Game Reviews

Go Go Ghost

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| Go Go Ghost
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Go Go Ghost
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| Go Go Ghost

On the surface, Go Go Ghost looks like a polished enough auto-runner. It has all kinds of bells and whistles, but something in particular is holding it back. On a completely unrelated note, it's free-to-play.

You play a flaming-skulled ghoul with a menagerie of critter pals. You're on a quest to banish monsters from Ghost Ville and reinforce the ideals of capitalism.

How? By bashing in heads and collecting gold coins and gems, of course. Some things never change.

This isn't an endless runner, mind. There's a defined goalpost in each stage, a level map, and objectives to complete if you want to progress.

Bosses rear their particularly ugly heads twice in each area of the map, and these are some of the most entertaining slices of Go Go Ghost.

Boss battles

The art style is a mash up of cartoons and creepiness, and it won't be to everyone's taste. Both the animation and controls are superbly fluid though.

Once you have the knack for timing jumps, double jumps, and even triple jumps perfectly, you'll find yourself weaving through streams of coins, over chasms, and under spiked monsters in no time.

After the first few levels, the "Creature Camp" is introduced. Here you can shop for assistance in the form of floating pets.

These unleash power-ups, multipliers, and bonuses once you've collected enough gems from defeated enemies.

You unlock the creatures as little capsule toys, and paying for them in diamonds rather than gold promises rare critters with better powers. Mounts are also available, and they offer different control options to spice things up.

Once you pass the first two dozen levels, and the controls have sunk in, the difficulty begins to ramp up. This spike is a welcome one, but it's woefully marred by our old friend the wait timer.

"You don't have enough energy!"

Dying too often leaves you with a choice. Either use up some precious diamonds to buy more energy, or wait up to 30 minutes to play again. There is of course a third option - move onto something else.

While gold is collected throughout each run, you get diamonds for completing extra-special tasks like defeating a boss for the first time. The only way to load up on them is by getting your wallet out.

Plugging your way through a tough level for a few minutes only to be taken out by a spiked enemy at the finish line is fair game, popping up a message afterwards telling you to take a break isn't.

Spending diamonds to unlock extra assist creatures makes sense, but using them to bypass an imposed time-wall sucks the enjoyment out of Go Go Ghost.

By the time you've been battered like this a few times, as its IAP pop-up advert states, you may not have enough energy to play Go Go Ghost.

Go Go Ghost

Go Go Ghost is a perfectly serviceable auto-runner hindered by IAPs
Score
Danny Russell
Danny Russell
After spending years in Japan collecting game developers' business cards, Danny has returned to the UK to breed Pokemon. He spends his time championing elusive region-exclusive games while shaking his fist at the whole region-locking thing.