The first game of the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
Ghost in the Shell is a Cyberpunk Third-Person Shooter made by Production I.G for the PlayStation, based on the anime of the same name.
Oddly enough, instead of the Major, players are in control of an unnamed Section 9 rookie piloting a Fuchikoma tank from the anime. Investigating a terrorist attack in New Port City, the player uncovers a terrorist plot to hijack a nuclear reactor in the city and hold the world hostage. However, a far bigger conspiracy is at hand.
For entirety of the game, players are on control of the Fuchikoma, armed with dual machine-guns, a missile canister that can be activated as a Limit Break, and a Smart Bomb dispenser, as they battle their way through legions and legions of enemies. Like in the film, the Fuchikoma can jump, crawl on horizontal surfaces or hang upside-down from ceilings, with levels ranging from harbours to sewers to chase scenes on the seas and into the terrorist headquarters.
This game is notable for being, to date, the only piece of Ghost in the Shell media that features animation using the original manga’s artstyle by Masamune Shirow, who helped with the production of the game by contributing a lot of original artwork.
Time to power-up the Fuchikoma:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: "Black Water", the second stage, is set in one filled with enemy robots that the Fuchikoma can freely walk around in.
- Airborne Mooks: Helicopters in outdoor areas, which sprays gunfire from above the Fuchikoma, as well as smaller Attack Drone enemies indoors. Use the missiles on them!
- Auto-Scrolling Level: "On the Sea!", where the Fuchikoma is on a speedboat on autopilot while shooting at enemies on similar boats in pursuit. Said boat cannot be controlled either, and the only way to avoid incoming obstacles is by jumping.
- Big Badass Rig: The "Chase" level in the big city have Fuchikoma pursuing one of these in the streets, that it needs to immobilize by shooting at it. The rig have a laser turret on it's back as well as multiple guns on it's bumper for self defense, for good measure.
- Camera Lock-On: A yellow crosshair allows the Fuchikoma to automatically lock-on it's nearest target. When combined with missile attacks the resulting damage is amazing.
- Covers Always Lie: Despite what the above cover implies, no, you do not play as the Major, but as an unnamed Section 9 rookie.
- Cutscene: Animated cutscenes using the goofier visual style of the manga were created specifically for this game.
- Dual Boss: "Cutting the Central Nerve" ends with the Fuchikoma battling two extremely agile enemy robots who spends the whole battle clinging on the ceiling. They're respectively armed with missile canisters and a rotating laser cannon, and tends to force Fuchikoma into a corner throughout the battle.
- I Fell for Hours: Sort of, the Free-Fall Fight mentioned below lasts for 30 seconds, where the Fuchikoma and the Final Boss' airplane form battles each other while falling off a skyscraper. Usually this trope wouldn't apply if the subject is human sized, but we're talking large robots here.
- Free-Fall Fight: The Final Boss, the leader, have this as the second phase of his Sequential Boss fight. You fight him in mecha form on top of a skyscraper, and if your Fuchikoma wins, he then turns into a jet and rams the Fuchikoma off the edge - leading to a fight where the Fuchikoma and the leader trade shots while falling all the way.
- Invisible Wall: Trying to exit an area (say, flee from a boss) and the Fuchikoma will hit an invisible fence, with the in-game warning telling you "Do not exit from the assigned area!"
- Invisibility Cloak: The robot boss from "Encounter in the Darkness" comes with a cloaking device that allows it to turn invisible and ambush Fuchikoma. It's projectile attacks are visible however, and when attacking it will produce some Invisibility Flicker allowing the Fuchikoma to shoot back.
- King Mook: The game have plenty of hostile Spider Tank robots, and the first boss is a giant version which takes up half a warehouse. It has a Wave-Motion Gun for good measure and will spin itself in circles while targeting the Fuchikoma, forcing it to run until the beam stopped firing. The boss in "Villains Lurking in the City" also resembles an upgraded common Spider Tank armed with multiple Grenade Launchers and a flamethrower.
- Macross Missile Massacre: All over the place:
- An ability used as a Limit Break; by holding down fire long enough, the Fuchikoma can release a wave of homing missiles at it's nearest targets. Best saved for helicopters, tanks and bosses.
- The walking missile-turrets who appears as regular enemies can spam missiles at Fuchikoma, though their projectiles can be shot out the air.
- "Cutting the Central Nerve" have one of the two Dual Boss robots having missile canisters as it's sole attack.
- The Final Boss, the leader, loves spamming missiles on the Fuchikoma.
- Night-Vision Goggles: The Fuchikoma has a night-vision sensor that turns the entire screen green when activated; it's useful for flushing out landmines and explosive traps in dark environments (e.g. the "Black Water" sewer stage in an unlit corridor).
- Rooftop Confrontation: The Final Boss, the Leader, is fought on the roof of a skyscraper. Defeat it however and it instead turns itself into a jet and rams the Fuchikoma off the edge, leading to the Free-Fall Fight stage.
- Shockwave Stomp: The leader and Final Boss have an attack where it pounds the ground, that covers the entire area in a blue energy wave that needs to be jumped over.
- Spider Tank: The Fuchikoma itself, just like in the anime. Though there are hostile tanks on four spider-like legs as enemies throughout the game, including the first two bosses.
- Smart Bomb: The Fuchikoma starts each stage with three of these, which erupts into a huge blue energy sphere when used dealing damage to everything around it. More could be collected during gameplay.
- Sneeze Cut: Lampshaded by Aramaki where he sneezes right after Section 9 mentions him during the mission.Aramaki: *Achoo* Someone must be talking about me!
- Timed Mission:
- Level 3, "Firecracker!" have the Fuchikoma attempting to diffuse a number of Time Bombs in a single area (by shooting them, somehow) within a minute, while avoiding enemy fire. Sabotaging each bomb adds some time to the counter, and it helps that the in-game indicator will point out the bombs' locations when near. Luckily, the timer stops when it's time for the boss battle.
- "Darkest Hour" ends with a Free-Fall Fight where you need to defeat your enemy, the Final Boss, in 30 seconds before hitting the ground.
- Walking Tank: Giant, bipedal tanks on two legs appears late in the game as an upgraded version of the common Spider Tank enemies.
- Wall Crawl: The Fuchikoma can crawl on walls, vertical surfaces, and even from beneath ceilings, allowing it to dodge projectiles and attack enemies from it's advantageous position. Be warned that hitting jump will make it fall instantly to the ground though.
