Ghostbusters II is Something Else... - MS DOS Review | hungrygoriya 

The Bubsy bit was amazing. This era of weird DOS games is certainly missed. It’s worth mentioning that Michael Latham, who designed this game, went on to become a major part of Sega Of America, including being the creator of Eternal Champions. Sadly he passed away in 2021, but we still have his games to cherish!

Things Dan Akroyd believes are real: - Ghosts - Ghouls - Bubsy

“Bubsy” aside, thank you for digging extra deep for this one, I love learning about obscure curiosities like this one. I’m convinced you have the patience of a saint, most of us would quit right at the beginning!

I have a lot of love for the late-EGA aesthetic of this era of PC games: Plenty of pixels but a limited colour pallete produced some truly unique and often stunning visuals, and this game is no exception. The attempt to capture voice lines from the movie with 1989 computer sound tech however... well it's kinda morbidly charming (the first four or so times you hear them at least). My condolences to your ear-drums and thank you pushing through the audio hellscape to bring us this review.

Ah, my first PC was a 286 that my Dad fished out of a skip at the hospital he worked at (he had permission) I had to play Wolfenstein in a tiny window as the PC couldn't handle full screen, but the game I played mostly on it was Puzznic. Never even knew about a DOS version of Ghostbusters II, I only owned it on the Amstrad.

You have once again managed to pull out a title I have never seen before xD I had a few months of my kid life where I basically lived and breathed Ghostbusters, watching the tapes dozens of times and trying to catch every episode of the cartoon... I even had one of the plastic, kid-size Proton Packs. Weirdly, I never played any of the games. Then again, as I've said before, my mom read gaming magazines back in the day to makes sure she bought quality titles for me, and most old Ghostbusters games had quite the reputation for not being great. On top of that, PC games of the era, with a few exceptions, are a pretty untapped world for me. I don't think kid me would have had the patience for all this game asks of you, though. Also, the Bubsy cameo made me smile

I really enjoy your videos. They're thorough, articulate, and not overly negative where it isn't needed. This game really does look fun - and it really does sound frustrating at the same time. I definitely understand the desire to figure out exactly what I could destroy in the gallery shooter stages.

I played and *loved* this game as a kid, and was a huge fan of Ghostbusters (both movies and the cartoon). If I recall correctly, I made it to the last battle a couple times but never beat it. I remember the pc speaker VO snippets being incredibly impressive at the time. :)

Crazy, I owned and played the heck out of this game back in the day, but have seen almost nothing on it since then. Thanks for highlighting it, a real trip down memory lane! I never made it to Vigo, so kudos on you for that. I always ran out of time with the statue of liberty...

That Ghostbubsers intro 😂 Something about the appearance of Egon's lab reminds me of Maniac Mansion.

Oh wow, I used to play this all the time back in the day! But my IBM only had an amber monochrome screen and internal PC speaker, so it was years before I saw how great this could look and sound. To this day I've never finished that statue of liberty stage, but now I'm feeling like trying again! Great video as always!

Ghostbusters II was released in June of 1989 where Sailor Moon premiered in 1992. The idea of negative emotion or energy manifesting or being usable is older than either of those franchises. Capturing the footage in original resolution is amazing. I didn't know the game existed.

♫So they packed up their group, got a grip, came equipped Grabbed their proton packs off their back and they split Found out about Vigo, the master of evil Try'n'a battle my boys? That's not legal♫

Thanks for another review. You're one of the best game reviewers on youtube so it's always appreciated

I love the thoroughness and the humour of this review. Seeing the development team's fun photo from the manual was a really nice touch. It's cool they included that in the manual, and it's cool that it was included in this video! I'm so disappointed that new games nowadays tend not to come with a booklet or any other physical items such as maps and posters. I used to love opening a boxed game for the first time, hoping to discover plenty of goodies inside. I still remember the joy I had when I found the small bonanza waiting for me inside the Legend of Zelda box. I was one of those rare examples of a kid who used to read the manual cover to cover! The Ghostbusters II livestreams were a lot of fun. They featured a lot of silliness, a lot of hard work, and a lot of attempts. Getting to once again see the clip of the shortest ever boss fight was great, haha! I've never played the game and probably never will, but it's good to have this review to remember those streams.

