Who ya gonna call!?!?! Did you really expect me to put anything else in this space . . . ?
There is only one play mode in this game so there isn't really a main menu, per se. Upon first entering the game you will be asked to pick a character to use (male of female) and then create a profile. Once that profile is saved it is where you choose what you want to do in this game. From your profile you have four options. The first option is, once again . . . "Options"!! From here you can adjust Audio settings (adjust master, effects, dialogue and music volumes), Video settings (adjust brightness and toggle subtitles) and Gameplay settings (toggle field guide popups, tutorials, aim assistance and the rumble feature). The other thing you can do under options is toggle your Unlocks. There are 6 unlocks in total, which you earn by collecting specific amounts of art pages and performing certain amounts of scans during the game (more on them later). You can also earn one of them by beating the game on the highest difficulty level. The unlocks are all gameplay based and you can toggle them on and off after you've obtained them.
The second option from your profile is "Difficulty". There are three difficulty levels you can play at in this game including Rookie, Buster and Gozerian. As I just said, if you beat the game on the Gozerian setting you earn yourself an unlock.
The third option is "Play Game" and is where you go to . . . play the game! Upon selecting this option you are taken to the old firehouse, the home base of the Ghostbusters team. There are three accessible floors in the firehouse and each floor represents different things you can do in the game. In the basement you can go to the desk and consult Tobin's Guide, a supernatural encyclopedia that you contribute to throughout the game as you collect art pages and perform scans. On the main floor you can do two things. First, you can go over to the lockers, which will take you back a step to your main profile page. The other thing you can do is head for Ecto 1, the Ghostbusters car. Choosing this option will take you to the next unplayed mission in the game. On the upper floor you have another couple of options. If you head for the filing cabinet you can view the game's credits, and if you head for the computer terminal you can go back and replay any previously beaten mission. On the upper floor you can also access the fire poles, which quickly take you back down to the main level instead of having to use the stairs.
As for the game itself, there are 28 total missions divided up in to about 7 different chapters, I believe. The chapters aren't really marked, the Ghostbusters always head back to the firehouse after completing a certain section of the game where they regroup for their next outing. This is where I counted the chapters beginning and ending. Anyhoo, as you battle through each mission you have a number of tools at your disposal. Each Ghostbuster has three weapons available to him or her, with each weapon having two distinct functions. The main weapon of choice is the Blast Stream, the weapon you see them always use in the movies. The Blast Stream is mostly used for blasting ghosts, but in certain cases you can use it to pick up and carry heavy objects you may have a use for. Along with the Blast Stream you can also fire Boson Darts for extra damage. The Stasis Stream is a weapon that acts a lot like a freeze ray, it shoots a stream of goop that is not cold, but "freezes" some ghosts in their tracks. The alternate mode for this weapon is the Shock Blast, a powerful weapon that works only when you are in tight with a ghost. The last weapon is the Slime Blower. Sometimes certain ghosts need to be "cleaned off" before you can hit them with your other weapons. Dousing them with the Slime Blaster for a few seconds is how you do this. It's alternate mode is the Slime Mine, not a stream of slime but a concentrated blast of it you can fire over a good distance. The Slime Blower can also be used on certain environmental objects in the game. Once you blast them with slime you can then carry said objects with your blast stream, as I mentioned earlier. The other tool you have at your disposal is the PKE Meter. Equip this gadget to find out where any ghosts may be hiding, it will beep faster and the arms will raise higher the closer you get to a ghost. While equipped with your PKE Meter you can also put on your PKE Goggles. Certain ghosts or ghost related objects (like secret entrances) can be invisible to the naked human eye, but equip the PKE Goggles and all will be revealed to you.
During your explorations in each mission you have to keep an eye out for two things, art pages and scan subjects. Each entry you need to complete in Tobin's Guide has two elements to it, as you can probably guess it happens to be an art page and a scan! Art pages look like little pages ripped out of a book and are sometimes hidden amongst your surroundings. Most times however they are located within an environmental object and you have to destroy said object to find the page. Once you gain an art page the game will pause and bring up the entry for you to view. As for scans, these are a little harder to determine. As you make your way through each level, have your PKE Meter equipped when you are not busy fighting off ghosts and ghouls. When a scan subject is available your targeting reticle will turn green when you aim at it, letting you know that a new available scan subject is in range. Once you perform the scan and in doing so gain valuable information on the subject, the scan combines with the art page to create a full entry in Tobin's Guide. These entries give you the total low down on the subject in question and any tips and tricks for dealing with it. Tobin's Guide of course include a number of ghosts, but it also includes entries on a lot of ghost related objects and side effects, plus some other stuff.
