Star Trek: The Next Generation (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
210A playthrough of Absolute Entertainment's 1993 license-based space combat simulation game for the NES, Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Star Trek: The Next Generation places you in a "simulator" as an Academy cadet who has been given command of the Federation starship, the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Captain Picard provides you missions, and as you build your record, you'll climb the ranks from ensign to captain and gain access to more difficult missions. Since the game does not have an ending, I play until I hit the rank of captain and ultimately take down the Borg cube.
The missions are randomly generated from a pool of planets, perpetrators, and objectives, all right out of the show, Mad Libs-style. They typically take the form of "Save X from Y at planet Z," "Escort X from planet Y to starship Z," "Recover stolen object X from planet Y," or "Evacuate X from planet Y before an asteroid strikes."
You do everything from the bridge of the Enterprise by chatting with the senior officers. Data can chart courses and scan for enemy ships, Worf is in charge of shields and weapons, LaForge handles repairs on damaged systems, O'Brien is charge of the transporters, and Riker's sole purpose is to repeat Picard's instructions. In case you forgot, I guess.
The space combat and the interface will feel familiar to anyone that has played the 1990 NES game Destination Earthstar - both games were developed by Imagineering (Absolute), and they look and feel *very similar*.
The controls are fairly straightforward, but they're cumbersome. A and B fires your weapons and Select switches between combat and bridge controls. The setup is simple and there aren't a lot of button combinations to memorize, but the trade-off is that you can't adjust your speed in combat mode and that you'll have to jump into menu screens to do anything but fire. Battles don't pause as you're giving commands to the bridge officers, meaning that you're left as a sitting duck if you need to check the map or make repairs. It's manageable, but it can be frustrating to get killed when you're not even looking at the battle screen.
There are also a couple of random minigames included. When you want to enter a planet's orbit you'll have manually fly the Enterprise through a set of checkpoints, and to use the transporter, you'll have to search the planet's surface and focus an energy beam on your (often frantically moving) target.
The graphics in battle are alright (but those characters portraits are damned ugly! Why does Picard look like an old woman?), the sound is wretched, and the gameplay is awkward and unintuitive, but it's simple and can be entertaining in short bursts, especially if you're a fan of The Next Generation.
I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone, honestly. It's not terrible, but it's hardly compelling stuff. You'd probably be better of playing the SNES game based on The Next Generation instead (https://youtu.be/-lrCKis-bFM ).
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!