''Casper'' is a series of
action-adventure games based on the
1995 film of the same name. Two different games were released in 1996 and 1997 for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System, by different publishers, in different regions. A third game was released for the
3DO (the final release for that system),
Sega Saturn,
PlayStation, and
Game Boy Color, published by
Interplay Productions
Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...
. There was also a
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
game developed by Bonsai. A PC game, ''Casper: The Interactive Adventure'', and a
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
game, simply titled ''Casper'', were released in 1997 and 2002 respectively serving as sequels. A hack/remake of the
PlayStation version was released by an independent game developer for free under the handle Retro Active Games in 2021. It follows the same story beats, but with entirely new puzzles and layouts.
Windows/Macintosh game
The first PC game based on the film was the ''Casper Brainy Book'' which was developed by
Knowledge Adventure
JumpStart Games, Inc., formerly Knowledge Adventure, Inc., is an American edutainment video game company based in Torrance, California. Founded in 1991, it owns the ''Neopets'' virtual pet website, and is itself owned by Chinese holding company ...
and was released in May 1996. It was aimed at children aged 4–8 and is an
Interactive storybook
An interactive storybook (or CD-ROM storybook,) is a children's story packaged with animated graphics, sound or other interactive elements (e.g., word pronunciation). Such stories are usually published as software on CD-ROMs. They have also been ...
, similar in style to
Disney's Animated Storybooks, in which players read and play in the story and there are three mini-games, Fatso's Creature Feature, Stretch's Shake Rattle and Roll and Stinkie's Peek-a-boo, designed to teach vocabulary, spelling and shape recognition. Being aimed at younger children, some of the darker elements of the story are cut with Carrigan, Dibs and Amelia absent, Dr. Harvey's career is to hunt for ghosts and the Lazarus being named simply as the "Machine" and was described as turning a ghost into a person. Although Carrigan and Dibs are cut from the story they appear in the hard jigsaw puzzles, among stills from the film, in Fatso's Creature Feature. Casper and the Ghostly Trio were reprised by their respective voice actors from the film, while Kat and Dr. Harvey were voiced by Jamie Cronin and Dan Woren, replacing Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman respectively. Narration was provided either by Joe Nipote or Hettie Lynn Hurtes, depending on if the player clicked on Dr. Harvey or Kat on the front page.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System game
''Casper'' is a game developed by
Absolute Entertainment and published by
Natsume for the Super NES. The player controls
Casper
Casper may refer to:
People
* Casper (given name)
* Casper (surname)
* Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque
* Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426
* David ...
who is followed by Kat Harvey, and he has to protect her from any danger. Being a ghost, Casper can pass through walls and other obstacles, unlike in most Casper games, but he can't go away from Kat too much or else Carrigan's ghost will abduct her. The game follows loosely the plot of the movie. This game uses a revised Absolute ''
A Boy and His Blob
''A Boy and His Blob'' is a puzzle-platform game developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Majesco Entertainment. It is a re-imagining of the 1989 video game, '' A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia'', which was originally dev ...
'' engine. Picking up special objects allows Casper to morph into these objects to clear rooms of enemies, and to protect Kat from certain hazards. Mirrors placed throughout the game allows Casper and Kat travel to other parts of mansion, and outside electrical lines allow Casper to pick up the last of the toys when he picks up the electric bolt morph.
Super Famicom game
Developed by Natsume, this was released only in Japan by the anime company
KSS. In this version, the game uses an
isometric view and the player mostly controls Kat Harvey as she protects Casper from the duo of Carrigan Crittenden and Dibs though Casper can be controlled occasionally after finding special pick-ups. During the course of the game, Kat collects items, therefore making this game an adventure game as opposed to an action game.
Baseballs are used to stun the enemies. Getting hit by an enemy results in a game over. There is even a box to the bottom right that keeps track of time (in seconds and minutes); the game starts with ten seconds elapsed. Saving the game is performed by finding mechanical contraptions and activating them. While saving the game, the game counts all the coins and gems; it uses that count to tabulate a percentage to decide how much of the game has been officially completed.
