Ghost Squad (Wii) Review

It seems that the revival of old franchises is the standard in the gaming industry these days, especially with the Wii. When we get a “revived” game, we get one of three types of game. The first being a straight port of the previous game, albeit with Wii controls included. The second is where a game is ported but extras are added to flesh out the experience. The third is a complete re-imagining of the title. With SEGA’s recently released Ghost Squad, the game falls into a blend of the first two. Although Ghost Squad is a decent game, it is somewhat dated yet still manages to bear with us that thing that games are all about – fun.

Story wise Ghost Squad is pretty generic. The game pits you into three missions which are different in that the crimes occuring are different, though they are all connected in that a terrorist group known as the Indigo Wolves are responsible, and it’s up to you, a member of the GHOST Squad (a very lenghty acronym) to destroy the terrorist forces and save the innocents. It’s all very archetypal for a typical terrorism movie, and it feels excessively cheesy. However, Ghost Squad seems to be cheesy on purpose – it’s an awesome shooter that takes the mickey out of the typical 90s shooters released in arcades, akin to Virtua Cop and Time Crisis.

Ghost Squad is a fairly fleshed out package considering that it’s almost a straight port and comes at a nice price tag (approximately $40 AU shipped). There’s the basic arcade mode, which is pretty much a carbon copy of the original version released in Japanese arcades back in 2004. Secondly there’s Party Mode, and that’s most probably where most gamers will have the most fun. Party Mode is essentially the main arcade game but it is adapted to suit four players, as well as allowing you to play the infamous Ninja and Paradise modes, but more on those later. Either way, with several difficulty modes, weapons to unlock and an RPG-like levelling system, Ghost Squad should keep you busy for quite some time. Presentation of the game is very cheesy, in keeping with the 90s theme of the overall game. Although it looks like crap, it functions well enough and is easy enough to navigate.

Ghost Squad was released back in 2004, on arcade revisions that weren’t even top of the line. Because of this, Ghost Squad is not an amazing game to look at. The environments are somewhat bland, the character models all look generic and the game reeks of launch title for the dreamcast smell. The game isn’t really that bad in terms of other third party offerings on the Wii, but the graphics could’ve been touched up for this Wii update. Alas, it doesn’t quite affect the gameplay, though the un smooth nature of the 30fps graphics may put some gamers off. Luckily, Ghost Squad features support for 480p but doesn’t support widescreen displays – a strange decision by SEGA, but nonetheless, the game is still fun and holds up graphically against some of the poorer Wii titles.

The gameplay of Ghost Squad is nothing short of simple. It’s essentially a true arcade style light gun shooter, what with having to point at the screen and simply shoot down your enemies. The original developer, however, wanted to spruce up the genre by including, more “FPS-like elements” into the fray. Such elements include the saving of hostages, disarming of bombs and simple defence missions, interspersed within each mission. Furthermore, each mission provides gamers with the opportunity to replay them, in a higher difficulty level. Each difficulty level is unlocked when the previous one is completed, and usually modifies the mission in some way by changing the path your character takes to something as simple as changing the time of day. All in all, the mission levelling system feels as though it is used as a rather tacky device to extend the lifespan of a game that can quite easily be completed in under 30 minutes. None the less, completists will thoroughly enjoy working through the mission, unlocking all difficulty levels and weapons, but other gamers may see through it and want to leave Ghost Squad alone.

Something interesting to add with Ghost Squad is that it’s probably the first and only game that this reviewer actually enjoyed using the Nintendo Wii Zapper with. When playing Ghost Squad with a control alone, there simply isn’t as much immersion as when holding the Zapper up to the screen. It’s as if the game was made from the ground up with the Zapper in mind, with each shot being pulled off by your character creating a rewarding vibration that transmits throughout the whole of the Zapper. The controls are properly calibrated too, so there’s no awkward pressing of buttons required, unlike the recently released Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles.

As said before, Ghost Squad’s biggest letdown is without a doubt the cheesy voice acting and the presentation overall. It feels terribly dated when compared to other games of this decade, and just doesn’t really help with the immersion of the title – which I suspect was the developers intent, with the use of the Wii Zapper and even options to remove all HUD elements pretty prominent on the games menus.

SEGA really did do a good job with Ghost Squad all up though – they offered a package that is really enjoyable for almost any gamer, and the Wii Zapper really adds to the fun that this game brings to the table. It’s as simple as that. Ghost Squad is proof that with games these days, more does not always mean better.

Graphics 6.0

Gameplay 7.0

Sound 7.0

Tilt 8.0

Value 7.0