Ghost Squad

Ghost Squad is a light gun rail shooter arcade game developed and published by Sega for the Chihiro board. A home version has been developed for Nintendo's Wii game console.

Arcade edition
Sega first released Ghost Squad in 2004, and released Ghost Squad Evolution in 2007. Ghost Squad features a simulated IR light gun shaped similar to the standard issue weapon the game's protagonists use. The gun appears to be based on the Heckler & Koch g36c. This light gun is intended to function realistically: it features a working fire selector switch, a stock, force-feedback recoil, and iron sights. To ensure that the light gun fires accurately, a 20-second "calibration" mode is provided in which the game adjusts for any jostling or damage to the rifle's light-emitting components. Ghost Squad features different weapons, each with its firing and reload properties (i.e. long shot splash, long reload time) which affect its difficulty of use. Ghost Squad features three semi non-linear levels with adjustable difficulty and branching choices, ranging from the jungle, a government-restricted villa in hills, and inside an Air Force One flight. There are many sub-activities in the game, such as defusing bombs and throwing grenades to disable armor, which are accomplished via the secondary "Action" trigger on the gun's foregrip.

Data features
A data card is available for players to purchase at some arcades. This is used to save a player's customized character and score. The data card allows the player a maximum of 100 games and sixteen levels of difficulty. The 100 game limit does not apply in the Wii conversion.

Customizing the player's character involves changing the player's name, uniform or costume and weapon employed.

Players are also rewarded with an appropriate military rank, from private to marshal, when a game played results in a particularly good performance and score. Access to new weapons and costumes is granted when the next commensurate level is reached by the player.

Most Ghost Squad cabinets in the United States do not have card slots. However, players have immediate access to four costumes, four guns, and the first four mission levels. Cabinets which are card-ready are sometimes notorious to having the card slots clogged by excess coins.

All 25 weapons, 14 costumes, and 48 difficulty levels (each mission has 16 difficulty levels) are instantly unlocked in Ghost Squad Evolution. In non-IC card cabinets, players are issued a military rank as aforementioned depending on how well the player scored.

Wii edition
A Wii edition of the game has been developed and was released in Japan on October 25, 2007, and in US on November 20, 2007, selling 18,195 copies at launch in Japan and 168,182 copies in the US (as of October 2008). It uses the Wii Zapper as a multi-purpose tool to allow players easy control of targeting enemies, defusing bombs, and detaining hostages.

Ghost Squad takes advantage of the Wii Remote's pointer functionality, the nunchuk and the Wii Zapper giving players controller flexibility. In addition, the game features a pointer calibration mode, enabling players to use line-of-sight aiming and fire precisely where the Wii Remote is pointed. Should player feel their calibration is precise, they can turn off the on-screen pointer for more points.

Exclusive to the Wii conversion of the game are four-player support, and an online high score leaderboard support via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Reception
Ghost Squad for the Wii received a metascore of 69 on Metacritic. Eurogamer gave it 6/10. IGN gave it a 7.5, remarking that "Ghost Squad may not off[sic] a wealth of new material for gamers, but it certainly delivers in the fun department," clarifying that "The game’s core may be taken directly from the 2004 arcade... but it’s still a solid starting point for more weaponry, multiple levels of difficulty for each stage, and two new party modes..."