The sound and dithering visuals on the Sega Genesis reminds me of old PC games. It's a strange nostalgia trigger, because I didn't play much of the Sega back in the day, but still have nostalgia for the sounds and visual style of a lot of games.

love to play this game back in the 90, missed those times

Lmao loved the intro. 🤣 PS: Omg a Sailor Moon reference. My heart. ❤

Nice to see an MS DOS review from you. It may be different from your usual content but still very interesting!

Very cool to see you do a Dos game review, I have never seen this game before but most of my PC gaming was point and click and adventure games. Looks fun honestly, well except maybe the Statue of Liberty level...

@3:09 Vigo so intimidating and awesome... then pukes for no reason LMFAO

Love the Bubsy cold open. This game seems ... grueling, lol. I don't think I could do it. Nice video, I love Slimer licking the meatstick on the thumbnail too. Also, I don't remember because I've only seen this movie once, did they control the statue of Liberty with an NES controller? Nice detail. Funnier if not.

Who you gonna call? Hunger Busters! ...wait, this isn't a sandwich shop. That Bubsy intro was great!

I was not expecting the connection HG made between certain meat ball headed Japanese super hero and the boys in gray. I almost did a spit take on that one. Vintage gaming on home computers offered an entirely different experience to consoles of the era(for good or for ill). It is always interesting to see things from that side of the fence featured on retro gaming channels.

Challenge of the Ancient Empires!!! Can’t believe you know what that is! Ran at an insufferably slow rate on my mom’s old IBM. Useless flashlight beam on the helmet, oh man…. Hope you feature that game one of these days.

Wow never heard of the DOS Ghostbusters II before now! Might have to try a playthrough of this one with a NES controller since it has that lovely pixelated version of one in the frustrating looking Statue of Liberty section. Great video HG!

Amazing how you can mix such beautiful artwork with ear grating sound. Add on great little surprises with some of the most obnoxious early game design choices. I'm glad you explore these games for us so we don't have to endure the worst elements of them!

Late 80's, early 90's PC games were so goofy! I never knew about this one, thanks for the review!

5:58 those were the DAYS. I'm glad I'm not the only one that calls her Libby. the Statch of Libby! The greenest monument on earth.

Interesting that Slimer is a bad ghost in this game since he was more of a neutral ghost in the film (and a friendly ghost in the cartoon). When operating Libby your character is using an NES controller, but in the movie they're using an NES Advantage joystick. I love that you use a Compact Disc player in Egon's lab, pretty advanced for 89! This looks like a fun, if frustrating game. Awesome video!

I was just wondering when we'd see a new video. Thank you!

I've never heard of of this title! It seems like no two GB2 games are alike. I appreciate the attention paid to the game manuals in these videos. I never made the Sailor Moon connection... I guess because the "Negaverse" didn't rely on slime quite as much!

Multi-part games were something of the time, they were very interesting games. But if you like this one I recommend to check out the Cinemaware games. Like King of Chicago, Wings or It came from the desert.

It looks like they based it on the original Ghostbusters game, the one where you have to run the actual business while also making decisions about how the Ghostbusters use their limited time to prepare for the final confrontation, which is funny given that game's current reputation. It's also interesting how the ghostbusting has a property damage aspect this time, since that was more of a thing in the first movie, and I'm sure that many players of the first game wondered about that.

This was such a nice video! I didn't know this game before, it's so well done until this last part. I love the graphic style and all the fun details in the various scenes. They are plenty of good ideas, and I also love the pictures of the devs in the manual, that's always a nice touch. It's again been a while since my last comment here, I missed several videos wich I will watch with pleasure! Congratulations for the 30k suscribers, you deserve it.

I really, really enjoyed hearing your review. I feel like I'm hanging out with a friend

I remember seeing this as my local Softwear Etc. The only play that a large computer game selection. I wanted to get this game but my parents computer had no chance of running it.

