Game Statistics
Title: Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Genre: Top-down Adventure/Side-scroller
Platform: Nintendo Game Boy
Year of Release: 1992
ESRB Rating: Not applicable
Story
Starfleet has learned of another Planet Killer like the one from the classic episode The Doomsday Machine heading towards Federation space. Federation engineers began production of a new weapon called the 'Proto-Matter Fusion Disruptor', which can destroy a Planet Killer. A functioning prototype was being installed on the USS Excalibur just as the Planet Killer began to approach Federation space. Unfortunately, the Klingons heard about this new weapon and intercepted the Excalibur. They disabled the ship, took the weapon and dismantled it into 12 pieces. As if what that poor ship went through in The Ultimate Computer wasn't bad enough...
The pieces were spread across 3 different planets, all of which the Enterprise had visited in various TOS episodes. Specifically, the planets named Neural (from A Private Little War), Kalanda (from That Which Survives) and Triskelion (from The Gamesters of Triskelion). Captain Kirk and his valiant crew have to recover the pieces ASAP, re-assemble them and then take on the Doomsday Machine before it's too late!
Graphics
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| Title Screen |
We're talking about the Game Boy here. You can't expect much. However, this was a game that was obviously developed by fans. So, they did what they could to make it look and feel like Star Trek. Considering the limitations of the system hardware, I'd say they did an admirable job.
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| Planet Neural, the first planet you encounter in the game. |
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| The Enterprise traveling through an asteroid field. |
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| The Enterprise fighting against the Doomsday Machine. At this point, the Enterprise already destroyed several layers of the planet killer's hull & mass. This only makes the planet killer move a LOT faster. |
It's also worth noting that playing this game on the GBA or GameCube's Game Boy Player allows you to stretch the game out into widescreen. I normally prefer to play the game that way.
Score: 8/10
Sound/Music
The SFX are about as primitive as you'd expect from an old Game Boy game. In fact, I could swear that I've heard a number of these effects in various old Atari 2600 games. I didn't make that connection as a child. I didn't get to spend any time with the 2600 until my teenage years with that first wave of retro-gaming in the late 1990's. In fact, I didn't even notice this until earlier this year, 2018, as a 36 year old adult. I wonder how many other old Game Boy games were using the old SFX library from the 2600...
The music however, is a bit of a retro game treat. Despite the GameBoy having only a mono sound speaker (The headphone jack had faked stereo by simply outputting the mono sound to both headphones), the game designers still managed to give us chip-tune versions of musical pieces from the classic TOS episodes. Unfortunately, you only hear them during space missions and the initial landing cut-scenes when you beam down to planets.
Also, there is no music at all on the level when you finally face the Doomsday Machine except when you come face to face with that monster. Then, there's a chip-tune version of a musical cue from A Piece of the Action. How did that happen? That's the Gangster planet episode. It has nothing to do with The Doomsday Machine.
Score: 8/10
Controls
The ship handles very nicely, but it won't turn on a dime like a sports car. It's overall speed can be affected by manipulating power levels for speed, weapons and shields in a menu screen accessed via the Start button. While in space, I'd use the B button very sparsely since you only get so many torpedoes before you run out.
On the planet's surface, you control Captain Kirk as he walks around looking for pieces of the weapon. He seems to move faster when going left or right than when he's going up or down. That can be a BIG problem when Captain Kirk is being chased by enemies, has no more phaser energy and needs to escape. Other than that, I have no complaints.
Score: 9/10
Gameplay
There's actually 2 different game types in this one title here: A top-down adventure on the planet's surface and a side-scroller in space.
The planetary away missions consist of you controlling Captain Kirk while he tries to find pieces of the Proto-Matter Disruptor. The tricorder you access via the Start button acts as a compass. The weapon pieces are hidden in a rock or tree stump on the first two planets. The third planet has them out in the open... along with a bunch of fakes that explode on contact. If the tricorder's compass doesn't light up when you're standing next to a weapon piece, it's a fake. There are also a number of dangerous traps, plants and other items on the planetary surfaces that you can scan with the tricorder. I like how the developers took time to create the entries for these various items. It makes the game feel a lot more in-depth than it actually is and that much more like a TOS adventure. Now if only the planet surfaces actually looked like the planets from the episodes they were meant to represent... The third planet, Triskelion, didn't look or feel ANYTHING like the planet from the episode at all. It didn't even have any drill thralls for enemies, just cheap clones of Captain Kirk created by replicators. Lame!
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| Map screen for the 4th and final level. |
Space missions are a lot more fun than the planetary away missions. You navigate the Enterprise around on a map screen being shown on the main viewer of the ship's bridge. Eventually, you will either encounter an enemy, space amoeba, asteroid field, planet or the Doomsday Machine this way. All of the enemy ships (except the Doomsday Machine) will be destroyed from a single hit by any of your weapons. However, you are limited to 4 torpedo spreads per life.
There is a small warp jump item that appears in the levels at random. It's a small glittering star formation that suddenly appears, lasts a few seconds and goes away. Get it if you can. It will warp you ahead by at least 1 screen. These warp jumps can literally save your ship from destruction... and sometimes put you into an even more dangerous situation. You can also send the Enterprise into warp yourself by simultaneously hitting the Back and Select buttons. This happens ONCE per mission map and will not work again until after you beat a planet and reach a new map. Use it only in dire emergencies.
