Celebrity voiceovers in videogames

June 19, 1:52 PMAtlanta Game Lifestyle ExaminerSummer Munger

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This week movie buffs and gamers experience a real treat in the form of a surprisingly well done Ghostbusters game.  The idea seemed fairly strange at first.  The game is set back in the early nineties with the whole gang teaming up again to take on everything that goes bump in the New York night.  The player assumes the role of a new member of the squad and gets to jump right into the action with the rest of the boys.  Ghostbusters has quite a few things working against it: the game length ranges from 5 to 7 hours, the action can sometimes feel repetitive, and some of the weapons are underused.  The saving grace of the game is in the pacing and the dialog.  Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis penned the script, making it flow just like the films.  Cap off the dialog with returning voices from all the original actors and players feel as if they are truly living out one of their childhood fantasies of riding shotgun with the Ghostbusters.                                                                                                                         

The importance of the voiceovers in this particular title is enough to allow gamers to overlook the game's shortcomings in other areas and simply enjoy the experience.  Which begs the question: how much clout do celebrity voices have in video games? 

In most cases only die hard fans of the title will know who's voices to expect when certain characters pop on screen.  Otherwise the voice acting is simply left for players to take note of at the end of the game when the credits roll.  Seth Green shows up in Mass Effect, Kiefer Sutherland voice acts in Call of Duty: Word At War, and Samuel L. Jackson just can't seem to stay away from video games.  He's not only been spotted in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but also in his very own Afro Samurai.  And one would be hard pressed to list all of the actors that have lent their talents to the Kingdom Hearts series.  Haley Joel Osment, Hayden Panettiere, and Mandy Moore barely scratch the surface on that one.

In the end, a burly frat boy who plays Halo all day long is probably not going to be caught dead fighting alongside Goofy and Donald, while attempting to bust up hordes of Heartless, just because he's a closeted David Boreanaz fan.  But one thing is for sure; when a game is great on its own, hearing the voice of a famous celeb certainly helps to sweeten the deal.