Spirit of Impotence
Ghost Rider succeeds in being better than most licensed games, but not by much.
Published: February 25, 2007
Three hours, fifteen minutes.
That's how long it took me to beat Ghost Rider. Along the way, I went outside for a few smokes, unlocked every bit of bonus content the game had to offer and let loose with a barrage of expletives every time I had to play one of the latter bike levels. To say Ghost Rider is a short game would be a gross understatement. Normally I qualify a game one can finish in a single sitting as something one might do on a Saturday or Sunday where they get up semi-early and plow through the game non-stop while finishing in time for dinner. Wake up early enough on one of those days and start Ghost Rider and you can be done before brunch.
Along the way, you'll discover a curious mix of clear influence (some will call it an homage, some shameless lifting) from games like Devil May Cry and God of War. You'll also discover an almost non-existent (and largely throwaway) storyline and a ton of obvious fan service from guys that clearly dug the comics -- even if they weren't lifelong fans. Moreover, you'll witness an impressive amount of cooperation on the part of Marvel and Columbia Pictures with developer Climax Studios, who clearly had the right idea, if not the time and resources to fully execute things.
If you've rented the game, you likely won't feel terribly ripped off. At $30, though, you might be a little cheesed off if you actually plunked down cash for the game unless you are a hardcore supergeek megafan of the comics, in which case you get a fairly decent little bonus as you play through the game. The simple fact is Ghost Rider isn't really a bad game. It's not a superlative game, certainly not on the level of greatness as the two biggest influences it melds with a bit of Climax's own juju, but not so bad as some reviews would have you believe.
It works like this: God of War's combat mixes with a bit of Devil May Cry's combo grading system and Onimusha's soul collecting and upgrading bits with perhaps just a hint of Ninja Gaiden thrown in for nuance. As you whirl your chains around on the ground and in the air with progressively more powerful combos (unlocked with absorbed souls) mixed between strong and light attacks, you're graded on your variety and power in said attacks. This is important not only because of end-of level grades that determine any bonus souls you'll pick up or that the higher the grade, the more souls spill out of downed foes, but because there are special enemies that have shields that can only be broken with powered-up attacks of a certain grade.
You also have access to two not-so-copy/pasted moves: the area effect blast of the Link Charge (fueled by green souls that pop out of dead guys) and Retribution, the gauge for which fills as you just attack (your shotgun also saps this gauge a little with each use). Kicking on Retribution makes you faster and you'll do more damage, plus you can tap Circle to kick off your Penance Stare, which kills enemies in a single hit and makes them burp up a ton of souls as the rest of your Retribution meter drops to nada.
Sounds derivative but decent so far, right? Then the first of the game's more niggling issues rear their head. If you're hit at any time while flipping and whirling all over the place (unless you're in Retribution Mode), your grade is reset, which means you have to button mash around trying to build it back up. Bigger problem: enemies can (and regularly will) attack you with projectiles from off-screen, one of the things guaranteed to make me flip out in rage.
The second is more of a general malaise that covers the motorcycle sections of the game. Simply put, the Johnny Blaze, famed stuntman-turned-hero-to-the-downtrodden and wielder of the fury of Hell, drives his flaming chopper like a complete retard. Now granted, it is a chopper, not a crotch rocket, so agility is already against his favor, but when you require someone to make tiny corrections and make a series of near-pinpoint leaps on such a naturally unwieldy machine, it tends to make the blood boil a little. There are parts that channel Road Rash and laying down the bike to scoot under things or double-jumping over canyons is at least passable -- until you have to backtrack across the same levels (something that the on-foot sequences suffer from too). If not for the fact that a good third of the game is taken up by bike sections, it might be forgivable, but Climax wanted their Ghost on that bike. Shame.
That's how long it took me to beat Ghost Rider. Along the way, I went outside for a few smokes, unlocked every bit of bonus content the game had to offer and let loose with a barrage of expletives every time I had to play one of the latter bike levels. To say Ghost Rider is a short game would be a gross understatement. Normally I qualify a game one can finish in a single sitting as something one might do on a Saturday or Sunday where they get up semi-early and plow through the game non-stop while finishing in time for dinner. Wake up early enough on one of those days and start Ghost Rider and you can be done before brunch.
Along the way, you'll discover a curious mix of clear influence (some will call it an homage, some shameless lifting) from games like Devil May Cry and God of War. You'll also discover an almost non-existent (and largely throwaway) storyline and a ton of obvious fan service from guys that clearly dug the comics -- even if they weren't lifelong fans. Moreover, you'll witness an impressive amount of cooperation on the part of Marvel and Columbia Pictures with developer Climax Studios, who clearly had the right idea, if not the time and resources to fully execute things.
If you've rented the game, you likely won't feel terribly ripped off. At $30, though, you might be a little cheesed off if you actually plunked down cash for the game unless you are a hardcore supergeek megafan of the comics, in which case you get a fairly decent little bonus as you play through the game. The simple fact is Ghost Rider isn't really a bad game. It's not a superlative game, certainly not on the level of greatness as the two biggest influences it melds with a bit of Climax's own juju, but not so bad as some reviews would have you believe.
It works like this: God of War's combat mixes with a bit of Devil May Cry's combo grading system and Onimusha's soul collecting and upgrading bits with perhaps just a hint of Ninja Gaiden thrown in for nuance. As you whirl your chains around on the ground and in the air with progressively more powerful combos (unlocked with absorbed souls) mixed between strong and light attacks, you're graded on your variety and power in said attacks. This is important not only because of end-of level grades that determine any bonus souls you'll pick up or that the higher the grade, the more souls spill out of downed foes, but because there are special enemies that have shields that can only be broken with powered-up attacks of a certain grade.
You also have access to two not-so-copy/pasted moves: the area effect blast of the Link Charge (fueled by green souls that pop out of dead guys) and Retribution, the gauge for which fills as you just attack (your shotgun also saps this gauge a little with each use). Kicking on Retribution makes you faster and you'll do more damage, plus you can tap Circle to kick off your Penance Stare, which kills enemies in a single hit and makes them burp up a ton of souls as the rest of your Retribution meter drops to nada.
Sounds derivative but decent so far, right? Then the first of the game's more niggling issues rear their head. If you're hit at any time while flipping and whirling all over the place (unless you're in Retribution Mode), your grade is reset, which means you have to button mash around trying to build it back up. Bigger problem: enemies can (and regularly will) attack you with projectiles from off-screen, one of the things guaranteed to make me flip out in rage.
The second is more of a general malaise that covers the motorcycle sections of the game. Simply put, the Johnny Blaze, famed stuntman-turned-hero-to-the-downtrodden and wielder of the fury of Hell, drives his flaming chopper like a complete retard. Now granted, it is a chopper, not a crotch rocket, so agility is already against his favor, but when you require someone to make tiny corrections and make a series of near-pinpoint leaps on such a naturally unwieldy machine, it tends to make the blood boil a little. There are parts that channel Road Rash and laying down the bike to scoot under things or double-jumping over canyons is at least passable -- until you have to backtrack across the same levels (something that the on-foot sequences suffer from too). If not for the fact that a good third of the game is taken up by bike sections, it might be forgivable, but Climax wanted their Ghost on that bike. Shame.
