Tomorrow Ghost Squad will be released in North America as a budget priced title. In Japan we got this game a few weeks ago, but as a full priced title, which included the Wii Zapper. I didn’t plan on buying this game new, but I was hanging out with some friends and we thought it would be a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, so we picked it up. Was it a good decision? Read on.

Ghost Squad is a 2004 light gun arcade game. It was built using the Sega Chihiro hardware (an arcade spec similar to the original Xbox). The Wii version is mostly a direct port but has some additional sequences such as defusing bombs and fist fighting that were added to make use of the Wii remote. The arcade original game allowed players to save their progress (costumes unlocked, new guns, etc) on special cards that could be bought at the arcade. The Wii version simply saves these accomplishments to the system.

Let me start out by saying that this game is very fun. I have always been a big fan of light gun shooters. They are simple and fast paced. They usually follow this format: See the bad guy, shoot the bad guy, see the innocent person, try not to shoot them, accidentally shoot them anyway. And the thousands of bad guys shoot at you as well. But don’t worry, they will give you ample time to take them down as they seem to have no intelligence whatsoever and just stand there wishing that someone would mow them down. But as I said, I really like this type of game. From the moment I started playing to the very end of the game I was fully enjoying the experience.

Unfortunately that experience is only about 20-25 minutes long. Yup, Ghost Squad has only 3 levels and you should be able to finish them in the amount of time it takes to complete the tutorial on most games. Now I know for a lot of you this is going to be a deal breaker right there, but it’s a little deeper than just that. You see, while there are very few levels and the “story” is the same each time, there is more to be discovered each time you play through.

At many points during each level you will be able to choose from multiple paths to take. Some of those paths will take you to new areas and unlock even more paths. Some of these paths are not available until you have beat the boss a certain number of times. If you can beat one variation of the stage, a new one will be unlocked. True you will be “saving the president” over and over and over, but sometimes you will do the mission at night (making enemies harder to see), or with heat vision equipped or any number of other variations. But I do recommend skipping the cut scenes while replaying the stages, because the horrible voice acting can only be funny for so long.

Also as you progress your character will level up and you will unlock new weapons (there are 25) and costumes (14). You will also eventually be able to access other play modes such as “paradise mode” which re-skins all the enemies to be bikini clad females you take out with your trusty “dolphin gun”. But despite these cosmetic differences, the level is exactly the same. That one Ninja guy will jump out from behind the same rock every time but you will soon learn that dispatching him with a headshot will earn you more points. Like many old-school games, I found myself trying hard to beat my old scores. You can compare your score with other players on the Wii Connect online rankings.

As for the visuals, I remember being impressed with the graphics when I first saw this game in the arcades in 2004. Sadly it has aged a bit. It looks like an Xbox game (which it sort of is considering the Chihiro hardware) but the graphics are more than adequate. The game is smooth and you always know what is going on. The only real problem I had was during some of the cut scenes it seemed like some frames were being dropped, but I usually skip those anyway.

The sound is pretty standard light gun game fare. Horrendous voice acting, lots of dying soldier sounds and good but not great music. I did like the reloading sounds coming from the Wiimote but that is a feature on almost every Wii game these days.

The Zapper itself worked pretty well with this game. I had tried it previously with Biohazard: Umbrella Chronicles and was not impressed. However in Ghost Squad it really seems to add to the experience. Sniping is a lot easier with the Zapper and it gives it more of an arcade feel. Unfortunately the new “Wii exclusive” events don’t seem to have been made with the Zapper in mind and it is awkward to reach the “A” and “+” buttons to activate some functions and do some tasks. What is nice is if you are playing with more than one person, you can assign roles. “Ok, you have the Zapper, so you will be the sniper, I am on a regular controller so I will take care of the bombs”. As least that worked for me.

I know there is a lot of negative in this review, but as I said from the beginning I really enjoyed this game. The first day I played it for 6 hours straight. I also played a lot of the “party mode” in which 4 people can play. There is no leveling up in the mode, but it is a blast to have 4 friends riddling everything with bullets. Those innocent people never really had a chance.

The lady in the photo above had never played a video game before. Never thought she would be able to figure it out. But she loved Ghost Squad and is now interested in playing other games. It has tremendous casual appeal and makes a great party game. All you really need to know is how to squeeze a trigger and you are all set.

If the game was twice or three times as long I would have no hesitation giving this game a score of 9, but as it is, many people will be annoyed right away with the constant repetition. Still it you are a fan of light gun shooters I highly recommend this one. And at the discount price, it makes it even sweeter.

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