this any more. I’m not going to pay money for a PS2 game with Wii controls crammed in and I would think by now the third parties would have gotten the hint but doesn’t seem like it. And personally I’m pretty tired of seemingly every 3rd party feeling the need to make every game they put on the Wii cartoony and obviously geared toward kids. Every game doesn’t have to sickly sweet with big bright colors and cartoony looks.
November 27th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
hmm, just read the article on game informer. they had like 5 pages or more on this new ghostbusters game coming out next halloween. then they had one paragraph talking about the cartoon version on the ps2 and wii. not too promising at first glance, but here’s hoping that the game is actually good. and its a shame that many games made between ps2 and wii look the same on both systems when wii is so much more capable in the graphics department. just laziness by developers i suppose. they did mention that the wii/ps2 version will focus on multiplayer and family play. hmmm, not sure what that means. does that mean the ps3/360 version doesn’t focus on multiplayer? i doubt it. anyways the game informer magazine showed multiplayer split screen for the wii/ps2 version? now why can’t they just do wifi multiplayer? i’ll wait for the reviews on this one.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
And yet, when you do send it to Sierra; it’s going to the trash can.
Sadly, Atlantis1982 has a point.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
It’s literally a “letter.” I’m not sending it. It’s more like an editorial written like a letter. Thanks for reading, everyone.
November 28th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Red Fly responded to this article: http://devblog.redflystudio.com/2007/11/27/open-letter-from-infendo/
The Wii version is not a port of the Wii version. It is being ported TO PS2.
This is what Jeff Mills of Red Fly Studio had to say about Ghostbusters for Wii:
“1.) Our Wii/PS2 development is done in-house with a dedicated team for each project. Zen Studios (see About page for more info) handles our DS builds.
2.)The Nintendo Wii is our primary version of the Ghostbusters game. We are pushing that hardware to its maximum potential. Where necessary, the PS2 might have some aspects reduced (i.e. only 2-player multiplayer instead of the Wii’s 4-player). But overall, Terminal Reality’s Infernal Engine allows us to maximize each hardware set easily.
3.) There might be an occasional peek at the game on these pages, but hi-res images will come from Sierra throughout their marketing campaign in the coming year.”
November 28th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
“Red Fly responded to this article:”
Dear Derek: good damn work!! Now could you write a letter to Nintendo to get a new Zelda game at least in 2009??
Thanks in advance
November 29th, 2007 at 4:01 am
[...] be lots of multiplayer action.” What I’m against is expressing the concerns - like in meaning, posts like this. By no means am I a game designer or developer of any sorts. I am merely a critic, and I certainly [...]
November 29th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Scarface is a fine game. Whthr or not it’s what fans wanted is another thing, but the only bad thing I’ve experienced in the game is fake shadows. Other than that I’m cool with it.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
[...] pleas to Sierra and Red Fly Studios, the developer handling Wii and, of course, PS2 Ghostbusters development, were [...]