Gast: The Greatest Little Ghost

Developer: Idol
Publisher: Mindscape
Year Released: 2002
There is a lot to like about this game. It looks like something Tim (The Nightmare Before Christmas) Burton would make, and it is a many layered and well put together offering. However it felt like it was in need of a definite demographic, as it is ultimately a product not quite here or there. It's perhaps too childlike for many adults, too simple for many older children, and probably too dark and mechanically difficult for the younger ones. Which doesn't mean that my daughters and I didn't have some fun, just that a more focussed target audience would have produced a better game.

Gast-ly
Whilst the aim of the game is to defeat the clown, the aim within the game is to collect stars. Without stars Beleseblob will reign supreme, and the more stars you have the better. Some you might be lucky enough to find lying around, but most you will obtain by completing tasks given to you by the many denizens of the park. The fairy needs new wings, the spider wants a snack, the dungeon master wants to glue his head back on. Accomplish these things and a star is yours.

Collect three stars and you can ride the roller coaster, at the end of which you will find the clown. However objects and the park characters will try and knock you off, and each direct hit will use up a star, so you will need some extra to take the ride. Then you will need some more to get past the henchmen guarding the clown, and finally you defeat the clown by throwing stars at him. So whilst you can ride with three, you can't win without quite a few more.

Gast-ronomic
But it's more involved than that. The characters that will try and thwart your attempts to reach the clown are the same ones that you meet in the game proper, and you can increase your chances of success at the endgame by taking them out of the game as you go. This you can achieve in a variety of ways.

Sometimes it's as simple as completing the task you are given - we found the fairy some new wings and she flew away. With others, you have to be more deliberate. Many of them will follow you, and you can lead them to some rather gruesome ends. The snack we found for the spider was one of the other characters. Some happier ends exist as well - one character became the missing soul of another and both exited the park, leaving two stars behind as well.

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