Who You Gonna Call? Ghostpoppers!
If ghosts invaded my apartment block, I don’t think my first call would have been to a badger, but Pop the Ghosts may have changed my mind. That badger is better equipped than any Ghostbuster, and hundreds of ghosts get popped in just over half an hour. Not a bad run-rate.
Pop the Ghosts, the latest from Potato Devs and Bad Minions, is an arcade experience that I could imagine pumping 10ps into about forty years ago. It’s an action-platformer with a simple aim: you have to travel up and down a vertical level ‘popping’ ghosts with your gun. Once all the ghosts have been blown up, you can fist-pump and make your way to the next of 30 levels.
0 To 2000G In Thirty Minutes
You’re not going to come across a simpler experience this month. The badger-raccoon thing has a jump, a drop down from a platform, and an attack. That’s it: there are no dashes, super-shots or double-jumps here. It’s all stripped back to the extreme, relying on the ghosts, levels and layouts to do the legwork.
Your attack is rather cool, though. It’s a kind of plasma swirl that not only hits an enemy but passes through them to hit the one behind. This allows you to chain ghosts together, which happens more than you would expect, since the ghosts oscillate up and down the level. There’s a joy to be had in killing as many ghosts as you can with one shot, and we almost hoped that Pop the Ghosts leaned into that joy by employing a kind of combo system.
For a short game, there are a surprisingly large variety of enemies. There are ghosts that sidle left and right or up and down, but the difficulty ratchets up when you encounter the ones that fire back. These ghosts can be hidden with an uber-ghost that you have to shoot first, and there are hard-hatted ghosts who need a couple of hits. As a cast goes, it’s reasonably broad (no Boos or King Boos, though), which is lucky as Pop the Ghosts would have been doomed if there wasn’t this range of opponents.
We Came, We Saw, We Kicked Its Ass
You have a health pip that lets you take one hit, but if you take more then you’re whisked back to the most recent checkpoint. I’m not convinced that Pop the Ghosts had to be this generous. It’s entirely possible to brute-force your way through levels, as you carelessly kill enemies, return to your last checkpoint, and then do it all again. There isn’t a significant punishment for playing badly, and it led to a slight detachment as I played. I didn’t care much if I died.
There aren’t a huge number of level ingredients for the designers to play around with, either – there are destructible blocks, sphere-like mines and the usual platforms – but there’s a game attempt to take them as far as they will go. The designers love to tempt you into a platform, only to scroll up and reveal that a ghost is coming your way. Mines are tucked onto tight platforms, forcing you to chain jumps together quickly. Pop the Ghosts would rather you played at speed and with skill, and it gives the whole experience the brisk touch of momentum.
At 30 levels (with a level select menu that gave me nostalgic pangs for the Addam’s Family game), Pop the Ghosts doesn’t stick around. I arrived at the end of the game after forty minutes, and the achievements stopped popping after thirty. It’s not a long game, but that’s likely for the best. Any more and the lack of variety would have started to haunt us.
Crossing The ‘Platform And Shooting’ Streams
Pop the Ghosts sets a low bar for itself and then clears it. It’s clearly not going for anything particularly adventurous or varied. It’s a 50/50 blend of shooting and platforming, with levels that you’re clearing in the space of a minute, and that speed does juice the adrenaline. At no point was I bored or stuck, as I barely took my finger off the fire button.
That doesn’t stop Pop the Ghosts feeling a tad safe, though. With some extra moves or weapons for the badger, and some ghosts that do more than fire, sponge bullets or glide menacingly, Pop the Ghosts might have surprised more than it does. My brain began to turn itself off, and never had to turn back on again. I’d have liked more reasons to pay attention.
Treat Pop the Ghosts as an old-fashioned arcade machine that’s had its difficulty tuned down, and you’ll likely get a kick from it. You will clear it faster than you can say ‘Stay Puft Marshmallow Man’, but I can’t imagine that you’ll resent Pop the Ghosts for being so short. That’s because it aims squarely for ‘fun’, and largely hits the target.
Important Links
Pop the Ghosts Wants You To Shoot Your Way Through A Haunted Building – https://www.thexboxhub.com/pop-the-ghosts-wants-you-to-shoot-your-way-through-a-haunted-building/
Buy for Xbox Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/pop-the-ghosts-xbox-series/9nxhvg5g9wbj
Buy for Xbox One – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/pop-the-ghosts-xbox-one/9nslx67fldjr
There’s a Windows PC drop too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/pop-the-ghosts-windows/9p4l9trdtvh3