Thanks for the new video, HG! 🙂 I think you and your husband, and whomever do a super job! 😁👍 A suggestion for a game I suspect you may enjoy: Life and Death for PC/DOS (maybe Mac or others): it’s a challenging, EGA-graphic, doctor & surgeon game. The procedures manual is a must for what the game expects, I found, and even then it was pretty frustrating at times. Satisfying to master, though, I found. It has potential for a lot of silliness, humour and messing around, too, like forgetting to turn on the anesthesia gas before starting the surgery, for one…🤦‍♂️ … or poking the patient’s tummy excessively during an abdominal exam. There are some Ghostbusters 2-“quality” voice samples, too, as well, The previous two examples result in a distorted “AAAAAAH!!!!” from your still-conscious patient and sometimes lots of “Ooh! OoH! OoG!”’s until they get tired of your belly-poking nonsense. 🥹I appreciated the Sailor Moon reference, too! From reading through the other comments, you, I glean that you too as a fellow Canadian kid grew up watching SM on YTV. Nice! Well, thank you for reading! All the best to you & your hubby, and all yours! 😁

Love seeing these old computer games in all their glory! Especially one I’ve never seen or heard of. Wonder if they got any flak from depicting a NES controller? Not the same one from the movie but I’m sure that would have been harder to animate at that angle

Nice review! It's cool to see a mini-game setup where the components make sense together

1, 2, 3 and go! Oh I'm dead lmao!! I loved that part and totally understand.

I see Hungry Goriya video, I click and I like instantly. Thank you for another video!

If I were to guess as to why Dana was scrapped, maybe they couldn't get likeness rights from Sigourney Weaver. Also, it's funny that you refer to Slimer as "the even slower green ghost".

The pixel-art Tandy 1000 TL is a nice touch.

Lemme tell ya somethin'. MS-DOS makes me _feel good~_ This game puts me in mind of the Cinemaware classic, _The Three Stooges._ It's a mini-game-fest and was ported to a million consoles over time - even as late as the Game Boy Advance! The NES version even has a _Ghostbusters II_ cameo. (Other ports just have Cinemaware's _Defender of the Crown._ Boo.) This also puts me in mind of _DuckTales: The Quest For Gold_ on MS-DOS and Amiga. This is another variety game with somewhat awkward controls, but the games are somewhat related to the plot. I feel like there's probably a whole genre of these things out there, and we just aren't aware of them…

Thanks for sharing a DOS game. We never had a computer growing up so this is a lost world of gaming to me. This game looks frustrating at times but still more fun than the NES Ghostbusters.

I still haven't seen _Ghostbusters II_ because I've heard it was a typical disappointing sequel, but the version of it that I've put together in my head based on the random nuggets of information I've had fall into my lap just keeps getting more and more delightfully absurd. This definitely took it to a new level.

Hearing Sailor Moon referenced positively is great. Seeing an NES controller fairly accurately represented in an officially licensed non-Nintendo game is a rare treat that we definitely wouldn't get nowadays!

9:00 Janine looks like your beautiful wife from Pirates!, who coincidentally is a welcomer to a different kind of hell. 😂 Thanks for the video! I'm always glad to see the notification for a new HG video!

Looks like someone is having a fun time with their video editing skills. ;) Always good to see an HG video pop up on my feed! Ah ye olde DOS days. The scratchy voice reminds me of some software that converted sounds to be playable on a PC speaker without a sound card. The results were …not good. But you could almost make out what was being said!

I'm surprised this game actually follows the film somewhat faithfully. Movie based games in the 80s and 90s were notorious for playing fast and loose with the source material. I'm surprised to say it but, to me, this game looks quirky yet fun.

I have fun with these old dos games. I like the strategy/sim ones. Sim City, Lords of the Realm, Civ, stuff like that.

Ohhhhh snap. Another fantastic video drop from the one and only Hungry Goriya

I had no idea this existed! I would have loved this as a kid. Looks better than the NES game at any rate XD

I had part 1 on DOS, but wow part 2 looks great!

Oh snap a DOS game...in EGA graphics. Not a typical review from HG. Those PC speaker voices are godawful lol. Seeing that Dynamix logo takes me back to my early teenage years playing games on my dad's 486. Betrayal at Krondor, Rise of the Dragon, Red Baron and about nine thousand Incredible Machine games.

