First of all, I apologize in advance. When I reviewed Marvel Puzzle Quest, I got several people addicted and they still have that monkey on their back two years later. But hey, we all make our own choices.
Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter is essentially the same thing as Marvel Puzzle Quest. It’s just Ghostbusters themed. So, if you’re already familiar with Puzzle Quest and like it, the only part of this you need to read is the part where I say you should play this game too. Or instead. Or both. They’re more or less the same. Choose your poison. If you’re not familiar, let me tell you what you’re in for.
Players assemble a trio of Ghostbusters to fight against a group of ghosts, which include a lot of characters from the original series. If you play in the versus player mode, you’ll play against another trio of Ghostbusters. Egons fighting Egons and such. Gameplay is the same as any other tile matching game. Each sides takes turn matching up three or more of the same colored tiles and it launches an attack at the enemy worth a certain amount of damage. Certain colors do more or less damage depending on your characters’ special abilities. Blowing up a certain amount of each color will trigger your characters’ power attacks. A lot of them have the word “proton” in them.
For battles won, you can gain new character cards and/or the ability to upgrade your characters. The game is free to play, but it can take awhile for your characters to heal, and it can take a long time to gather up enough coins to open new slots for new characters. So, you either need to spend money to do something or else you have to wait to continue playing. I’d actually be willing to pay a couple of dollars for this game, not to have these issues.
The only thing I HATE about this game, and about all Puzzle Quest games is that the AI team always seems to have an unfair advantage. I get one attack per turn, but then they get so many I could leave the room to make a sandwich and come back and it still won’t be my turn. I’m not saying this is a built-in cheat by the developers to make you want to pay money to upgrade your characters or heal quickly. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that when it’s the third round of a game against villains many levels below mine and my characters are ALL already at half health because they keep hitting me with their power attacks that they haven’t even gotten enough charge for, I get suspicious. That’s all I’m saying. My characters are levels 28, 27, and 26 and my opponents are 16, 16, and 14 and I still get my ass kicked? Repeatedly? That doesn’t add up.
But the joke’s on them. I’m still not gonna pay. As a matter of fact, right after I typed up this review, I got fed up, quit playing, and deleted the game for the aforementioned reason and to amend my review. I’d give it a much higher rating, cause I really enjoyed it, but with this problem, I can’t rate it any higher than a 6.
If you like the Puzzle Fighter/Quest genre and if you’re a Ghostbusters fan, power up your proton packs and get it. It is a fun game, so enjoy it for what it’s worth, but don’t expect to get too much play out of it. Eventually you’ll feel like you’re being had and want to move on. If you want a turned-based RPG with more longevity, or where the level of your characters actually matters, I suggest either Puzzles and Dragons, which has the tile-matching element, or Final Fantasy Record Keeper, which does not.
I’d actually recommend Doctor Who: Legacy for anyone looking for a puzzle tile style game. It’s quite like the Ghostbusters game above but without the issues mentioned (the core game is quite progressible for free and pay elements are chiefly access to extra levels and characters), it’s easier to heal characters, and levels tell you at the top what rank team you need to have a real chance. The abilities of the characters and enemies get more and more cunning and tricksy as you proceed. Plus: it’s Doctor Who!
I am not familiar with this Doctor Who game, but I will check it out.