The final release of last year's Ghostbusters revival series. The long in coming PSP version, which we thought for the longest time would never see release. Sadly if the first teasers of this version were meant to fortify you or encourage you as to what this would be the final release would be... less than inspiring. However in this game's defense I do have to say that in the end I ultimately found myself quite happy with the release if not perfect it did more than adequately fill my need for a handheld Ghostbusters game, and while it seems to have been shunned by players (dooming it to an early fate in the bargain bin) I have to say that their loss is you gain now that you can get the game from anywhere between $10 to $20 new depending on where you buy it from. I got my copy from GameStop so I got it for $10 new. Not bad.

The game is basically a port of the Wii version, though I suppose I need to review the Wii version to see just how much of a port this is... well I guess I was always looking forward to reviewing the Wii version so I guess that‘s a review for the future then. Still, considering how long we waited for this version only for it to turn out to be a port of the Wii? That is... rather sad. They could have just gotten this out way faster then if it was going to be just that, and considering this game still came out with a few bugs still in the programming they didn't work on it hard enough maybe.

So bright side let's see what's good about this version of the game. On the bright side you can become a female Ghost Buster if

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you wish, with the choice of a female cadet to take through the game... only it seems the story, while tweaked and enhanced from the XBox360 version making it somewhat different, does not reflect gender roles as the game still runs as if your playing the male character even if you picked the female. Also and maybe it's because of the gender choice, the dialogue doesn't seem to fit the subtitling of the game itself... odd, one thing for the game to not exactly follow the gender choice but to be so off that even the game's own dialogue doesn't match the subtitling of the game? Well... actually this game is abit... buggy... in more than that capacity.

Voice dialogue seems to also have periodic hiccups, which is scattered through the game. A good example is Jeanine's dialogue as she randomly talks in the Firehouse as you linger near her between levels (mini levels though as the full chapters from the main game are actually split into small bite sized chunks, which is actually a plus since the game is portable after all so gaming should be in manageable bites for playing on the road). If you hang around her long enough her dialogue will begin to fragment, and even repeat oddly. This can also happen during missions, either repeating or skipping dialogue, again disconcerting.

A major hang up of the game, which is a downer, is the fact that you are using the triangle slash square slash X slash O buttons to aim your weapon, and while I am sure you can tweak this around still matter of fact is aiming is handled with one hand while walking is done with the other... and really you should leave it like this since straight walking (forward or moving sideways or backwards) is handled with the

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PSP pad stick while turning left and right in turn is handled with the same buttons used for aiming so you have to make sure to have that all memorized and while the game has some bit of auto aiming it's not something I would readily rely on in a pinch during a hectic firefight (I‘ve been plunking away so far for a few hours already and I‘m still not comfortable with the aiming controls). Still I should be used to this by now since it's the standard rhythm and roll for a typical PSP shooter (I think this was even in Grand Theft Auto on the PSP if I remember right and I approved of the Vice City Stories outing when I reviewed it) so if you've played shooters on the PSP before this is not something alien to you set-up wise (I played a few shooters in the past on the PSP so I'm familiar with this set up).

Graphics wise the game does a decent enough job but seems abit... minimal. Compared to the console Wii version I bet the graphics is abit light on environmental content as compared to the Wii, but again that's only something I can say more of once I play the Wii version. But then again I am playing now games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil on the PSP so I am used to this by now. And while the game follows the story from the XBox360 version again I feel slightly... disappointed in this iteration of the story... but to be honest there is new dialogue content that wasn't in the 360 version so that's a plus, even if it's only so so and again doesn't reflect the fact if your playing a male or female cadet.

So what else is there? Hmm... bite sized

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mini levels which is good, voice acting of the entire cast of the console games including all four Ghostbusters which is good, and an overall pretty nice solid shooter gaming and to have this experience on the PSP despite the fact you need to get abit used to the controls if you are not actively playing shooters on the PSP? That's good.

So brief hiccups? Controls take abit to get used to but once you do I'm sure they'll work for you. Glitches with audio here and there, and the game has some long loading times you'll have to sit through. But on the plus side the game sports some additional audio content not heard in the XBox360 or PS3 versions so you're getting abit more dialogue to listen to. So I have to say that I am abit more up on this game than down so for all said I'm going to score this game a solid 4 out of 5 aka the Silver Recommendation.

In the end after the utter disappointment of the DS version I have to admit I rather like the more solid PSP version, and yes while it is a port of the Wii version in the end I really wanted a handheld version of this game and this in the end was what I wanted out of a Ghostbusters game for the handheld. It doesn't fulfill every wish I had for the handheld, but it does well enough and while I wanted better this is actually suitable. So a silver recommendation. It may not be the best version but you got a PSP, you want to play Ghostbusters, it still fills in the blanks of your needs and it's fair enough though it could be better. Enjoy.

Next up? Yes... the Wii version. Coming soon. Stay tuned.