“Ghostbusters: The Video Game”
Genre: Action, shooter
Developers: Terminal Reality, Threewave Software
Publisher: Atari
Platforms: PlayStations 3, 2, and Portable; Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS; PC
ESRB rating: “T” for teen
Price: $59.99
Grade: A

The worst thing about games based on movies today is that they’re so bad. And the movies aren’t great, either.

But what do you expect? Hollywood’s hot to make money, not art. If the two fall in line together, it’s usually a happy accident.

Not so, it seems, with “Ghostbusters: The Video Game,” coming out Tuesday. In this instance, the talent and humor infusing the two movies from a generation ago have trickled down into the game, thanks largely to the participation of stars who made the “Ghostbusters” films so entertaining.

Back sporting their jumpsuits and proton packs as the Ghostbusters are Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz, Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddmore, Bill Murray as Peter Venkman and Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler. Annie Potts returns as their office manager, Janine, as does William Atherton in the role of the overbearing EPA agent William Peck. Only Rick Moranis, as the mousey Louis Tully, and Sigourney Weaver, as Murray’s love interest Dana Barrett, are absent. Funny though, you don’t miss them.

The Ghostbusters this time saddle up in 1991, two years after the movie sequel, to quash a Gozer uprising that stirs from a museum exhibit and threatens to level New York. Single players drop in as the unnamed rookie the Ghostbusters hire to perform grunt work and serve as guinea pig for testing Spengler’s new equipment — a perfect reason for packing a spare pair of clean underwear.

You won’t mind, however; this “Ghostbusters” doesn’t play like a slasher-splasher howlfest or second-rate attempt at boosting movie ticket sales — probably because the franchise has moved well out of the way of mainstream cinema to the level of cultural icon. Those of you who have played “Gears of War” or one of the “Resident Evil” titles will recognize the over-the-shoulder perspective and the move-with-the-left-hand, fire-with-the-right interface.

Meanwhile, those of you who remember the “Ghostbusters” movies and the immense destruction possible by firing a particle accelerator in a confined space will enjoy making rubble of Manhattan and passing off the cost to taxpayers.

But “Ghostbusters” isn’t just a first-person blast-’em-up; that would be too easy and too much like the other arcade, PC and console titles the franchise has spawned over the years. Here, as in the movie, ghosts have to be weakened before they can be captured. And not all of these spectral wonders are funny or obvious — one spirit, for example, arises out of the trash in the street.

The banter between characters sounds fresh and it flows, the one-liners abound but aren’t forced, and the imagery is sharp and crisp. Despite the potential for goofballery, “Ghostbusters” turns out not to be a hokey romp through a discount haunted house. Between the smart-alecky moments are plenty of eerie ones, some of which players anticipate with help from an on-screen spirit meter that picks up paranormal energy in their vicinity, but that just adds to the “Blair Witch” feel of those encounters.

Eventually, players take on the big Kahuna, the multi-story Stay Puft marshmallow man, who only looks too pudgy to move fast. At this point, hits become harder and more frequent, making players slow to get up and retaliate, if they get up at all — sort of like what Game Guy imagines fighting a real marshmallow monster might be like.

In multiplayer mode, up to four people can battle waves of attacking ghosts, try containing as many ghosts as possible in a time trial, prevent ghosts from disabling important anti-paranormal equipment, and dunk ghosts in slime traps, among other challenges. As an aside, players can explore the Ghostbusters’ fire house, chat with Janine, even slide down the fire pole.

At times, the AI hangs up briefly and the audio track slips out of sync (especially on Wii and PSP), but not so much as to diminish gameplay. The redundant background music, though borrowed from the films and wonderful in that context, turns irritating quickly in the game. And Venkman’s new love interest, Ilyssa Selwyn, voiced by Alyssa Milano, seems unnecessary to the story, which was intended to unfold more like a “Ghostbusters 3″ sequel than a video game and does so quite nicely. (It doesn’t help that Milano comes across sounding more like Venkman’s granddaughter than girlfriend.)

All in all, “Ghostbusters: The Video Game” shines as one of the few examples of gaming that works for Hollywood instead of against it. Of course, it took a quarter century for the marriage to succeed, but better this late than absolutely not at all.