Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (NES) Playthrough
355A playthrough of Ultra's 1992 license-based action-adventure game for the NES, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.
Celebrating the 1966 debut of one of TV's most iconic sci-fi series, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary provides the opportunity to go galavanting about the galaxy as Captain James T. Kirk and company aboard the USS Enterprise. The NES game is not the same game as the PC and Game Boy titles of the same name, but it is a fantastic addition to the NES library, and it's one of the best video games to ever bear the Star Trek license.
Not that that's a terribly high bar to clear. If you've played Star Trek: The Next Generation on NES (https://youtu.be/9i3enK-ZnZw ) or TNG: Future's Past on SNES (https://youtu.be/-lrCKis-bFM ), you know what I mean.
Star Trek 25th Anniversary's story takes place during the second season of the television show. The Enterprise has been ordered to collect data on some sort of gravitational disturbance near Sigma Iotia, but as they draw close the ship is caught in the phenomenon and finds itself flung to the other end of the galaxy in an instant. The Enterprise needs to make it back to address the threat before it expands, but the ship isn't going to make it far in its current condition.
The game is setup like an episode of the show. You begin on the bridge of the Enterprise with Scotty informing you that the warp drive won't be usable until you find some dilithium. Luckily the ship's sensors have picked up on the presence of crystals on a nearby planet, so Kirk, Spock, and Bones all beam down to the surface to take a look.
Once they've beamed down, they'll need to explore the area, talking to the locals and fending off threats (phasers set to "stun," of course!) as they puzzle out what needs to be done to proceed. During the away missions, the gameplay revolves around collecting items and using them where appropriate, and if you need a specialist to assist you, you can go back to the Enterprise at anytime to swap out members of your away team.
After you've finished on the planet you chat with the bridge crew to figure out your next steps, set your course, and engage. There are a total of four away missions that each pose their own unique challenges, and they all stay true to the spirit of the show. The personalities of the characters and the dialog is spot on - I especially liked how well they nailed Dr. McCoy's stodgy gruffness - and episode-specific characters appear in some welcome bits of fan service. You get to break Harry Mudd out of jail and scheme with the gangster Oxmyx, which I thought was pretty neat. It's clear that the people who made this knew and loved the TV show.
The game plays quite well, overall. The puzzles can tricky but their solutions are reasonable, and the combat is light and doesn't distract much from the adventuring. It's a good challenge that'll require a bit of effort to solve, and it's fun.
Even if you're not a fan of the series, if you like adventure games, I think you'll enjoy Star Trek: 25th Anniversary quite a bit. If you are a fan, this is a must play!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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