A Ghostbusters board game has hit Kickstarter from Cryptozoic Entertainment, coinciding with the upcoming film reboot. Ghostbusters: The Board Game is a scenario-based cooperative game for one to four players to beat back the forces of undeath and seal them in the spirit world. Cryptozoic is best known for producing branded board and card games for licensed properties, such as The Hobbit, The Walking Dead, and World of Warcraft
Unlike the rebooted film’s new, female cast, players take on the role of one of the four original Ghostbusters: Venkman, Spengler, Stantz, and Zeddemore. Each character has different strengths, encouraging a strategic division of labor as players struggle to capture and return ghosts before more appear. Fans can expect the game to be replete with references to the films, cartoon, and comic books. The art for the cards and detailed miniatures comes from Dan Schoening, a veteran artist of IDW’s Ghostbusters comics.
Nine modular, reversible board sections recombine with the various standard and boss ghosts to make every scenario different. The different modes of play and scenarios open up a range of difficulties and play styles in order to make the game accessible for both new and experienced gamers. Optional add-ons and stretch goal rewards aim to expand the game with additional floor tiles and buffed-up “impossible mode” versions of the ghosts, like the giant, enraged Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
At the time of this writing the campaign has raised over $100,000 of its $250,000 goal with a month to go. $80 gets you the base game and all unlocked stretch goals when it comes out. Higher tiers add on additional content for the game and Ghostbusters-related goodies.
If the thought of teaming up with your friends to fend off hordes of ghosts sounds too exciting for you to wait, Antoine Bauza’s Ghost Stories is another excellent 1-4 player co-op game where players, as Taoist Chinese monks, must work together to protect a village from the lord of Hell, Wu Feng, and his army of ghosts. It is also available for iPad. The other classic, cooperative board game of specialized characters frantically putting out fires is Pandemic, the game of holding off society-collapsing contagion around the world.
