Trivia / Ghostbusters: The Video Game

---

• Channel Hop:
  • Originally to be published by Sierra until it was dropped along with a few other titles following its takeover by Activision. Four months later, Atari bought the rights to the game.
  • In Europe, the PS2 and PS3 ports of the game were published by Sony Interactive Entertainment after Atari’s financial difficulties meant they would have delay release of the game to November.
  • The 2019 remaster is published by Mad Dog.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: The voice cast is split between Los Angeles actors^note All the role reprises, Alyssa Milano and Erin Gray; plus André Sogliuzzo, Keith Ferguson, Fred Tatasciore, Travis Willingham, Vanessa Marshall, Yuri Lowenthal, and Troy Baker as additional voices and Dallas actors^note R. Bruce Elliot, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jason Liebrecht and Christopher Sabat, also as additional voices
• The Danza: Alyssa Milano plays Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn. The spellings of the first names are different but the pronunciation is the same.
• Deleted Scene: A level taking place during a Thanksgiving Parade (homaging both the theme song's music video, and the cartoon's ending sequence) made it far enough in development to be seen in some of game's promotional material, but was ultimately removed. This can be seen just before the final stage, when a reporter discusses the parade on TV. It's still referenced by the Mayor at the end of the Museum level in the final game. (As a result of said cut level having exposition in it, the museum level was redesigned to have the Ghostbusters head for the sewers towards the end of the level.)
• In Memoriam: The 2019 remaster is dedicated to Harold Ramis, who died five years after the game's original release.
• Milestone Celebration: The June 2009 release was specifically chosen to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original film's theatrical release (along with the 20th anniversary of the second movie).
• The Other Darrin: While the Spanish dub of the game did reunite most of the original cast, some characters were not voiced by their original voice actors most notably Raymond Stantz who was voiced by Juan Carlos Gustems. Voice actors Jaime Roca (Walter Peck), Adelaida López (Janine Melnitz) and Rafael Azcárraga (Vigo) replaced Antonio Lara, Gloria Roig and Jesús Ferrer respectively.
• Role Reprise:
  • Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Max von Sydow all reprised their roles from the original films.
  • The Spanish dub of the game managed to reunite most of the main characters' voice cast: Ricardo Solans (Venkman), Federico Menescal (Spengler) and Camilo García (Winston). However, Raymond Stantz was instead voiced by Juan Carlos Gustems who has voiced many of Dan Aykroyd's roles replacing Salvador Vidal (first film) and Armando Carreras (second film and his Casper cameo).
  • The Italian dub has Egon, Ray and Winston's original voice actors reprising their roles (And with Winston we really mean the original, since he was replaced at first in the dub of The Real Ghostbusters and the cartoon voice actor was also kept in the second film). Venkman's original voice actor died a year before, so he was replaced with Bill Murray's other usual voice actor.
  • In the French dub, Richard Darbois, Jean-Pierre Leroux, and Med Hondo reprise their roles as Ray, Egon, and Winston respectively from the live-action movies ^note Leroux also voiced Egon in both The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters.
• Schedule Slip: The European release of the game was delayed from June 2009 to November 2009 as Atari’s financial difficulties meant they were unable to fund the release at the time; Sony Interactive Entertainment would step-in to publish the game on their respective home consoles in the June 2009 window, with the remaining releases being handled by Atari in the amended November 2009 window.
• Throw It In!: The line about the Rodriguez bar mitzvah was ad-libbed by Bill Murray.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sigourney Weaver was approached to reprise her role from the films, but she declined due to her bad experience from working on the Avatar video game; another story is that she refused to participate without Bill Murray's involvement, and by the time she was informed that he had joined the project, it was too late to get her into the game.
  • Rick Moranis was also approached to reprise his role as Louis (an early draft script had several scenes with Louis), but Moranis didn't come around until near the end of development; the crew had modeled his head but since the crew was focused on making the cinematic cutscenes, there wasn't anybody around who could rig Moranis for animation. Several proposed ideas to get Moranis into the game included Louis being in a full body cast, and making the area behind Peter's office (where the Ghostbusters II logo is) Louis' office and have his hand sticking out with his voice heard; ultimately the game had Louis Put on a Bus, the realistic versions implying he was out sick while the stylized versions have him scouting locations for new franchises.)
  • The two guards at the beginning would've originally looked like the then-present day Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, but time constraints led them to be based off two of the character artists instead.
  • The trap visible in the basement that looks like the ghost trap from Extreme Ghostbusters was in fact a cut weapon called the Stasis Mine.
  • Another cut weapon was a Ghost Trap that could be planted like a trip mine and when activated acted like a "Super bomb" sucking everything in range into it (including physical objects).
  • The two bickering businessmen who get trapped in the elevator during Stay Puft's rampage were originally supposed to be a cameo by the hosts of Ghost Hunters, but ultimately that fell through for legal reasons; they instead based them off of two executives from Sony who wanted to be in the game.
  • One idea for the library level was for part of it to take place on the back of a flying Sloar.
  • An alternate ending was proposed where the Ghostbusters get another key to the city, but time ran out so instead they overlaid the audio over the end credits.
  • Ideas for the Rookie included one modeled after John Candy and a male and female rookie played by Andy Samberg and Sarah Silverman respectively.
  • Various unlockable outfits were planned, like RGB-colored flightsuits, as well as extra characters to play as, like Dr. Selwyn.
  • Various level pitches, including some involving Stay Puft (one where actuators for a "Mega Trap" were placed around the Manhattan Bridge, another where the Rookie would be strapped to the Ecto-1 as it chased after Stay Puft), a level set on Wall Street, and a level set at a rave in upstate New York.

---