We always had hand-me-down computers, and until the Windows 3.11 machine - WITH CD-ROM! - they were all Apples, so my experience with DOS games like this is fairly limited, but there were a few on Apple platforms, too, like Roger Rabbit and Willow; there seem to be a fair number of "variety show" type games for earlier computers. Always interesting to see things like this and all the weird activities they come up with; the only early console game I can think of that even comes close is Kiteretsu Daihyakka for the NES, but even that's mostly a Platformer with a few surprisingly in-depth side activities.

I'm just up late writing right now... I needed this!

didn't know about this, but it got me very nostalgic for the 16 colors ega dos days

Great video once again

Very cool, and I thought Ghostbusters 2 for the GameBoy was the obscure title in the game franchise but I had no idea an MS-DOS edition existed! Thanks for teaching me something today and the great review.

I think anyone making a game based on Ghostbusters 2 had a real challenge ahead of them. I really like the movie but I don't think it has many parts to it that would translate well into a video game. All things considered this one looks like a decent attempt. Although I do have to criticize the wild inaccuracy of the Libby driving segment where the Ghostbuster is clearly using a standard NES controller instead of the NES Advantage featured in the movie. Some things can't be forgiven. 😜 My favorite Ghostbusters game remains New Ghostbusters 2 on the NES. A little hard to come by because, of course, it never had a North American release.

Losing money the more damage you do, isn't that what happened in the HD game on the PS360? I think I remember that happening, not sure what happened if you ran out of money (Game Over, I guess). But it's interesting that, out of all the games that were released prior to the HD era, you were never penalized for destruction (if, that was even possible) except this one, it seems.

Unpopular opinion, but as a movie, I always prefered Ghostbusters II over the original. Mostly because the first Ghostbusters film has the problem a lot of superhero movies do where the first movie feels like its dedicated to setting up the characters and universe with little time for the actual plot. The sequel gets to assume you know that stuff and immediately opens with a paranormal mystery for our heroes to investigate, which gets more time to develop and breath (whereas all the Gozer stuff was kinda just smushed into the last third of Ghostbuster 1). ..... Discussing this game, I find it funny how Ghostbusters II seems to be the movie for having obscure versions. Most of the time, you're lucky if people know that the NES got two different Ghostbusters II games. The funny thing is this one seems the most like a sequel to the first Ghostbusters game by Activision (the one that got ported to the NES and was famously lambasted by the AVGN). Mostly in how this seems to be the only version that has a similar theme around progression being tied to earning money by taking odd jobs so you can eventually take down the main threat.. whereas the other Ghostbusters II game adaptations were just standard level-by-level video games. Other than that, I was mostly thinking "this pixel art style looks kinda familiar..." and then near the end I saw the mention that this game was developed by Dynamix, and I was like "Oh, that would be why." Dynamix games look a lot like Sierra games to me... which probably explains why they wound up owned by Sierra later. Finally, this comment is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it is always nice to see A) someone else who grew up in the days of floppy disks and actually knows how games back then worked (I've seen so many videos on youtube from clueless people who don't know they have to run setup programs) and B) who grew up with both consoles and PCs and got a taste of both worlds, whereas it seems most gamers only got to experience one or the other.

Keep them coming!

9:30 Have you ever played the old Sierra game "Manhunter New York"? It has a similar EGA art style depicting NYC, although a dark post-alien-invasion version.

HG, did you see that a Drasle Family port just came out on the Switch.??

With more advanced chips, we could have had the Bobby Brown song in the game! "Found out about Vigo. The master of evil. Try to battle my boys? -- That's not legal!"

It would awesome if this game was something you could unlock after completing the 2nd to last ghostbusters game released.

good call on the SailorMoon comp.!

Ohh...! I didn't expect to see this game ever again. I have no idea about how it reached my dad's computer. From what I remember it was odd (gameplay wise it's a bit all over the place compared to most games of the time), but it was fun. Let's see what else I remember with the review :).

An obscure bit of gaming history here, but an interesting one alright. Looks like they did something a bit different and took advantage of the medium they were placed on. Good work on the video.

