I was never a huge Star Trek fan as a kid, probably because even back then I knew it'd lead to a lifehood of virginity. Whenever The Next Generation was on TV I'd watch some of it, merely because all aliens are cool to a 7 year old, and black guys with headband visors around their eyes are a marvel to behold.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Echoes from the Past is a sort of pseudo-RPG game for the Genesis that also saw a watered down and shitty release on the SNES. Essentially giving every 34 year old perpetual comic con visitor his dream, you command the USS Enterperise. I actually really liked this game as a kid, because you can command the Enterprise to go to a huge list of planets (though it's a linear story, sorta). Every so often you encounter a Romulan ship and can either be diplomatic or dom their ass, or the Federation will send you a message to go do something. You navigate through your ship's command, and there's like an entire novel's worth of information in the computers to read. The game actually has a save function, too, making it one of the non-sports Genesis games I own that actually save.
Anyway, when you get a mission you're supposed to go to the planet and beam down. You can choose a squad of up to 4 crew members to go down and walk around in their quaint outfits; the selectable characters include all the main characters from the TV show, plus random scrubs whose sole purpose is to get in the way and take a bullet (or laser or whatever the fuck it's called in Star Trek) for the characters that actually matter. Some characters have special abilities, like the guy from Reading Rainbow, who throws shitty children's books at enemies. Everyone has a phaser they can use to kill enemies, and good god is it hard to aim diagonally.
Some of the levels are pretty fun, and you can swith between what crew member you control, so you can have your 4 guys scattered all across a level. The absolute hardest level, though, is the fucking cavern/caves level, which is like the third level. I don't know how I beat it as a kid, but if you like getting hopelessly lost, this is the level for you! You can always beam back to the ship and beam back down to start all over again, but the prospect of braving the heinous maze from the beginning again isn't very fun.
The Enterprise space battles are decent, and afterwards (or during) you have to make sure to repair your shields and weapons and crap. You run into Romulans entirely too much, and it's always apparently the same crew, too, so Romulans are apparently the Asian women of the space highway. I actually don't know how many missions you go through in this game, as I never beat it, but it seems like there'd be a lot, if the amount of planets are any indication.
The game's hard, but what game made before 1996 isn't? It's the only Star Trek game I have ever, or will, play, so you may want to check it out if you're a fan, or just like relatively obscure old games. As Cioff would say, "May the Force be with you. Awful."
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