After each mission a status page will be displayed featuring three different categories. You will be informed on how you did in finding the available art pages in the mission, as well as how you did in performing all available scans in the mission. The third category you will be informed on is how much damage you did in the mission. Each time you destroy something it adds a certain dollar amount to the total insurance claim that will be submitted at the end of the mission. The more money the claim is the higher your ranking will be! And that's about it for how you play this game.
Back to the profile page, the fourth and final option from there is "Wipe Profile". If you ever want to delete a saved game and start over from scratch, this is where you would go to do just that.
As for the controls for this game, there are a lot of them to get used to that's for sure! Once you get on to them though it's pretty easy. The control stick is used to move your character around the environment. The C button is used to lock the camera on to a target once you have it in your targeting reticle. The Z button throws your ghost trap once you have battled a ghost and have it ready for capture. To throw the trap hold down the Z button, then make an underhanded bowling motion like you're throwing the trap, and lastly let go of the Z button at the end of your throwing motion. If you get slimed during a battle, shake the nunchuk to shake said slime off of your character. To aim your targeting reticle at an object or character, just point the Wii remote at the screen where you want it. Now, for weapons, you equip them using the control pad on the Wii remote. Press up to equip your PKE Meter. Once the meter is equipped and you have a scan subject in range, hold down the A button to perform the scan. If you hold down the B button while using the PKE Meter you will put on your PKE Goggles. Press right on the control pad to equip the Stasis Stream weapon. Once equipped hold down the A button to fire the Stasis Stream or press B to fire a Shock Blast. To equip the good old Blast Stream press down on the control pad. To fire the Blast Stream just hold down the B button. You can also fire Boson Darts while shooting the Blast Stream, to do so press the A button. Lastly, to equip the Slime Blower press left on the control pad. Once equipped hold down the B button to fire a continuous stream of gunk! To shoot Slime Mines press the A button. Note that these weapons aren't all available to you from the outset. At first you only have use of the Blast Stream and PKE Meter, all other weapons and alternate modes are acquired as you advance through the game. Also, when a teammate loses all his health and goes down, go over to him and press the A button to revive him. Lastly, on screen you will see two gauges in the top left corner. The upper gauge is your health bar. If you lose all health in a mission you will go down and have to restart unless one of your team members is able to get to you in time and revive you. The lower gauge concerns your weapon's overheat status. You can only fire your proton pack for so long before it overheats and fails to function, so keep an eye on this gauge.
The game's presentation is quite fantastic! Gameplay is very good, controls respond exactly as they should, and the camera angles are perfectly in tune. I really like how they captured the essence and spirit of the original Ghostbusters film in all their environments and in how the story unfolded. The whole thing really stayed true to the Ghostbusters franchise. Sound was great as well, the game featured the original theme song of course, but then also contained all of the other little musical snippets that you hear throughout the movie. The best thing about the sound though was that the original actors reprised their roles as the Ghostbusters and leant their voice talents to the game! So funny. The graphics were really well done and brought the game across in a cool, half cartoony sort of way. I especially enjoyed the original artwork featured between levels as the game was loading. You could make posters out of that stuff! Another thing I enjoyed is how the game isn't just all action, there are some puzzles that come up in a lot of missions that require some thought, but at the same time are really fun. And they keep the puzzles fresh too, there isn't a lot of repetition in this game, very well done.
As for tips and tricks I can offer there are really just two main issues here. First, on you first play through a mission make sure to destroy everything in sight. Tables, chairs, light fixtures . . . if it can be broken, break it! This is the only way you're going to ensure that you find all of the art pages in a mission on the first go and don't have to go back for a second tour in order to collect them all. The same thing relates to scanning. Whenever you are just making your way through a level and there are no ghosts around to fight off, equip your PKE Meter and be vigilant about checking out all of your surroundings. A lot of the scans are obvious, but there are a fair amount that aren't so obvious. You don't have to worry quite as much about getting all scans in a mission as you do with the art pages as a lot of the scans aren't specific to just one mission per se. Ghosts that appear throughout the entire game can be scanned just as easily in a later mission if you miss them the first time around.
So overall this is one hell of a game. All aspects of it's presentation in terms of gameplay, graphics and sound are bang on, and to top it all off the fun factor is through the roof! Ghostbusters fans will especially like this game, but it should be enjoyed by anybody, fan or not. I can't think of anything negative to say about this title, actually. I thought at first glance when I originally started it up, that with just the one game mode it would end up being too short. But I was completely wrong! With 28 total levels in the game, most of which are of a medium to long length, this game takes a good while to complete. Especially if you are concentrating on collecting all of the unlockable content along the way. A beauty right from the word go, great job by Atari on this one!