The success of the 1995 feature film led to the creation of several Licensed Games based on it, spread across multiple gaming systems.
Windows/Macintosh
Officially titled
Casper Brainy Adventures, this is an
edutainment game aimed at children age 4-8. It combines an interactive storybook based on a G-rated recut of the film's story with three mini-games:
- Fatso's Creature Features, a puzzle assembly game.
- Stretch's Shake, Rattle, and Roll, a spelling game that uses a Tetris system, where the player attempts to help free Casper from the kitchen stove that Stretch has stuffed him into.
- Stinky's Peek-a-Boo, framed as the player attempting to recover the Cellular Integrator from Stinky in order to revive the ghostly Dr. Harvey. To play this mini-game, the player has to select the right words that match in some way whatever form Stinky has currently turned himself into.
This game was released in 1996, and was the first of the Casper games.
Super Nintendo
An action game using a revised engine from
A Boy and His Blob. Adapting the film's storyline, the player takes simultaneous control of both Casper and Kat Harvey and explores the mansion to collect various toys. Casper uses power ups to defeat enemies and get Kat past obstacles, but if he stays too far away from Kat for too long, Carrigan's ghost will abduct her.
Super Famicom
This
Japanese-only title uses a similar premise to the Super Nintendo game, with the player controlling Kat and Casper as they search for various items to advance through the Whipstaff mansion, with the focus being on collecting treasure in the form of gold and jewels. Here, the focus is on controlling Kat rather than Casper, although assorted powerups do allow the ghost to be temporarily controlled. Kat defends herself by throwing baseballs at enemies, and
will die if she is touched by an enemy.
Sega Saturn/3DO/PlayStation
Developed by Interplay, this is the most famous of the 1990s Casper games. This is a top-down action-adventure title using pre-rendered graphics, in which the player takes the role of Casper. It is broken into three acts; Casper finding presents to try and befriend the Harveys, Casper trying to recover the pieces of the Lazarus Machine after the Ghostly Trio disassemble and steal it, and recovering the Cellular Integrator to restore Dr. Harvey. Gameplay revolves around finding jigsaw pieces to unlock power-ups and solving puzzles to achieve the different goals and unlock passage through the confusing labyrinth of the Mansion; there is no combat, save for certain areas where the Ghostly Trio must be avoided.
Gameboy Color
A simplified version of the Interplay game.
Windows 95/98
A point-and-click adventure game set up as a sequel to the 1995 film. After the Harvey's go on vacation, Casper's human friends throw him a party to cheer him up but a revived Carrigan turns them into ghosts, using a magic spell from an old book in the library, and hides them somewhere in the manor as revenge for being tricked out of the ultimate treasure. The player must use various items to travel around Whipstaff to find traces of Casper's friends and take pictures of them for hints and collect items while defending against attacks by the Ghostly Trio who are on Carrigan's side. There was supposed to be a sequel as stated in the ending and the manual where the player would help Casper turn his friends back into "fleshies" but Morning Star went bankrupt before it was made.
Gameboy Advance
Also set up as a sequel to the 1995 film. After the Ghostly Trio turn all the adults in town into zombies, Casper must guide the zombified parapsychologist Dr. Harvey safely through each of the game's five level in hopes of saving the children and finding the formula to undo the zombie transformation.
