More Thoughts From Me #71: Space, the final frontier…

Captains Log. Stardate 485880028.1. There has never been a great Star Trek video game. There have been some fun ones, but for some reason, no one can ever get Star Trek games exactly right. This franchise has so much video game potential. I really need to talk to Starfleet about this. Oh wait. I think I’ll talk to my readers about my favorite Trek games and what Trek games I’d love to see instead!

Yes, I’m a Trekkie. Or a Trekker. Or a nerd. Whatever you want to call Trek fans, I’m probably that. I’ve even been to a small Star Trek convention. No I didn’t dress up (but only because I couldn’t afford it). I love this franchise. And I think it would make for some great video games. Though, hasn’t it already been a video game (or two or three or…)

There have been some Star Trek games. I’ve even played a few of them. My favorite is an old PC game called Star Trek 25th Anniversary. I’m not a big PC gamer, but I really dug this one. It was an old style Adventure game. The graphics were not bad for the time. It was all about the classic crew on a mission or two. It was fun, but was it great? No, it wasn’t. The game was limited by what was possible at the time. There was no voice acting, there wasn’t much action, and the story could’ve been better.

Another Star Trek game I liked was on the NES. It was just called Star Trek. This game was, again, a really simple action/adventure game. This game, like the PC game, was based on the original crew. If I played this game now, I might not like it. Looking back at it, it was pretty simple but I liked it. Though, again, this wasn’t a great game. What would make a great Star Trek game?

I think there should be a Lego Star Trek game. Lego has, again and again, been able take popular franchises, add humor to them, and make really fun games out of them. I’d love the game to based around the orignal series, but if they thought they needed a movies structure, they could base the games around the new movies. I’d like to see the typical Lego humor, some red shirt gags, an open world Enterprise to explore, and plenty of different aliens and aliens worlds to go to. This game would be a lot of fun.

I’d also like to see a game based around The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. It should have modern graphics on the level of Mass Effect, let you explore the Enterprise (or Deep Space 9), and have a fully voiced original story. It would be awesome if they could get some of the cast to take part in it too.

You know, if was a TNG game, it could be a story that takes place after the last TNG movie, Nemesis. We could finally get the cool last TNG movie that we didn’t get. My suggestion is that Ron Moore and Brandon Braga should be the writers of a TNG game. They did the movie First Contact! And Ron Moore should be the writer of a Deep Space 9 game. But do I think this game would ever happen? Most likely not. Its a nice dream though.

I do think a Lego Star Trek game is more likely than a game based on TNG and Deep Space 9. It would be funny (and wonderful) to see TNG, Deep Space 9, and Voyager characters as unlockable and/or DLC characters for a Lego Star Trek game. Yes, even if the game was based around the 60s Star Trek show! I would buy a Lego Star Trek game in a heartbeat!

I’m not sure why there hasn’t been a great Star Trek game. There is just so much potential for this franchise in the land of video games. Why can no one seem to get a game right?

What do you all think? Has there been a great Star Trek game and I haven’t played it? If so, please let me know what it is! What do you think of my ideas for Star Trek games? Would you like to see them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Next week: I miss XPlay. What’s XPlay you ask? It was a tv show on a channel called Tech TV (and then G4) that had video game previews and reviews. It was hosted by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb. I’ll tell you about it and why I miss it next week.

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. Live long and prosper!