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Ghost Rider review

Game: Ghost Rider
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: Action
Developer: Climax Studios

Staff review by Zack Little

March 23, 2007

First off: Ghost Rider was not a bad movie. I was skeptical, too, especially after Nicholas Cage’s riveting performance in the Wicker Man (“KILLING ME WON’T BRING BACK YOUR GODDAMN HONEY!”) but it’s a fun flick that doesn’t take itself too seriously. No Batman Begins, but good.

Second off: Even if Ghost Rider was as bad as everyone thought it would be, it wouldn’t have much bearing on the game’s worth. The plot takes place after the movie. New characters are introduced, old ones are downplayed. Nicholas Cage doesn’t do voice acting, and the Johnny Blaze that shows here doesn’t look at all like him. So no beef.

Now, this would typically be the part of the review where I go into the history of Ghost Rider and tell you just why he’s so damn awesome. But I’m passing on the former, because telling it takes too long, and most people don’t care, anyway. And I’m passing on the latter, since Ghost Rider rides a motorcycle, has a skull for a head, wears a leather jacket with spikes, is engulfed in unquenchable hellfire, and makes the corrupt relive their sordid crimes - from their victim’s point of view. That sells itself, and it’s kind of funny, really - the two best things about Ghost Rider are the motorcycle and the guy who rides it.

When Ghost Rider’s on his motorcycle, the game goes for a Road Rash From Hell approach. You’ve got Ghost Rider, tearing up the road down the highway to hell. A streak of fire following in his wake, motorcycle roaring, demons swirling about him. They come at him from the side, he whips them away with his chain. They pass him in the front, he blows them away with balls of flame. And if they’re stupid enough to stand in his way, he just runs them over.

It’s frenetic, kinetic, hectic experience; Ghost Rider pulls off daredevil jumps, slides under obstacles, blazes through anything and everything and looks so damn good doing it. You really get the feeling you’re riding this accursed engine, you really see the flames lapping at your wheels as you fly over the chasms of hell, you really hear the screams and howls and wails of the demons chasing after you, and it can really drive you wild.

Which makes it such a shame that it’s treated it more like a minigame than anything else.

I’m not saying Ghost Rider’s time on foot is a total loss - it reminds me a bit too much of Devil May Cry 3, but, given the similar Satanic subject matter, that can’t be helped. It plays out like some damned beat-em-up; Ghost Rider beats demons of every shape and size around with his bony fist, he wraps them up in his flaming chains and slams them to and fro, he unleashes his dreadful Penance Stare and engulfs them in the searing inferno of the pit. He even picks them off from afar with fiery blasts of his shotgun, taking the souls of his fallen enemies and using them for ammo.

It’s sinfully sweet, and you will enjoy it, and you’ll dispatch the Devil’s minions with glee and gusto. But after, a few chapters pass and once you fall into the swing of things, you realize…there’s just not much variety here.

Demons. Big demons. Bat demons. Ninja demons. They can be fun to fight, they come in different flavors, they each require different strategies to defeat. But once you fall into the rhythm, things slow down. You travel here, get ambushed, you travel there, get ambushed again. You maybe solve a simple puzzle, you move on. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat; more enemies, more button-mashing, more reaped souls. It just wears away after a while, and while the occasional motorcycle minigame helps break the monotony, you can’t help but wish you spent more time on the open road. You’ll be wading your way through waves of demons, burning them to the ground, and the whole time you’ll be wishing you could just call in your ride flatten them beneath your scorching wheels, laughing all the way.

The game makes up for it. Tries to. It gives you rather well-drawn comic pages for cut scenes, voiced by Sam Elliot himself, of The Big Lebowski fame (I keep expecting to refer to Ghost Rider as ‘The Dude’) It gives you updates of classic enemies, like the sultry succubus Lilith and Ghost Rider’s rival rider, Vengeance. There are things to enjoy here, for new fans and old ones alike.

Just don’t expect it last too long. Ghost Rider’s flame burns so long as the blood of the innocent is spilled. His game isn’t so lucky.

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