Play Ghostbusters Online

Ghostbusters on the NES came out in 1988 from Activision. It was one of many movie tie-ins from that era, a time when you could expect to find games based on popular films sitting on the rental shelf. This one tried to capture the feel of the movie on the limited hardware.

You control the business from a top-down map of New York, buying equipment like traps and upgrading your Ecto-1 car. Your main goal is to stop ghosts, called roamers, from reaching the Temple of Zuul, which makes the city's panic level spike. The core loop involves navigating the city grid screen by screen, then switching to a side-scrolling view to capture ghosts by positioning your proton streams. The pacing is methodical, and the difficulty is unforgiving, especially with managing your limited funds. It feels like a strange, sometimes frustrating simulation of running a paranormal removal service.