Don’t cross the cardboard streams: Ghostbusters board game hits Kickstarter

By Will Fulton Published February 10, 2015

dont cross cardboard streams ghostbusters board game hits kickstarter ghost busters — Image used with permission by copyright holder

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.

Recommended Videos

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.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Gaming

The best board games for the holidays that aren’t Monopoly

Board game close up featured image

There's a board game addict out there that's already practicing their "thank you" for Marvel-themed Monopoly and Star Wars Guess Who. While these gifts might suit some, to the modern board gamer there are just too many games with deeper mechanics and interesting twists. Games like Monopoly and Battleship, while they certainly are some of the first games we think of, usually aren't what a board gamer is after. In other words, generally speaking, they're not the best board games (according to the average of today's board gamers).

Instead, consider buying the following games that were released relatively recently, cover multiple complexity levels, and are worth seeing if your board gamer friend will like.
Spots — A fun, casual romp

Gaming

Don’t ignore Spider-Man 2’s side missions. They’re the best parts of the game

Miles checking his phone in spider-man 2.

With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 out, you might be tempted to devour Insomniac’s new superhero adventure as fast as possible like a hungry Venom. I wouldn’t blame you. The sequel’s sprawling story is a complicated web of threads that beg to be untangled. It’s tempting to zoom from mission to mission, ignoring all other side activities until New York City has been properly saved from Kraven’s wrath.

If you find yourself in that boat, consider this a PSA: Don’t skip out on Spider-Man 2’s side missions. Though they aren’t as glitzy as the main campaign, the sequel’s best moments are consistently tucked away in quieter quests that emphasize compassion and community support over comic book violence. They’re the moments that best illustrate what it truly means to be a superhero.
Community support
Just like the previous two Spider-Man games, Insomniac’s open-world take on New York City is filled with optional storylines. Early on, Peter and Miles can stop to clean up a mess left by Sandman or take up jobs as local photographers. These aren’t just empty checklists to complete; even something as simple as collecting every Spider-bot in town leads to some kind of narrative payoff that’s usually worth seeing through to the end (especially since a 100% completion only takes around 35 hours).

Gaming

One of Game Pass’ best titles leaves PC on August 15 and you don’t want to miss it

Death Stranding

While Xbox Game Pass frequently adds new games to its library, some titles do leave the service every fifteen days. Sometimes, those games are fantastic and PC Game Pass will lose a heavy hitter on August 15: Death Stranding. If you aren't familiar with this game, it, ironically, is a PlayStation console exclusive that's part of Microsoft's subscription service only on PC. Death Stranding first released on PS4 in November 2019 and tells a story about a man who is trying to reconnect a post-apocalyptic while dealing with lots of supernatural threats along the way.

It didn't come to PC until July 2020, before that was followed by Death Stranding: Director's Cut for PC and PS5 in the following years. The version of the game that's available through Xbox Game Pass is based on the July 2020 PC release, although it only came to PC Game Pass in August 2022. After a year on Microsoft's subscription service, the deal is up, and it's going to leave on August 15. Death Stranding is a game with a very compelling and socially relevant story and gameplay not quite like anything out there, so Game Pass subscribers who haven't tried this game yet need to before it leaves the service soon.
It's all connected
Death Stranding follows the journey of Sam Porter Bridges, the adopted son of the President of the United Cities of America, as he attempts to reconnect what's left of America with a Chiral Network and save his sister. Of course, this game has Kojima's signature eccentricity, as Sam also carries around and starts forming a deeper connection with a baby in a pod (called a BB) that helps him avoid deadly creatures called BTs and gives him visions of a mysterious figure played by Mads Mikkelsen. On that note, Death Stranding has a stacked Hollywood cast as it stars people like Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and Margaret Qualley and features characters modeled after Lindsay Wagner, Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, and more.
I'm not a huge fan of this game's melodramatic dialogue exchanges and arduous pacing that leaves a lot of the most interesting reveals for the end. Still, it undeniably has some prescient themes about how important connection is, something that became even more apparent and relevant in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Few video game writers can craft narratives that are as engaging and memorable as the ones in Hideo Kojima's games. Though what I like most about Death Stranding is its gameplay, which isn't quite like anything that came out before or since.
For the most part, Death Stranding is a game about delivering packages. It initially seemed like a shocking change in style for the man behind the Metal Gear Solid series, but the connections become a bit clearer to me as I had to stealthily avoid BTs and saw the Metal Gear Solid V-level of freedom the game gives players in making deliveries. To maximize profits from deliveries, I have to balance all of the packages in Sam's possession, keeping a close eye on the terrain, and finding the best ways to get Sam to his destination without damaging much of the goods he's carrying.