The first thing that comes to mind when reading or hearing the word ghost is the typical image of an entity carrying a white sheet over it. Or just a white sheet capable of moving on its own from one side to another scaring everyone. Or not, because it really is a pretty comical image, no matter how deeply rooted it is among us.
In video games we could say that ghosts have always been present in one and a thousand forms. In some cases they are harmless and even friendly, but in others they are really perverse beings that we have to face, not without first receiving the occasional scare on their part.
Without wishing to write an in-depth treatise on the subject, it occurred to me to briefly recall five video games in which ghosts, each in their own way, make an appearance (if that is possible) or are an essential part of them. .
Pac-Man
The only possible way in my head to start a ghost video game list is by talking about Pac-Man . Namco may not have imagined the success of such a seemingly harmless game when they decided to take on the dominant genre in the early 1980s, a time when arcades were infested with space shooters.
With a new genre under his arm, Pac-Man gave life, if I may license, four cute colored ghosts known as Blinky (the red one), Pinky (the pink one), Inky (the blue one) and Clyde. (the Orange). More or less like the Teletubbies, only they had a lot more personality. In fact, each of them had their own personality, seriously.
Gauntlet
Another arcade classic born during the 1980s is Gauntlet , a pure and hard hack and slash with a fantastic cut that Atari saw fit to create and which allowed four people to play at the same time, something totally new at that time.
One of the various types of enemies we had to deal with is our friends the ghosts. And here they neither had funny names nor were they colored, but gray and with very bad fleas.
Ghostbusters
In the mid-80s and with the help of Activision, the first video game based on the movie ‘Ghostbusters’ appeared (here ‘Ghostbusters’, as you well know). He did it for several computers of the time and later for consoles such as the Master System or the NES .
The truth is that in this title the ghosts are not that they instilled too much fear, with that greenish color and that damn smile drawn on their faces, but we cannot expect anything else when it comes to being a title based on such an unserious movie with the ghost theme.
Project Zero
Also known as ‘Fatal Frame’ in the United States and simply ‘Zero’ in Japan, in ‘Project Zero’ things already get really serious. Gone are those medium-length ghosts that we have seen in older arcade and eighties titles.
Released at the end of 2001 for PS2 and later for XBox, it put us in the shoes of a girl named Miku Hinasaki who, among other things, had the task of photographing ghosts to increase her level of experience and unlock certain skills.
F.E.A.R.
We will dismiss this brief review of the world of ghosts in video games with the most recent title on the list. Alma , the ghostly girl par excellence, could not miss this appointment in any way, with her whitish complexion and long dark hair that reminds us of that representation of terror so recurrent in many of the oriental films of the genre.
‘FEAR’ was born at the end of 2005, it has a recent sequel and in it the presence of all kinds of ghosts is the order of the day.
Along the way there are titles with more innocent ghosts like ‘Casper’ or the very ‘Super Mario Bros.’ and many others not so friendly, but I have promised you five titles and there they are.