is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 and Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

, both developed and published by HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory

is a Japanese video game developer that was founded on February 21, 1980. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its name comes from the HAL 9000 computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The company is most famous for its character Kirby, the protagonist of the eponymous game series, as well as...

 in the PAL region

PAL region

The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The NES version was never released in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 due to licensing issues with Activision

Activision

Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

, while the Game Boy version was released as simply Ghostbusters II.

The NES version is not to be confused with the earlier video game title, Ghostbusters II

Ghostbusters II (NES)

Ghostbusters II is a 1990 video game for the NES, developed by Kemco and published by Activision.-Gameplay:The game released in North America for the NES by Activision is a unique version. It is a single-player side-scrolling game. Generally, the player controls a ghostbuster as he explores...

.

Gameplay

In the game, the player is presented with four Ghostbusters to choose from: Peter, Ray, Egon, or Winston. The NES version features their accountant, Louis, as a fifth playable character. This, along with the North American version of Ghostbusters II, were the only titles ever released that allowed players to play as Winston. While the action can be performed by oneself in the NES version, a secondary player may join the game with the ability to press B on a second controller to release a ghost-catching trap. The objective of the game is to trap all the ghosts

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

 in an area until an arrow appears which alerts the player where to travel to next. A boss appears at the end of each stage.

Stages

There are six stages in the game:

• Courthouse
  Courthouse
  A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...
  
  
• Abandoned subway
  Subway (underpass)
  In England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong and some Commonwealth countries , the term subway normally refers to a specially constructed underpass for pedestrians and/or cyclists beneath a road or railway, allowing them to reach the other side in safety.The term is also used in the...
  
   tunnel
• Dana's place
• Drainage system
• Art museum
  Museum
  A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
  
  
• Vigo the Carpathian

Version Differences

New Ghostbusters II for the NES is not a port of the Game Boy version, or vice versa. The Nintendo Entertainment System version features new music, different layouts for the levels and alternate versions of cut scenes between levels and stage bossses. The Game Boy version has only three stages and no multiplayer capabilities.