Planet Coaster's Ghostbusters expansion lets you monetise the afterlife
Ray Stantz returns
If there's something strange in you neighbourhood, who you gonna call? The local news, maybe you can get on the telly. An invisible man sleeping in your bed? There's a unique feature sure to draw attention when you Airbnb your flat! If you've had a dose of a freaky ghost baby? That can bootstrap a new career as an influencer. So if ghosts are haunting your theme park, hell, advertise it as a feature. Planet Coaster today launched its Ghostbusters expansion, adding a new story campaign with ghosts to bust, spooky new rides, and even Dan Akroyd reprising the role of Ray Stantz.
Frontier Developments say the story campaign is based on the 1984 movie, by which I think they mean ghosts escape because some government suit (played again by William Atherton) pulls the plug. So off you go, recruiting busters to whack ghosts around your park to stop them from messing with rides and haunting bins. Also you massively capitalise on the confirmed existence of an afterlife by selling ghost merch, decorating your park with new ghostbits, and building attractions like a Slimer coaster and an Ecto-1 shooting ride whizzing guests through scenes from the film. And yes, it has that song.
While some of Planet Coaster's DLC based on movies and TV and things have been fairly slight, this one looks (and sounds!) pretty neat.
Planet Coaster's Ghostbusters expansion is available now from Steam and Frontier's store for £13/€15/$15.
Today's launch is accompanied by a free update adding a new city biome, playable shooting gallery rides, and more. See the update notes for more on the expansion and the patch.
After the gentle animal imprisonment of Jurassic Park Evolution, Frontier are also now working on a more technical Planet Coaster-y animal jail, Planet Zoo. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell had a go of a preview version recently, calling it "a promising zoo game and an exhilarating philosophical nightmare." Sounds realistic to me.