Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Graphics
The graphics aren't too bad, considering the game's age. While they may seem very simplistic
now, they were actually very impressive at the time of the game's release.
Your viewpoint during the missions is always from the bridge of the ship. You see
the action happening on the ship's viewscreen. The ship can be maneuvered in every
direction, giving you a feel of full 3D, but because your viewing area isn't that
large, the effect is not that great. I don't know whether this was done simply for the
effect of being able to feel like you were on a ship's bridge, or because the system couldn't
handle running the graphics full screen. But whatever the reason, it is an annoyance.
Another problem is that the ships in the game have very little detail. While the shapes
of the various ships seem accurate enough, the colors are very simple, and the surfaces are
very plain. But considering that it is a SNES game, having somewhat 3D graphics in the first
place is fairly impressive.
Aside from the missions, there aren't any explorable areas.
Everything else is handled with menus. For example, if you want to go to the classroom, you find
the appropriate icon, select it, and you instantly arrive there. Simply put, you can't walk
around or explore the academy in any way aside from using the menu items.
Gameplay
In this game, you play a cadet in Starfleet Academy. During your four years at the school, you go through many simulation missions, which serve as tests. The averages of all your missions are calculated at the end of the game, and you get an appropriate ending. If you average a failing grade during any of the years, you must repeat the missions of that particular year until you are able to get a passing grade. There is a password save feature that allows you to save after every completed mission.
There are a decent amount of missions, and while they are somewhat short, there is still a decent amount of variety in them. The main problem is that many of the missions, especially early on, deal with problem solving and not action. This is fine the first time through, but when you replay the game later, you know exactly what to do, and the game just isn't that enjoyable. Everything always seems to happen in exactly the same way, with very few exceptions, so there really isn't any way to experiment and try to achieve different outcomes. Luckily, as you get near the end of the game, almost everything you do is somehow combat based. So, after you do get past the slow beginning, things start to get pretty enjoyable. But before you know it, you've reached the last mission and the game is over. On the easier difficulty settings, it's very easy to beat this one in a single day of playing.
There is one other aspect of the game that I find interesting, and that's the battle simulator. Aside from the regular game, you can create different scenarios here in which you battle different kinds of enemies. This can be even more enjoyable than the regular game, since you can pilot the enemy craft, as well as your own, and it's not necessary to worry about mission objectives. You can even play on a 2-Player split screen mode, or play through simulati
ons of a couple Star Trek films and an episode from the series.
Story
As I said, you play the role of a Cadet just entering Starfleet Academy. Depending on how well you perform during the game, you can either end up being extremely successful, or be a failure. You can converse with other cadets after each mission, but this doesn't really add anything to the game and is not that interesting. Most of the other cadets just say one sentence or two and never say anything particularly worthwhile or relevant. You can just skip this entire aspect of the game altogether, if you'd like. There is also an encyclopedia of sorts built in that you can use to find out facts about different ships, planets, etc. But again, this is really not relevant to the actual gameplay. It's just an extra thrown in that might hold your interest for a few minutes.
Sound
The music is halfway decent in this one, but there just isn't much of it at all. During your missions, you hear a piece of music that was played during the movie Star Trek II. There's another song or two in the game, but nothing particularly interesting. The sound effects are also reminiscent of the shows and the movies, for the most part. Star Trek fans will certainly like it a little, but there just isn't enough variety at all. Eventually, it just gets annoying because of how repetitive it can be.
Conclusion
Well, this is one of the few Star Trek games I've played that I actually enjoyed. It was really fun back when I first got it, but I just don't enjoy it much at all anymore, after playing newer games like Star Trek: Klingon academy. That game uses a similar concept to this one, but executes it with amazing graphics and very deep gameplay. Like I was saying, if you can find it cheap enough, it's still a good buy for fans of the series and the movies. Just don't expect great graphics or high replay value.
Back