We’ve got the tools, we’ve got the talent
A group of plucky modders have taken to expanding the 1990 Genesis/Mega Drive version ofGhostbustersto correct a longstanding problem with the game: Winston Zeddemore wasn’t in it. TheGhostbusters: Special Editionhack adds the fourth ‘buster. Beyond that, it also implements a slate of other improvements.
Developed in1990 by Compile,Ghostbusterson Genesis/Mega Drive is a pretty unique title. It was released afterGhostbusters 2, but it is neither based on that title nor does it pull fromThe Real Ghostbusterscartoon series. Instead, it presents a different kind of sequel to the original game. It’s a side-scroller where you delve into various locations to purge them of ghosts. While this commits the sin of having aGhostbustersgame where you just blast away ghosts, there are sequences where you trap boss enemies.
The weird thing about this title, however, is that it had the likeness of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray, but completely omitted Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore. I’m not sure why. He was left out of a lot of promotional media at the time and even some of the other video game adaptations of the franchise. Actually, I have a pretty solid hunch as to why Winston was often left out.
Not worth 11.5 a year
Beyond restoring the full crew,Ghostbusters: Special Editionalso includes the ability to change the color of your flight suit and a “Nightmare” difficulty mode.Artist Pedro Soaresalso made this really awesome Mega Drive clamshell cover to go with it.
I’m not a huge fan of the Genesis/Mega DriveGhostbustersgame. It was kind of… weird. I also preferredNew Ghostbusters IIon the NES. That gamealready included Winston(and Rick Moranis as Louis Tully) out of the box. Still,Ghostbusters: Special Editionis a tempting offer. I should probably have an Everdrive so I can play these homebrew projects on the original hardware.
You can find theGhostbusters: Special Editionpatchright over here.The link includes credits for the team involved in the mod.
