Ghostlop - Complete Review - by Billy Pitt

FACT FILE:

Game Name: Ghost Lop
Licensee: Data East
Year of Production: 1996
Genre: Puzzle
Product Number: NGH-228
Meg Count: 98 megs

The NGH Confirmed!!

Card Data

FORWARD

On February 28th, 2003 I finally got the opportunity to play the elusive Ghostlop! I acquired the game from an arcade operator here in the United States who received the sample cartridge years earlier. A dream come true for this Neo Geo hardcore fan & self proclaimed proto king!

Are you old enough to play this game?

This game is spectacular! It truly is inexplicable as to why it was never released. It is very original, extremely addictive, and a lot of fun to play. The game is 100% complete and playable. In fact, I played it through to completion to verify this.

INTRODUCTION

The games intro is actually very short. It is only a few seconds long and does not really give much of the story of the game. It begins with one laughing ghost at the center of the screen. Soon, others begin to surround it until the entire screen becomes filled with various ghosts all laughing hysterically in a maniacal tone! The ghosts then disappear, the screen fades to black, and the Ghostlop title logo appears faintly in the background and rotates & scales forward until it locks in place as the full title screen completely emerges.

STARTING OUT

When you start the game, you have two modes of gameplay to choose from, Story and Versus. The story mode is done very well. The storyline goes like this...

It seems that the city is being pestered by frequent hauntings & ghostly sightings! Have no fear, Bruce & McCoy are here! They are ghost hunting partners who work for Rachel, president of the city's ghost eviction company. These professional ghostbusters get called out on various assignments where a ghostly being has haunted a building or possessed a person, an object, etc. Each case is presented
with a mini intro composed of cut scenes and descriptive text that details what the problem is. The game also tosses in some non-linear elements into the mix for later on it actually offers the player choices after completing each mission! Basically you can select between two courses of action before you continue. The versus mode plays pretty much the same as any other neogeo competitive game. Players compete in a head to head battle of skills & reflexes.

Memory Card Load Screen

Great Storyline!!

GRAPHICS & SOUNDS

The graphics are very nice. The backgrounds appear to be slightly retouched digitized images of various buildings and places. The characters look like they were rendered in 3-D because they have a motion capture style of animation to them. The cinema and storyline cut scenes are also very colorful and well drawn. The background music is very catchy and addicting. It sounds like they really put alot of effort into composing the various tracks. Also because the BGM actually changes from one stage to the next, it prevents the music from becoming repetitive. It does carry a somewhat "spooky" or "scary" theme, but it is not "castlevania intense". Rather it is more humorous, but yet not completely silly either! So it is not scary, but it can create an eerie ambiance while being played. Enough so that if you play it late at night with all the lights out in the house, it may spook you just a little bit!

HOW TO PLAY

Gameplay is easy to learn but takes time to master. The joystick controls the left & right movement of your character as well as the angle of the fireballs you shoot. The player presses the A button to shoot red fireballs and the B button to shoot blue fireballs. The player is attacked by both red & blue ghosts which can be eliminated by shooting them with these fireballs. To clear a ghost, it must be hit by the same color fireball. When you shoot down 5 or more ghost blocks together, you attack your opponent. When an opponent attacks, a skull block appears. This ghostly impediment can only be destroyed after it is hit twice by the ball. However here is where it gets more interesting. The ball color can actually be changed in mid flight at any time by the player! This is where "combos" can be achieved as multiple ghosts of different colors can be eliminated at one time with one volley. This can speed up the pace of the round and demands fast thinking and even faster reaction!

Success pays off!!!

If you lose, you can....

My shoes!!! No, your name!!

GAME DIFFICULTY

The games difficulty is moderate. It seems hard at first because the gameplay is so different then what most puzzle game fans are accustomed to. But in essence this is one of the things that makes the game so original and helps it to stand out from the crowd of puzzle games. However, after further practice & experience, you eventually start to pick up a stradegy and begin to play better. Also, thankfully the game utilizes the memory card for level saves which can assist those having trouble getting through the game.

THE ENDING

The games ending is good. It basically runs like a story. The ghost hunters eliminate the pesky pests and the city is saved! It shows a few cinema scenes with the ending storyline and then the full staff & credits begin to scroll over some changing background images. At the end of the credits, it even hints at a possible future sequel, but then again, so do many other games for that matter.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I have always been partial towards puzzle games. They happen to be one of my favorite genres in video games. And this one brings enough new ideas and concepts to the table which make it stand out from all the others. At times, it almost plays less like a puzzle game, and more like an action game. As an example the volleying and juggling of the balls almost gives it an arkanoid feel. Also the ghostbusting storyline is reminiscent of a platform type game. All of this I feel also adds to Ghostlops originality and replay value. Perhaps that is why I like this game so much.

The only problem here is that all these comments of praise are completely in vain as they pretty much fall on deaf ears. Reason being that (as of this writing) the game is unavailable to the public. However, if this review helped familiarize everyone with the game as well as quenched the thirst of those who longed for the complete disclosure of all it's details, then I suppose it is worth it. Afterall I know what it feels like to want to see & play a game that is not available. And for me, if that is not possible, then the next best thing is to at least experience it through someone else.

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This Ghostlop proto cartridge belongs to Billy Pitt. He acquired this cartridge from one of his sources. Billy has generously provided us with dozens of screenshots as well as a complete review of the game.