Ghost Squad Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 21st January 2008

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I ain't afraid of no ghost! But the terrorists in this arcade shooter are!

Ghost Squad Details:

	Action
	Nintendo Wii
	Sega
	Sega

16+

Out Now

N/A

Ghost Squad first appeared in the arcades in 2004, and used a light gun that resembled the one used by characters within the game. The Wii edition is simply a port and brings the arcade to your living room.

Substituting the light gun for the Wii remote the game works in exactly the same way. You aim with the remote and pull the trigger button to shoot the enemies on screen, and to reload simply aim the remote off screen, as you would on an arcade machine. This game is one of the first to utilise the Wii Zapper accessory, where you can insert the remote into the top of a plastic handle and attach the nunchuck to the back of it to create a makeshift “light gun”, where there are two trigger buttons, the one on the remote (B button) and the one on the nunchuck (Z button).

However, the Zapper is not essential and the game functions perfectly well without it.
The principle is straightforward; you play as a member of Alpha team, part of the Global Humanitarian Operation and Special Tactics (GHOST) Squad. Your mission is to deal with special situations and those involving high-profile personnel, such as saving the president from terrorists, hostage situations as well as bomb disposal. In this game you are dealing with a terrorist organisation called the Indigo Wolves.

The basic model of the game is to complete the mission by shooting the hostiles, saving the hostages, and defeating the end of level boss, occasionally you have to take part in small action sections (“events”), which usually involve placing the aiming crosshair in a specific place and pressing the action button (A button), this could be to complete a hand-to-hand combat situation where you have to block punches or disabling land minds. You can also shoot the scenery and sometimes you may discover a power-up, which you can collect by shooting the blue box on screen. These power-ups range from first aid kits to body amour or increasing your gun magazine, these effects are only temporary but definitely help. It also makes it more interesting because you end up shooting things randomly in case they contain a power-up, waiting to be discovered.

You have a life bar that decreases by a section whenever you are shot or when you shoot an innocent person by accident. Once this bar is empty, you get a count down asking if you wish to continue, if you decide to do this then the game simply continues as before, if not then the level ends and the mission is aborted. The game lets you know when you are going to be hit by highlighting that particular enemy with a red circle, so if you’re quick you can shoot him before he shoots you. I feel that this is a good feature because in other games of this type it can be hard to decide which enemies to shoot first, whereas in this game it is much more straightforward.

You also have a GS bar that is filled by completing action “events” successfully or by getting a headshot or a quick shot on an enemy. When this is full, you get an upgrade for your gun that usually allows you to fire more bullets and makes it much quicker and easier to take enemies down.

There are three modes of play, Party, Arcade and Training. Training mode is self-explanatory, it’s basically target practise but it takes away the aiming crosshair to try and make you improve your accuracy. Party mode allows up to four players to play the missions at the same time, as well as this you can also play special versions of the game that you have unlocked in the Arcade mode. For example one of the first modes you unlock is Ninja mode where you and your team as well as the enemies are all dressed as ninjas and instead of firing bullets you fire ninja stars!

Arcade mode is very similar to the coin-op game from which this version is taken, and allows one or two players to play. There are only three missions to complete, but at points during the game you will be faced with a decision and this effects what challenge comes next. For example, during the first mission in the villa, you can either choose to disarm a bomb or rescue hostages, so there are multiple routes through each level. Also, once you have completed a mission successfully, you can increase the difficulty. Completing missions on different levels allows more routes and a different path through the level. Each mission also has a boss to fight, and this is the trickiest part! Arcade mode also allows you to create a save file where it will log the number of times you’ve played and what your rank and your player level is. The point scores you accumulate in the missions are converted into experience points to boost your player level and at certain levels you gain a promotion in your rank. You begin as a mere Private but every level you gain brings you one step closer to becoming a Sergeant, Lieutenant or Major. As you gain levels and ranks you unlock different weapons and costumes to use in the game. The type of costumes make no difference to the game, apart from obviously the protagonists are dressed differently.

However, your choice of weapon makes the game very different. The standard gun is a rifle, but as you unlock shotguns and pistols, you’ll soon realise that some make the game easier or harder to complete. For example, the shotgun has a slower reload and a smaller magazine but it can allow you to take down more than one enemy with a single shot, but this is a double-edged sword because it also means that if you are shooting whilst there are hostages about you’re much more likely to hit them. The high powered pistol has penetrating rounds, that once again allow you to take out multiple enemies but the accuracy is much more precise, although it can only fire 6 bullets before needing to reload. So, by choosing a new weapon you completely change the way you have to approach the game and this influences the route you take through the missions. Some guns have different shot types, for example on the standard rifle, you can have a single shot or a 3 shot burst, these shot options are changed by pressing left or right on the D-pad.

As a single player game it lacks depth, despite the wealth of weapons and outfits to unlock, there are only 3 missions, which once you have found all the multiple routes through them will get very repetitive. However, get a friend, two or three and it is a fantastic multiplayer game, with shots flying all over the place, it’s chaotic but brilliant fun. It’s a simple game that you can pick up and play straight away, this is probably because of its arcade roots.

A nice touch is the Wi-Fi high score tables, if you have your Wii connected to the Internet then you can access these high score tables and this allows you to see how well you rank among fellow players regionally and globally.

Graphically, Ghost Squad is nothing special, the baddies all look the same (except in the weird modes like Ninja and Paradise), and the levels themselves are quite bland and aren’t very detailed but its smooth and has no slow-down to speak of, no matter how many enemies there are on screen.

The sound is pretty good, with realistic gun noises and some good voice acting (even if it does get repetitive and annoying after a few plays). Overall, the audio of a game like this is of little importance, you’ll be too busy shooting to take notice of the background music.

In conclusion, this is a solid port of a solid arcade game. It’s been well implemented onto a home console and the controls are user-friendly. For the full arcade experience, you can turn off the aiming crosshair, but I found this quite difficult to use, but you do get a point’s bonus for not using it. This is a great game for when you want a quick blast and don’t want anything taxing, but the lack of depth means that it won’t hold your interest for very long, even though there is plenty of weapons and costumes to unlock, only the hardcore fans will be able to replay the same three levels over and over again to get their level high enough to unlock everything! Of course if you have a few friends to play with then it is well worth the money because you will keep coming back to it for a fun-filled firearms fiesta!