Star Trek: Shattered Universe

2 1/2 stars

Let’s face it: In all the moments of Star Trek VI, none came close to Capt. Sulu’s last-second appearance aboard the Starship Excelsior, blowing the bad guys away and saving the day with a tight smile and raised eyebrow. Giving Sulu his own television series is the biggest no-brainer in the annals of Trek ideas, and since nobody there has a brain, we’ll have to make do with the next best thing: a video game starring Sulu and the Excelsior crew making their way through Trek’s infamous Mirror Universe, where good is bad and bad is worse.

George Takei and Walter Koenig, the most underrated players of the original series, return to give voice to Good Capt. Sulu and Evil Cmdr. Chekhov. Takei always had great fun with Sulu’s deadpan humor and somber sense of command, and he doesn’t disappoint with his narration here.

The game places the player as the pilot of an Excelsior fighter craft, zooming through the cosmos blowing away bad guys and defending the Excelsior from incoming capital ships. It’s great fun for quite a while, especially when you shoot the evil Enterprise out of the sky a couple of times.

Unfortunately, the gameplay never really expands beyond many, many levels of the same thing, and it gets damn frustrating at times. Even on Easy mode, you’ll drive yourself nuts trying to defend the main ship, which buckles too easily under enemy fire.

For Sulu fans and anyone who’s ever wanted to blast Klingons out of the sky, this is a worthwhile rental, but definitely not worth buying.