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Ghost Squad (Wii) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Saturday 12 April, 2008 // I stopped playing this game on: Sunday 27 December, 2009
Current opinion of this game
Fast-paced action fun. Mighty fine light gun game
April 18, 2008 03:25:03 PM
I've played this a few more times and I don't think I've ever played a game whose gameplay was segmented quite this way. Ghost Squad is structured in the following way: There are 3 different missions, and a "complete game" requires that you play all 3. As far as I know, once you've configured your character, you can't make any changes between missions (and the results of whatever you did only tally up after you've done all three). Although the missions are numbered, you can play them in any order and, as far as I can tell, they are narratively independent scenarios (save the president, save the president, rescue a hostage). Now where things get interesting is that each mission has a series of "encounters" that are experienced continuously, but describe a sort of "path" you follow. Often you are offered to decide which "path" to follow. The following screen shot is an example where all of the options are highlighted. I guess you could say that each mission is segmented into "scenes" that are spliced together to form a coherent "narrative". Sometimes you are given the option to choose which scene to do. Now, and this is where things get interesting, you get points for completing each mission (individual scenes can be successfully completed or failed, if you fail a scene it isn't necessarily game over) which somehow add up to "unlocking" a new "difficulty level" (of sorts) for each mission. So, each mission has multiple levels (of difficulty)/ Playing a mission at higher levels introduces slight changes. For example, new "scenes" might become available, new enemies introduced, old enemies might appear with new equipment (such as shields). So, I find that I'm always playing the same missions over and over (I think I've currently achieved M1:4, M2:3, M3:2), having trouble with mission 3 and enjoying the subtle differences. There is a nice mix of "learning" which enemies are where (and thus being able to play better) with enjoying when things aren't exactly the same. Finally, you play a "character" who earns experience, gains levels (I don't know what for), and unlocks new uniforms and weapons. So, playing this game is basically about always playing the same 3 missions, but in a re-mixed form, with access to new weapons to make things fresh, but similar enough so your learned responses are still useful. Weird, eh? It's a game that is able to somehow pull off remixing itself within the same game. Higher levels aren't just "harder", they're slightly different. :-)
April 12, 2008 11:05:36 PM
Having finished Bully (and Super Mario Galaxy!) I was looking for something light, easy to pick up, and fun. Ghost Squad fits the bill perfectly. I'm kind of loking forward to spending some (more) time with it, since I'm not really that familiarized with many of the "lightgun" shooter game conventions. Yes, I've played Virtua Cop and House of the Dead, but that was years ago (on the Dreamcast)! I also never played them much either... Anyways, my first surprises include: (1) You earn experience points and can unlock new modes, weapons and clothing! (apparently Ghost Squad is based on an arcade game, and this also works on the arcade machines. I assume this would be using SEGA's IC cards...or something like that) (2) There are only 3 stages?!?! (not a lot...) Though, there are multiple paths through them and you can try them all out. Also, each area has multiple difficulty levels...I'm only up to level "2" (3) I played the "party" mode on "Ninja" which was pretty cool. Most things were ninja-themed. (ie, you fire ninja stars) and many of the enemies are modified to that theme as well. Kind of funny, actually. :-) I really want to play it co-op with someone else though...and I even have 2 controllers! (which is easier than having 2 lightguns...)

Ghost Squad (Wii)