Star Trek Prodigy Supernova Review

Star Trek Prodigy Super Nova developed by Tessera Studios and published by Outright Games is now available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S/X.

Star Trek Prodigy Supernova is an action platformer that places you in the shoes of Dal R’El and Gwyndala as they both race against time to save their friends, their ship, new alien species and an entire planetary system before a supernova destroys them all. You’ll be adventuring over planets in the quest to save the systems and learning all sorts of new fun things in the Star Trek Universe. The story is quite easy to follow, while I haven’t watched the Star Trek Prodigy show itself and just seen a few trailers, it seems to get the feel right for a video game and converts well. It feels like new gamers and Star Trek fans would enjoy this, especially with little references to the Star Trek universe here and there and of course the legendary Captain Janeway. The feeling I got throughout was it felt similar to a LEGO game and the collection gameplay felt rewarding. Some games try this and I think if they don’t have a fun loop that makes you want to keep collecting things it can become tedious but the developers have managed to make Star Trek Prodigy Supernova engaging and not too difficult. Throughout the game, you will collect things to place in your ship as well and you can go and view those items, a nice little customisation feature that shows what you’ve achieved so far as well which adds to the game’s overall objectives. Players throughout the journey on the multiple planets will take on different objectives and roles, it’s interesting to see each design and how unique they are from each other, I quite enjoyed seeing the variations and backstories on each planet. For those who might not want to explore too much and be guided, you can press the tricorder button and it will guide you in the right direction. The game does feature puzzles but again nothing too difficult and they do feature some really fun references to the Star Trek Universe.

In Star Trek Prodigy Supernova I felt it was a fun and accessible family game that really is great when going solo or coop, especially when using teamwork. If you go solo sometimes these style games can struggle with an AI partner but in Star Trek Prodigy Supernova, it seems that the AI is beneficial and great at combat which is hard to find in games. The tutorial is really good at explaining what to do in an easy and accessible way, it makes sure you know exactly what to press and do when a new objective comes up and guides you skillfully this is especially important when it comes to perhaps a young person playing, you need a tutorial that will grab their attention and be easy to understand and Star Trek Prodigy Supernova nails this perfectly. I found myself enjoying it quite a lot and I’m not that into Star Trek, perhaps most of the references probably went over my head and some parts I didn’t understand so much, but the game does a good enough job in helping me understand a little more, though I definitely think this is a perfect game for a family, the kids will love it and the adults will as well. You’ll also level up your characters as you go and give them stronger abilities and I think it feels like a fair system. The enemies also sometimes get a little repetitive but I can’t say I was bored during its combat sections.

The graphic design stays quite true to what I’ve seen from the TV series trailer, it’s colourful, and cartoon-looking and seems to take the things from the show and convert it into the game really well. It all ran super smooth and I ran into no issues when playing, each planet looked different from the other and it was a nice change of pace seeing and exploring new things and finding out more information about the universe given to us. The voice acting is also pretty good I found myself getting a little irked by the repetition of some of the voice lines, the kids will love it and no doubt keep repeating it but the parents, they may get a little tired of that, it doesn’t detract from the overall experience. There were a few moments I’d get stuck on barriers that seem to have an invisible wall on but nothing too major.

Verdict

While Star Trek Prodigy Supernova isn’t entirely a game I would have picked up myself, I found myself pleasantly surprised at how smooth it ran, the graphical design choice and the gameplay loop. I feel that for families this is the perfect game to sit down with because the fans will love the references, and the parents and newcomers will enjoy the simple gameplay loop. It’s a game that doesn’t take too much to think about difficulty-wise and provides a nice smooth experience throughout. If you’re looking for a Star Trek title that holds your hand a little bit and is fairly easy to play, it will be right up your street. It really feels like a fairly good effort to get the TV show feel and continue its storyline from what I have heard about it and I think it does a good job in filling that gap. I often thought that when my kids were younger, if they had picked this one up and wanted to play coop, I’d be quite happy too because somehow the game feels like it has a little bit of something for everyone.

8/10

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is available on Consoles and Pc our copy was kindly given by outright games for Steam.

If you’d like to learn more about Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova the link to their website is here