As long as I can remember, Ghostbusters has always taken a somewhat humorous approach to ghosts and the horror genre, but this could be changing with Ghostbusters: The Video Game under development by Terminal Reality and published by Atari.

And, it turns out, that helps explain why the game won’t see store shelves until June 2009. Drew Haworth, the game’s creative director, told CVG that the game was delayed to make it “more creepy.”

Ghostbusters was supposed to be released this Christmas.

This creepiness seems like a new concept for Ghostbusters, but Terminal Reality is very serious about it, and they say the move to Atari has helped a lot. (I’d say. Recall that Activision had dropped the title earlier this year.)

Haworth said the move to Atari has helped to improve many aspects of the game such as the ghosts, cut-scenes and pacing, but the focus has been primarily on experience.

"We added some more creepy elements, a couple of more puzzle elements ... we feel that the combat is in a very solid spot."

The game has had quite a deal of trouble and woes. When Activision merged with the original publisher of the game, Vivendi, the resulting company decided it would not be publishing Ghostbusters at all. After hearing this, Terminal Reality was "surprised more than anything else." Atari then stepped in to publish the game.

As a kid, Zool and Vigo were pretty frightening. Let’s hope this newfound creepiness doesn’t get in the way of the film’s trademark humor.