Ghost Squad is an enjoyable, but incredibly short light gun shooter.
You play as a member of the Ghost Squad, a top secret government organization with one mission: to kick terrorist butt. You'll play through 3 interconnected missions, each with a different environment: One a government restricted area, the next Air force 1, and the last a Jungle. There are different paths to take as the mission progresses. For example, you may have a choice of heading to the first floor to save hostages or clearing out the enemies on the second floor. Each path leads up to the same conclusion, which is a boss battle, but it is good to see some variety in the missions. You can either fail or complete an objective, but that doesn't matter all too much; the only thing it will really effect is your overall score in points.
The Wii Zapper works pretty well in the game, and helps bring the arcade feel to your home. You really only need to know 2 things when you boot the game up: use the Wii Remote to point, and the B button to shoot. The game moves you around by itself while countless baddies attack you, sometimes, seemingly out of nowhere. The shooting gameplay is broken up occasionally by short action sequences such as defusing a bomb, securing hostages, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, or disarming land mines. These do a good job of bringing variety, but doesn't change the traditional light gun gameplay much, which is solid.
The graphics are decent, nothing special. Character models are boring and seemingly emotionless. The textures for the most part are pretty flat, but the jungle level actually look quite good in comparison. It basically looks like the arcade it ported from.
Depending on who you are, the sound could be hilarious, or you could be absolutely disgusted. The voice acting is very corny especially combined with the awkward dialogue. The lip synching is laughable as well. Characters' mouths move very inaccurately, they look more like they're drunk. What a character is saying is completely different than how his mouth is moving. Combine all this, you have something that is just cheesy enough to be funny.
The game is very incredibly short. Each of the three missions will last you 6-10 minutes, depending on what paths. So you can complete the bare bones game in 30 minutes or less. However, there are some pretty good reasons to go back. The game offers new paths to take, harder difficulties, new weapons, and new costumes. Also, there are two fantastic modes under party play(the basic game, but with up to 3 other players). Paradise mode is probably the best part of Ghost Squad. The usual terrorist thugs are replaced with girls in bikinis, and your new gun is a dolphin shaped squirt gun. In ninja mode, you and your enemies are dressed up as ninjas and you are armed with an infinite amount of throwing stars. There is hilarious charm to be found in these modes that are put into the game with no specific reasons or explanations. Eve with the great replay value, Ghost Squad is just too short for its own good.
Ghost Squad is a fun and enjoyable shooter. The game itself is very short, but replay value is great, and the humor in the game is terrific. if you've got $30 and nothing else to buy, you may want to put ghost squad in your sights.
Breakdown:
Gameplay ~ 8
Graphics ~ 7
Sound ~ 7
Value ~ 6
Tilt ~ 8
Overall ~ 7.2