There are certain power-ups you can get in the space missions, but don't count on them for anything but shield repairs. The power-up looks like a small, pulsating diamond that travels from the top of the screen to the bottom. It restores your shields first. Each power-up will give you about 25% shield power. If you have full shields, it gives you another torpedo spread. If you have full torpedoes, it gives you another life. If you have the maximum of 5 lives, it sends your ship into a longer warp jump of about 3 or 4 screens.
The asteroid fields are quite easy to navigate through... the first time you encounter one on a map screen. In all subsequent encounters, the fields have a LOT more floating rocks flying all over the place and some rocks with pulsing energy fields. These fields are immune to your weapons. You can only destroy the rocks when the fields have gone away. You better be quick with that phaser blast too since you will only get 1 second before the field starts growing again. The energy fields are also powerful enough to completely eliminate your shields within 2 seconds flat. After that, anything hitting your ship will cause the ship to be destroyed. Yikes!
Space amoebas don't drain your ship's energy like they did to the Enterprise in the episode entitled The Immunity Syndrome. However, there are various spider-looking creatures and flying blobs in that amoeba who are hell-bent on ramming your ship. Your ship's movement will also be very sluggish while you are in the amoeba so, they have a good chance of hitting you. Be quick to hit that A button and vaporize them all with your phasers.
The Klingons are extremely aggressive adversaries. They also get much faster in later map screens. Avoid them if you can. The Klingons also have some kind of energy ball weapon that is not seen in any episode or film, in addition to the standard photon torpedo. Don't ask me why they have that instead of the disruptors actually seen in various episodes. They tend to swarm your ship in a pack of 3 or 4 ships. Sometimes it will be more or less than that in some areas of the level. The enemy ship appearances appear to be random, but I doubt they are. Programming something like that would have been a bit difficult on primitive hardware like the Game Boy. Besides, you'll be too busy trying to fight the Klingons and avoid other hazards in the level like asteroids.
The Romulan ships will actually cloak and sometimes hit your ship while cloaked. This makes the Romulans even more insidious and dangerous than the Klingons, in my opinion. Their infamous plasma torpedo is their only weapon, but it is enough. 4 or 5 hits from that weapon and your shields are gone. Both Klingon and Romulan ships seem to have the same flight patterns. However, that doesn't help you avoid cloaked Romulan ships or enemy swarms all firing at you at once.
The Tholians make webs and try to ram your ship. Their levels also have some weird bubbles floating around that will damage your shields on contact. The Tholians are the easiest adversary to face in space, but you'd be foolish to underestimate them. Their webs only get more complex as you get further in the level. Fortunately for you though, there seems to be only one pattern for the Tholians. If you can remember how the web is formed, you should be able to anticipate this enemy's movements.
The planet killer's level is eerily quiet until you meet the planet killer at the end. All you have to do in the level is avoid floating debris of other Federation starships, asteroids and fireballs from the planet killer. The fireballs should be easy enough to avoid, but can only be destroyed by torpedoes. Photon Torpedoes do seem to have an effect on the planet killer in the final battle, but the new disruptor will be doing all the work. Your torpedoes will only be useful for destroying the enemy's projectiles. Also, the disruptor will be the same regardless of the power level you give to the ship's phasers in the power allocation menu. Re-allocate all that energy to the speed and shields. They will both need them.
Score: 8/10
Replay Value
There would be more replay value if the weapon pieces were in random spots on the planet's surfaces or randomness in the enemy ship's flight patterns. However, that just wasn't possible on the Game Boy hardware. I still go back to play it once in a while for both mindless side-scrolling action and nostalgia. Other people probably wouldn't. If this game didn't use a Star Trek license, it probably would have never even been made, let alone be remembered by anyone.
Score: 2/10
Final Verdict
The story sounds like a cool premise and I do like how they revisit various planets from popular episodes. However, why would Starfleet build a new super weapon to take on the planet killer? In The Doomsday Machine, Kirk just turned the impulse engines of the wrecked USS Constellation into a makeshift fusion bomb. Then, he had the ship fly itself into the planet killer's maw, destroying it from the inside out. Why would that trick not work again? Did this planet killer somehow learn from the other one's mistakes? Either way, the final battle is a real nail-biter that requires VERY quick reflexes. I found it to be a satisfying boss battle in the classic Arcade/'Nintendo Hard' tradition.
Fans of the franchise will find some occasional amusement with this one, if they like old Game Boy games. Otherwise, this title is likely to feel very dated to modern audiences. It will always be a nostalgic favorite for me since it was one of the few NGB titles I had as a young Trekkie. It's also obvious that the game's designers were fans themselves. They did the most they could with the hardware and time constraints. I'd love to see this game remade for modern 2D-friendly platforms like the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, PS Vita, Steam, iOS and/or Android. Then, the shortcomings with the musical cues, SFX & graphics can all be a thing of the past. They can also redo Planet Triskelion and make that one seem more like the planet featured in the episode.
Graphics Score: 8/10
Sound/Music Score: 8/10
Controls Score: 9/10
Gameplay Score: 8/10
Replay Value Score: 2/10
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
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