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Smurfs' Village developer releases new iOS Ghostbusters game in Canada

No job is too big, no fee is too big

Smurfs' Village developer releases new iOS Ghostbusters game in Canada
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iOS
| Ghostbusters

The Ghostbusters are back on iOS. And this time, they're giving away their services for free.

Well, not entirely.

You see, Beeline Interactive, a.k.a. Capcom's social mobile division and the studio responsible for the blue and white social phenomenon Smurfs' Village, has decided to bring the beloved Ghostbusters franchise into the freemium world.

This new Beeline Interactive game, simply entitled 'Ghostbusters', has just gone live in Canada. And only Canada. Yep, it's one of those 'soft launch' thingies we keep hearing about.

Anyway. From what we can see, the Ghostbusters gameplay is divided into two main elements...

Firstly, Ghostbusters requires you to manage your fire station HQ, and level-up your spook-catching enterprise by conducting research, upgrading your gear, and recruiting new 'Busters.

In the other half of the game, you gradually climb the floors of a haunted New York tower, reminiscent of the Ivo Shandor-designed apartment building which Dana Barratt occupies in the first Ghostbusters movie.

In these sections, you must utilise each of your squad member's specific role-based skillset (trapper, blaster, wrangler, etc.) to wear down and capture pesky paranormal entities.

With a decent chunk of the original Ghostbusters film dedicated to the gang finding the fire station; dealing with the Environmental Protection Agency; and complaining about petty cash, understaffing, and unsociable working hours, we think the game's mash-up of business management and quasi-RTS combat is actually quite fitting.

We'll have to wait and see how comfortably the freemium model sits with the content, mind.

If you're a resident of Canada, you can give Ghostbusters for iPhone and iPad a try today by downloading it from the App Store for free.

The rest of us, though, will just have to wait until Capcom and Beeline Interactive decide there's something strange in our neighbourhoods. (Or read through this 'how to get a Canadian iTunes account in the US or UK' guide. Up to you, really.)

James Gilmour
James Gilmour
James pivoted to video so hard that he permanently damaged his spine, which now doubles as a Cronenbergian mic stand. If the pictures are moving, he's the one to blame.