Sega Saturn, 3DO, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color game
The version published by
Interplay and developed by
Funcom
Funcom Oslo AS (, formerly Funcom Productions AS) is a Norwegian video game developer that specializes in online games. It is best known for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles '' Conan Exiles'', '' Age of Conan'', ...
plays as a top-view action-adventure game with
pre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typic ...
graphics. The game features an alternate rendition of the film's plot (with some of its dark elements retained) spread across three acts, consisting of Casper finding tokens of friendship for Kat and Dr. Harvey, then finding the pieces for the Lazarus machine (which the Ghostly Trio had disassembled to prevent Casper from using it) and finally finding the Cellular Integrator with which to restore Dr. Harvey (which is stolen by Carrigan, leading to the final challenge), while exploring the mansion, collecting jigsaw pieces to solve puzzles for morph icons, eating food for morph points and dealing with the Ghostly Trio. Unlike other versions, other than the Ghostly Trio and Carrigan, there are no enemies. The game instead focuses mainly on solving puzzles. Once again, Casper and his uncles were reprised by their respective voice actors, while Kat and Dr. Harvey were voiced by Tanya Krievins and Blair Bess (again replacing Ricci and Pullman), with Bess providing narration for each act's introduction as well as reading out several hint parchments found throughout the game. Carrigan's voice actor remains uncredited (due to her appearing at the end and her only line being "I'll take that!").
In an odd seeming oversight; in the game, no matter what one does, the player seems to wind up with an extra red key. Players have scoured the manor with no luck finding an extra red door. After combing through the games information, it seems there truly is no extra red door or room in which to use it. It is possible and likely that the extra red key was an oversight in the fact that it may have supposed to have been a gold key. If the player uses one of the gold key's in the wrong intended order, it
softlocks the player out of the latter half of the game's secrets. It is also possible, but less likely, that it is merely a
red herring.
The Game Boy Color game is a scaled-down version of the Saturn/3DO/PS game with the only puzzles and morph icons being the ones required to reach the ending and the sound and graphics are rendered for handheld.
Fan Remake (PlayStation/Interplay Version)
In 2021, a remake of the
PlayStation version of
Casper
Casper may refer to:
People
* Casper (given name)
* Casper (surname)
* Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque
* Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426
* David ...
was released for free by a small independent game developer as a fan project created to learn game development. It was developed by Retro Active Games By Arthur Michaud. The original Development Team at
Funcom
Funcom Oslo AS (, formerly Funcom Productions AS) is a Norwegian video game developer that specializes in online games. It is best known for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles '' Conan Exiles'', '' Age of Conan'', ...
and the original Publisher (
Interplay) are both credited in the game's opening and closing credits. This version of the game was developed from scratch using
Game Maker Studio . The graphics were ripped from the game via screenshot, and then re-appropriated into usable sprites meticulously. All sounds, and even some new ones, including custom voice-overs, are present and re-used. The root of the game-play is nearly identical to that of the
PlayStation version, sans some changes and fixes. In this version, the inventory screen is an overlay system that can be displayed above the game's action (around the edges of the screen), to conveniently be able to see what items you have without interrupting game-play . Also new, is the fact that all items and morph power-ups have a hot-keyed use, so you don't have to cycle through items anymore. Gone also; are the loading times between rooms (A feature that critics of the original felt really bogged down the game-play).
The game is other-wise an almost 100% remake/hack. It features over 70 new puzzle filled rooms, each with their own unique sets of puzzles and challenges. Remastered boss fights that prove a shade more difficult than the original game. There is also an inclusion of an extra secret bonus icon, even more secret rooms than the original, and a reward for collecting all of the game's fool's gold coins. Also all colored keys have a use. (In the original game, players would wind up with an extra red key with no seeming intended purpose.)
Game-play footage and a review/play-through have been published to
Youtube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, and the game can be found at the official
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page for Retro Active Games.
Game Boy game
This game was developed by Bonsai Entertainment and released by
Natsume.
Each of the levels consist of four main mini games, which the player can do in any order, and two final mini games that only appear at the end of the game. However, three of the main mini games are the same every level, with their only difference being a slightly increased difficulty level. The main goal of these games are to make it to the end with as much ooze as possible (ooze being fuel for the Lazarus and is much like points).
