Play Ghostbusters II Online

Ghostbusters II came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, published by Activision. It was one of those many movie tie-in games from that era, a time when you never quite knew if the cartridge would be a pleasant surprise or a frustrating mess. This one had you stepping into the proton packs of the team to deal with a new supernatural threat in New York.

You control a single Ghostbuster, moving screen by screen through the city streets and other locations. Your main goal is to find and destroy Vigo's portrait, which requires you to first gather five pieces of a hidden symbol. You use your proton stream to blast ghosts and dissolve the pink slime covering everything. The game also mixes things up with driving sections in the Ecto-1A and a final level where you pilot the Statue of Liberty. The pacing is methodical, and the difficulty can be unforgiving, with limited continues and enemies that respawn quickly. It feels like a strange, sometimes clunky, but ultimately memorable trip back to a specific kind of late 80s game design.