Budget Buster

The 80s were a simpler time. Everything was one of four shades of green, and Bill Murray was kicking poltergeist ass on the regular.

That's my understanding, anyway.

Budget Buster is a blast from the past, a Game Boy game about sending lost souls back to hell where they belong. Unfortunately, your equipment isn't exactly top-notch. Lock onto a ghost to make them visible, but be warned: You can only lock onto one ghost at a time, and invisible ghosts are still very much lethal to the touch.

When I say "Game Boy game", I mean it! It's easy to make a game inspired by the Game Boy, with the same restricted colour palette and 160x144 resolution. This isn't that. This is an honest-to-goodness, hand-crafted ROM for the Nintendo Game Boy. It can be played in any sufficiently accurate Game Boy emulator or, if you have a flash cart, on real hardware! (If you try this, let me know how it goes! I don't actually have a Game Boy to test with, but BGB is incredibly accurate and it should work fine.)

Controls

D-Pad - Move
B - Switch to a new ghost, making them visible
A - Shoot

Start - Play again after a Game Over
B+Select+Up - From the Game Over screen, delete your saved high score

Tips

• Ghosts always spawn on the edge of the screen. Try to avoid staying near there for too long!
• Neither you or your bullets can travel through solid objects. But ghosts can! Don't get too comfy when your back is against a literal wall.
• Hold down A to move around without changing direction. Perfect for the classic Spray n' Pray.
• Switch early, switch often! You want to know where as many ghosts are as you can, but make sure to remember what you saw...
• Ghosts aren't clever! They always move directly towards you. Use this to predict their movement while locked onto another ghost.
• You can't see ghosts you aren't locked onto, but when they die, you can certainly hear them! When you shoot a ghost that isn't visible, it'll play the sound effect all the same. Use this to your advantage to determine when you're safe.

Budget Buster is open source!