Secret Base studio mocks up a Ghostbusters platformer that really should be a real game

Harold Ramis passed away earlier this week. He left behind, among many other things, a huge legacy as Egon Spengler of the Ghostbusters. (FYI, Ramis also co-wrote the script for the Ghostbusters live-action films.)

In tribute, Singapore studio Secret Base has conceptualized a mock-up of a Ghostbusters platforming game.

The Secret Base blog has laid out a simple explanation of how the gameplay would work. The player will take up the role of a Ghostbuster going around a randomly-generated haunted mansion while avoiding traps and ghosts. The aim is to collect treasures and artifacts and save people.

These survivors will pop up randomly with countdown timers. If you save them, they’ll drop something helpful a la Metal Slug prisoner-style. If you don’t save them in time, they’ll turn into a powerful ghost which you can blast with your proton pack and then trap for money. Rescuing enough survivors clears the level for you, after which you’ll be able to choose a gameplay-buffing perk before proceeding to the next one.

Ghosts in the game will be modelled after Nintendo Land’s Ghost Mansion. They’ll be invisible but your controller will vibrate when they’re near, and they turn visible when they charge in to attack, though you’ll be able to dodge this. The ghosts will be vulnerable even when unseen, but your proton pack can run out of battery.

Proton packs work the same way they do in the show, except for when the capture actually happens. Once your beam has grabbed hold of the ghost, two types of icons will appear: a skull and a blue circle. The player will need to press X when they intersect in order to destroy the skull. Destroying all skulls captures the ghost.

One of Secret Base’s real games is Bitejacker, a shoot-em-up that literally draws from other games (Super Meat Boy zombie anyone?), so it’s no surprise that this proposed game’s mechanics are heavily influenced by others’. Teo is frank in admitting the proton pack capture is modelled after Alan Wake and Drill Dozer.

More excitingly, Teo doesn’t look at this proposed game concept as just a mock-up:

The Ghostbuster universe is filled with so much good stuff, there’s just so much possibility to a game like this. Maybe if enough people like the idea, I can perhaps make a little prototype and try to pitch it to whoever owns the IP.

You know what to do, my fellow nerds. Please go to his page and let him know we want this game!