Play It:
For the arcade and Wii. There's also a special edition called GHOST Squad Evolution in the arcade. It is exactly the same game except it has no card system and everything is already unlocked.



Story:
You are a member (probably the leader) of an (or just one of?) elite counter-terrorist unit called GHOST Squad. When situations are grave, they move in and get things done. And God knows what they do to terrorists. Needless to say, a terrorist group known as the Indigo Wolves will make very some grave situations.

Nothing more than an excuse to shoot stuff. No biggie, but there is no overall plot. The game is simply a group of scenarios, with no resolution at the end.



Graphics:
Made in 2004, these stand up very well. I swear the Wii version looks a little worse but it's really not noticeable. However, the Wii version doesn't run at the same smooth clip like the arcade does. It's not bad, but you'll notice if you played the arcade.



Sound:
The music is pretty damn good, although it is very techno. I'm surprised the Wii port doesn't have a Rave option in Party mode. The menu music will get your subwoofers pumping. I mean, damn this music is intense; I'm just changing my button configuration. Sound effects are well done, with every weapon sounding different. However, the voice work is 50/50. The plot-relevant dialog is acted competently (although the bosses are a bit over the top), but the generic battle cries of the terrorists (c'mon, we can do better than "Oh no!") and the hostage's yelps are lame. The script is a different story. It was clearly handled by people with English as a second language. There are numerous typos (including "there" instead of "they're") and awkward things that English speaking people don't say. The Wii version cleans up the typos. It also provides a sound test full of dialog that didn't make the final cut; very fun to listen to.



Difficulty:
Totally adjustable. 16 levels of difficulty. Up to level 4, the game is easy peasy and you should be able to beat all 3 missions without continuing with a little practice. Level 8 and above the fan really starts grinding the shit. Go into the teens and abandon all hope. After playing level 16, this guy says "Hey man you forgot your card" and I stabbed him in the face. The difficulty is moot for the Wii port because they give you unlimited continues. What? I know Nintendo is for the kiddies, but how young are they aiming for here?



Gameplay:
Hell yeah. My brother doesn't share my interest in shooters much, but it's a ritual that we head for the local Gameworks and play this game whenever he comes in. This is top-quality shooting much like Virtua Cop, although significantly more realistic than it (and just about every other shooter.) So don't expect the mayhem level to rise to Time Crisis standards, however on higher difficulties the game is way too intense for you to complain.

Speaking of realism, this game lends more thought to using weapons. Unlike other games, holding down the trigger on most automatic weaponry causes your shots to decrease in accuracy. Reloading is not a trivial matter with some weapons. Weapons have varying strengths. Some can shoot through everything, others won't penetrate a person. Some are powerful, others weak. Some have no recoil, have laser sights, or other special abilities. Weapons have up to 3 modes of firing: single, burst fire, and fully automatic, which can be flipped at any time.

Enemies may survive shots to the body, but a head shot will drop a person with no fuss. Even the hostages behave in a generally believable manner, covering their heads as they run for cover. There's still no cure for standing up at inopportune times. Best of all, the game does back up its premise of you being part of a team. You'll cross paths with your teammates, and they'll even take down enemies, although it is completely scripted. Generally, when you select a path, your buddies will take the other options. Take one path and you'll go over a balcony, take another and you'll go under the balcony, but you will see the other squad up above.

There's some nicely destructive areas, but not enough for me. There's a restaurant full of crap to send flying, but most of the time there's very little to shoot up. Another complaint I have is that certain weapons just aren't ANY good at all for certain paths. Bringing a high-penetration rifle on one certain hostage filled area is a deathwish, as it requires a Herculean amount of effort to shoot the bad guys in weird places so as to avoid collateral damage. I understand the concept of 'weapon drawbacks', but man even I nailed a few despite my efforts. There's another part with a guy holding a hostage which is damn near impossible with guns that only have burst or automatic fire. Okay, so that's only 2 real places in the entire game but it should be reasonably possible to overcome such things. Maybe if you could have a pistol as a secondary weapon ala Counter-Strike... That'd be some cool shit for the sequel.

Oh, and there's also 1 really lame thing about the original arcade machine: if you don't have a card, you can't get the full experience. I'm talking like missing 75% of the game since there's only a handful of paths to choose. Some machine come with no-card system measures to compensate in case your arcade owner is a jerk, but even so there's still a good portion of the game you're missing. Only 4 weapons to pick, and with level 4 the max, you still miss about 25% of the game. Now, the Ghost Squad Evolution machine has everything open from the get-go, and thus remedies this.

Just 2 faults for the Wii version: although boasting 4 different button setups, none of them are just right. They work and I won't bitch much, but assigning your own buttons is a simple feature nowadays. Also, the cursor sometimes just sort of stalls and doesn't recognize that you're not aiming at that point on the screen (this is most noticeable. when the game is loading, but sometimes spontaneously during gameplay), although it happens very seldom. Whether it's the fault of the game or the iffy Wii-mote sensing I don't know.



Replay Value:
This game has loads of it. There are multiple paths through the game, and a few options to change the content of certain ones as well. Tons of additional weapons and costumes can be unlocked. Throw in a few curveballs on higher difficulty and you've got stuff to look forward to. Maybe TOO much, as unlocking all the stuff requires beating the entire game upwards of 50 times. I bought the game while the arcade was still fresh in my system, so it became a bit tedious after game 20. Finally, the rewards get spread out after level 60, so you'll complete the game several times without seeing a single reward. However, you make progress every time you play, even if you have to quit after 2 minutes or you fail every single segment. The Wii version features 2 alternate arcade modes to liven up the game.





Rant Session (minor spoilers):
On the first level, we're told not to "leave any traces behind." I'm not sure what the whole blackbox operation angle they were going for was. It's a global counter-terrorist unit isn't it? A hundred heavily armed terrorists stormed Camp David and a 6-man team kicked all their asses. Yeah, we can't let the world know about that. It's freaking Camp David; not like we're gonna let people snoop about anyway.

And what's the second level? Aw, they hijacked Air Force One? Jesus, they kidnapped the President again? How does an entire enemy force stow away on Air Force One? Come on! Thankfully, it seems the Alpha Team was hidden on board to deal with this possibility. Except the team only learns of the hijacking when their commander tells them about the SOS. Somehow they failed to notice the aircraft that they are riding was being taken over.

Bah, the game actually does a good job of remaining perfectly logical and realistic. The second mission just totally stands out for being kinda stupid.





Bottom Line:
One of the best shooters I have ever played. The amount of replayability is staggering (for a lightgun game.) I don't know if this is the best I've played but no other has had me addicted like this one. The Wii port is almost (just can't miss that arcade gun) as good, and cheaper than most games to boot.

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