Windows 95/98 game
''Casper: The Interactive Adventure'' is a
Point and click adventure CD-ROM game made by
WizardWorks
WizardWorks Group, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company was founded in 1980 and, in 1993, WizardWorks opened the CompuWorks and MacSoft divisions. In 1996, WizardWorks was acquir ...
and
Morning Star Multimedia Morning Star Multimedia was an American video game company founded in May 1995 by Dan Kitchen.
It was acquired by the Telegen Corporation in 1996 as a wholly owned subsidiary. It was known for releasing ''Frogger'' for the Sega Genesis when Majes ...
in 1997 and takes place after the 1995 film. After the Harvey's go on vacation, Casper's human friends throw him a party to cheer him up but a revived Carrigan turns them into ghosts, using a magic spell from an old book in the library, and hides them somewhere in the manor as revenge for being tricked out of the ultimate treasure. The player must use various items to travel around Whipstaff to find traces of Casper's friends and take pictures of them for hints and collect items while defending against attacks by the Ghostly Trio who are on Carrigan's side. There was supposed to be a sequel as stated in the ending and the manual where the player would help Casper turn his friends back into "fleshies" but Morning Star went bankrupt before it was made.
Game Boy Advance game
Made by
Microïds
Microids (formerly Microïds) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano, it attained early success with games published through Loriciel in France and other partners (including Activisio ...
and Planet Interactive in 2002, it is one of few video games in which Casper can actually go through walls though only through the ones within each level. The Ghostly Trio have turned all the adults in town (presumably
Friendship, Maine
Friendship (formerly known as Meduncook) is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. It is 31 miles (49.9 km) southeast of Augusta. The population was 1,142 at the 2020 census.
History
Abenaki Native Americans called it Meduncook, me ...
) into
zombie
A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...
s leaving the children scared at the mercy of the Trio. The old Schoolmistress of the manor has them call in Dr. James Harvey to stop them only to become a zombie himself capable only of walking in front of him. It's up to Casper to help safely guide him through each of five levels using various transformations and objects to help the zombie Doctor collect flasks with the formula to cure him. There also six children in each level to rescue though the player does not need to in order to finish a level. However, Casper needs to save every child to become Hero of the Day. The Ghostly Trio show up in each level occasionally to scare Dr. Harvey and throw him off course and Casper must deflect their attacks.
Development
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and sof ...
workstations using
Alias software were used to generate the character graphics and backgrounds in the Saturn/PlayStation/3DO game.
Reception
Reviewing the 3DO version, ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly
''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews.
History
The m ...
''s team of four reviewers criticized that load times are frequent, it is easy to get lost, and that the puzzles are often obscure or even don't make sense. They nonetheless had a generally positive response to the game, with Sushi-X deeming it a strong last hurrah for the 3DO. They cited the stunning graphics and wide variety of gameplay elements.
A critic for ''
Next Generation'' agreed that the graphics are exceptional, noting in particular the ghosts which have true transparency (an effect generally thought to be impossible for the 3DO). While also agreeing that some of the puzzles don't make sense, he felt the game was generally easy enough for its young target audience, and concluded it to be a solid though not amazing game.
The magazine's brief reviews of the PlayStation and Saturn versions made similar comments.
''
Sega Saturn Magazine
''Sega Saturn Magazine'' was a monthly UK magazine covering the Sega Saturn, a home video game console. It held the official Saturn magazine license for the UK, and some issues included a demo CD created by Sega, ''Sega Flash'', which included ...
'' gave the Saturn version a 70%, calling it "a decent enough effort with what is a particularly sugary film, spoilt by some frustrating flaws in the gameplay and action that is too repetitive."
Their next issue printed a retraction, admitting that Interplay had not sent them a review copy of ''Casper'', and that the review was actually based on an unfinished version of the game.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casper (video game)
1996 video games
3DO Interactive Multiplayer games
Action-adventure games
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Casper video games
Funcom games
Game Boy games
Game Boy Advance games
Game Boy Color games
Imagineering (company) games
Interplay Entertainment games
Microïds games
Natsume (company) games
PlayStation (console) games
Sega Saturn games
Single-player video games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System-only games
Video games based on films
Video games based on adaptations
Video games scored by Allister Brimble
Video games scored by Iku Mizutani
Video games scored by Kinuyo Yamashita
Video games scored by Mark Van Hecke
Video games set in Maine
Video games developed in Norway
Video games developed in the United States