Review: Ghost Squad

Ghost Squad follows the Global Humanitarian Operation & Special Tactics Squad, a team of elite operatives who seem to be constantly rescuing the President from terrorists who have no problem slipping by the bodyguards. You’ll attempt to rescue the President over three missions in a faithful conversion of the arcade original.

If you grew up in a video game arcade, there’s a high chance that you pumped money into a game developed by Sega’s legendary AM2 group. Games like Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Fighter all fall under the AM2 umbrella and now one of their most loved arcade titles has come to the Nintendo Wii.

Ghost Squad follows the Global Humanitarian Operation & Special Tactics Squad, a team of elite operatives who seem to be constantly rescuing the President from terrorists who have no problem slipping by the bodyguards. You’ll attempt to rescue the President over three missions in a faithful conversion of the arcade original.

It’s kind of like Virtua Cop or Time Crisis, except with really bad acting. You’ll use your Wiimote to fire at the ridiculous amount of bad guys and the weapons they throw just like the stand-up arcade game you might find at your local cinema.

And if you’re one of those people that bought a Wii Zapper and only have Link’s Crossbow Training to play with it, Ghost Squad should be in your sights as it supports the Zapper. Simply load your Wiimote and Nunchuk into the Zapper and you’ll have your very own entry into the fast paced world of Ghost Squad action against the terrorism of the world.

One of the better things about the Wii is that you don’t often have to talk about graphics. We don’t have to sit here and tell you that the graphics don’t stand up to the PS3 or the Xbox 360 because you know that. The graphics in Ghost Squad aren’t that bad considering what the Wii normally gets and

The sound is a mixed bag between not bad and downright hilarious. The dialogue in Ghost Squad is some of the cheesiest and poorly acted we’ve seen in a while but that’s to be expected as that’s what it was like in the original arcade game. There’s a lot of music and while it stays in the background for the most part, it’s always constant and frenetic. A well-paced electronic soundtrack goes a long way and if Ghost Squad had better voice actors and graphics, you might mistake the experience for being a part of a SWAT movie or an episode of 24.

Ghost Squad’s biggest problem is that because it hasn’t really changed much from its arcade roots, it’s still just a three mission game. Much like the original Virtua Cop series, Ghost Squad lets you play through three levels before the game calls it quits and your only options are to start again.

The thing is while it only has three levels, it’s not THAT big of a problem because it’s an easy game in and of itself. You can take half an hour and beat the game day in day out blowing away enemies as part of a leisurely relaxing time. If you bring friends over, you can grab a Ghost Squad team of four and have a good old fashioned arcade shoot-out taking out the same enemies in an easy game too.

While being short is an issue, Ghost Squad only stops being fun when you begin to tire of the same levels. Over time, you’ll get more weapons and still the same cheesy levels to blow through. It’s a lot like that giddy Lethal Enforcers style fun you might have had with light gun games in the arcades when you were younger with an occasional action button scene where you’ll have to use hand-to-hand combat or defuse a bomb.

All in all, Ghost Squad is a fun and slightly mature game for the Wii that is great to play until you get bored of it two days later.

Should you buy it?: While it’s very easy, it’s also very fun. Get it to play with friends at a party when you’re all in a hardcore arcade mood.

Developer: Sega AM2
Publisher: Sega
Classification: M
Formats: Nintendo Wii
URL: Ghost Squad

Reviewed by Leigh D. Stark