You have a knack for finding the fun in even the most janked, counterintuitive games. I'm glad the game included so many great little details. I laughed out loud seeing how you dodged the orderlies by gently leaning to the side, as they continued slowly running right past you 😁

We've been bubsrolled!

I love this era of PC games. While the gameplay is always a bit dodgy, the experimentation and variety is astounding. And the art. EGA and early VGA pixel art is so good. Just getting to a new screen is worth the hassle of putting up with the awful controls. This game more than delivers in that regard. The interactive CD player is so good. Every screen is incredible. It really fires up the imagination, and makes you wish you could just "turn the camera" around. Ironically, the ability to actually do that nowadays, has made games lose some of their magic.

There is some good sprite work in this game

From the looks of this I would easily play this over both Ghostbusters I and II on the NES. I remember renting GB2 on the NES and I couldn't even get past the first stage. Also is this foreshadowing for a Bubsy review ? I'll admit it, the first Bubsy game isn't THAT bad. It's hard as hell, yeah, but so were a lot of games at the time. It was my dark souls as a kid, challenging but rewarding seeing a new stage.

I didn't know the PC version was different, I assumed all of the Activision published ones were the same and the Hal Labs ones were different. Ghostbusters 2 on the Amiga was the first time that I discovered that a game based on a license could be awful, I guess I was lucky until then with Batman, Robobop etc though those haven't aged well now.

Never know about this game, only about the two games of NES, the good from HAL and the other one 😅. The part of The Liberty Statue seems very frustrating. Good review! 😊

That first "ghost" well looks like an Ali Express version of Garfield 😅

x) Nice to see they had fun making it and didn't try to copy the versions on other systems, like they did on Atari, what a mistake! To try to copy the NES game. Gotta love that ragtime

I have played several Ghostbusters games as a kid, but I never knew that there was a version of Ghostbusters II for MS DOS. I had the Game Boy version, which was MUCH better than the horrendous North Americsn release on the NES. I say that because the Japanese version for the Famicom was made by HAL (the same srudio that made Kirby) and is a completely different experience.

I miss the old DOS days, a more fun simpler time for games. No microtransactions, no paid DLC, no patching, fully finished games at purchase, and the time of the Tandy Trash 80. Good stuff

Wow, this is definitely one of the better looking EGA games out there. I always disliked that garish pink flesh color and the overuse of cyan in particular. Whoever designed the EGA color palette definitely must have been color blind. Huge props to the graphics artists of this game, though.

The images at 3:47 are either the Amiga or Atari ST version probably. I remember that being really common with all the shown images back then and then the DOS version would look like poop.

Do, Re, egon

Sailor Moon ref for the win!

Bubsing makes me feel good

i can't believe the bubsmeister is DEAD

What is the first song played? And what show is at 3:08?

How is Bubsy a ghost? He started with nine lives! 😿 My favorite DOS game is One Must Fall 2097. It's kind of like Mortal Kombat 3 with robots.

My guess is, Sigorney was a combination of more expensive and less crucial to the story than the actual Ghostbusters, so they cut paying for the rights to her likeness to help the budget? My guess with her being in Aliens etc. she was probably at least as expensive as the Ghostbusters actors, maybe even more so?

It’s not a good day for the Bubz when even HG forsakes him.

It’s so weird seeing an NES controller on a DOS game.

I gave this a shot once but for me, the ghosts you hunt move too fast to catch-- Like the ghosts in the courtroom are fine, but after that they just move too fast for your cursor to stay on them. (like way faster than your gameplay video) But I think this is a bug, judging from what other people say, and again, judging from your gameplay. I've heard there's a 'fix' if you change the controls to mouse controls, but I've never figured out how to do that... :(

12:04 Mind spoiling the tell? I played this as a kid and never figured it out!

I only ever had Ghostbusters for the Atari 2600, and then eventually for the NES. These were both 2 ports of the same game, and both are pretty awful. That didn't stop me from playing them both over and over until I could beat them both, however. We wouldn't have a PC that could play games until around 1998, so there is so much for DOS in the 90s that I never even knew about.

Never really played that one. The ghost at the start in the park kind of looks like the Angry Videogame Nerd.

Still love your insight....without the miningless

BUBSY! :D