is an

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

and

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

, both developed and published by

HAL Laboratory formerly shortened as HALKEN, is a Japanese video game developer based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded on February 21, 1980 by Mitsuhiro Ikeda. The company started out developing games for home computers of the era, but has since establishe ...

in 1990 in Japan and in 1991 in the

PAL region Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25& ...

. The NES version was never released in North America due to licensing issues with

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

. As a result, NES players in North America only received Activision's ''

Ghostbusters II ''GhostbustersII'' is a 1989 American Supernatural fiction, supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson ...

'' game. HAL also developed a Game Boy version of ''New Ghostbusters II'', titled simply ''Ghostbusters II'', which they also published in Japan, while Activision published it in North America and PAL regions.

Gameplay

In the game, the player is presented with four Ghostbusters to choose from:

Peter Venkman Peter Venkman, PhD is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters (franchise), ''Ghostbusters'' franchise. He appears in the films ''Ghostbusters'', ''Ghostbusters II'', ''Ghostbusters: Afterlife'', ''Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'' and in the anim ...

Ray Stantz Raymond Stantz, PhD, is a fictional character from the ''Ghostbusters'' franchise. He appears in the films '' Ghostbusters'' (1984), ''Ghostbusters II'' (1989), '' Casper'' (1995, as a cameo), '' Ghostbusters: Afterlife'' (2021) and '' Ghostbus ...

Egon Spengler Egon Spengler, PhD is a fictional character from the ''Ghostbusters'' franchise. He appears in the films ''Ghostbusters'', ''Ghostbusters II'', and '' Ghostbusters: Afterlife'', in the animated television series '' The Real Ghostbusters'' and '' ...

, or

Winston Zeddemore Winston Zeddemore, PhD is a fictional character appearing in the ''Ghostbusters'' films, TV series, and video games. He is played by Ernie Hudson in the films ''Ghostbusters'', ''Ghostbusters II'', '' Ghostbusters: Afterlife'' and '' Ghostbust ...

. The NES version features their accountant, Louis Tully, as a fifth playable character. This, along with the North American version of ''Ghostbusters II'', were the only titles ever released that allowed players to play as Winston. While the action can be performed by oneself in the NES version, a secondary player may join the game with the ability to press B on a second controller to release a ghost-catching trap. The objective of the game is to trap all the

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

s in an area until an arrow appears which alerts the player where to travel to next. A

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

appears at the end of each stage.

Version differences

''New Ghostbusters II'' for the NES is not a port of the Game Boy version, or vice versa. The Nintendo Entertainment System version features new music, different layouts for the levels and alternate versions of cut scenes between levels and stage bosses. The Game Boy version has 5 stages. None of the versions of ''New Ghostbusters II'' has multi-player capabilities.

Reception

On release, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' magazine scored the Game Boy version of the game a 25 out of 40.お買い物に便利 : 新作ゲームクロスレビュー - ゴーストバスターズ2. Famicom Tsushin. No.22. Pg.18. 26 October 1990.

References

External links

* *
''Ghostbusters II - Game Boy''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a video gaming website that hosts guides and other resources, as well as an active Internet forum, message board forum. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and has been owned by Fandom (website), Fandom, Inc. since October ...

''New Ghostbusters II - Nintendo''
at

1990 video games Action games Game Boy games Game Boy-only games Ghostbusters video games HAL Laboratory games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Single-player video games Video game sequels Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Hirohiko Takayama Video games set in New York City {{action-videogame-stub