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 of Ghostbusters to correct a longstanding problem with the game: Winston Zeddemore wasn’t in it. The Ghostbusters: Special Edition hack adds the fourth ‘buster. Beyond that, it also implements a slate of other improvements.
Developed in 1990 by Compile, Ghostbusters on Genesis/Mega Drive is a pretty unique title. It was released after Ghostbusters 2, but it is neither based on that title nor does it pull from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon 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 a Ghostbusters game 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 Edition also includes the ability to change the color of your flight suit and a “Nightmare” difficulty mode. Artist Pedro Soares also made this really awesome Mega Drive clamshell cover to go with it.
I’m not a huge fan of the Genesis/Mega Drive Ghostbusters game. It was kind of… weird. I also preferred New Ghostbusters II on the NES. That game already included Winston (and Rick Moranis as Louis Tully) out of the box. Still, Ghostbusters: Special Edition is a tempting offer. I should probably have an Everdrive so I can play these homebrew projects on the original hardware.
You can find the Ghostbusters: Special Edition patch right over here. The link includes credits for the team involved in the mod.
