Overview
Ghostlop is an unreleased 1996 puzzle arcade video game that was in development by Data East and planned to be published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS (arcade), Neo Geo AES (home) and Neo Geo CD. In the game, players assume the role of ghosthunters Bruce and McCoy from the Data Ghost agency to evict mischievous ghosts across multiple locations. Its gameplay mainly consists of puzzle mixed with Breakout-style action elements using a main two-button configuration.
Headed by Nitro Ball director Koji Jinbo, Ghostlop was created by most of the same team that previously worked on several projects at Data East for the Neo Geo platforms and who would later go on to work at Kaneko on Cyvern: The Dragon Weapons before the former company declared bankruptcy in 2003. The game was first given a location test in 1996 and despite being previewed across few video game magazines, in addition of being showcased to attendees at trade shows, it was ultimately shelved by SNK for unknown reasons.
Despite Ghostlop never being officially released to the public by SNK, a ROM image of the complete game was leaked online by homebrew developer Neobitz, allowing for it to be played. As of 2009, the rights to the title are currently owned by G-Mode. Its characters and gameplay mechanics would later reappear in Magical Drop V.
Gameplay
Ghostlop is a falling block puzzle game reminiscent of Drop Off and Puzzle Bobble, where players take control of ghost hunters Bruce (P1) and McCoy (P2) with the main objective of evicting as many ghosts as possible from the playfield with a single ball by using the walls and/or their respective character to ricochet the ball back at the ghosts to eliminate them before the timer runs out and the current round ends. Failing in catching the ball from rebound after touching the floor results in a stack of random colored ghosts rapidly descending from the top and once all the ghosts reach the bottom, the game is over as a result unless players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. The game offers a single-player campaign mode where one player assume the role of either Bruce or McCoy to hunt and evict mischievous ghosts across multiple locations, as well as a versus mode where players compete for the highest score.
A unique feature of the game is how ghosts are evicted. Similar to Silhouette Mirage and Ikaruga's polarity mechanism, players can switch their ball between red and blue colors in order to evict ghosts of the same respective color by pressing either A or B buttons. There are also three additional types of ghosts: bomb ghosts capable of detaching others caught within their blast radius, skull ghosts that take two hits to evict as well as electric ghosts, which act as dynamite that erases all the ghosts from the playfield. Similar to Puyo Puyo's chain mechanism, players are able to attack the rival playfield by performing a chain reaction with a disappearing ghost that cause a group of ghosts to fall off and spawn in the rival area.
