Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova
Usually, I'd begin with something witty involving a Nickelodeon children's show made into a video game tie-in published by Outright Games. However, this is not the only OG game that I have the pleasure of covering this season, so I'll spare all the melodrama and cut right to the chase. Star Trek Prodigy Supernova, much like the Dragons Legends Of The Nine Realms game is based on a spin-off of the coveted Star Trek franchise. Unlike How To Tame Your Dragon, Star Trek has been going on for generations (no pun intended). There are countless spinoffs and Prodigy is one more drop in the bucket.
I won't pretend to know about the series but the "Captain" is most definitely not Kirk. A ship known as the Protostar makes a crash landing and the Captain, Dal R’El, with his partner Gwyndala, has to save their team that's gone missing as well as repair the ship. There's also an extra-terrestrial threat that's putting the universe at stake, but, that's a given. Honestly, there's a story but it's something that doesn't give headway into the plot of Supernova. There's a star that's expanding and at risk of causing a Supernova as well as all of this going on?
The gameplay is what you'd expect from a game of this nature. Everything I mentioned about Dragons Legends Of The Nine Realms can be copied and pasted here. Tessera Studios at least attempts to make something unique by having two-player co-op. Dal and Gwyn play different from each other as the former focuses on shooting and the latter focuses on swordplay. Each character has access to melee and ranged attacks regardless.
Gwyn swings her sword faster than Dal swing his hammer, but Dal has two blasters that overheat slower than Gwyn's single pistol. There's not much to think about in combat as you can get by with "mashing y" and "pressing a" to dodge attacks. Again, ctrl+c, ctrl+v from every other Outright Games played, but with different developers. At least from what I was able to research, the actors reprise their roles from the show, so it means kids will identify their voices faster.
With the co-op element, there are puzzles that involve "lifting this cube here and placing it there," as well as "one player hits this switch while the other moves this object there." There are medals you can get at the end of each level based on time, death cou--KO count (sorry, children's game), and how many collectibles you gathered. Getting all medals in each level will unlock useful cheats from invincibility, double damage, and...big head mode.
Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is not a terrible game. It's actually solid, the frame-rate is okay, the graphics are similar to the show, and the voice acting is decent. But you all know what I'm about to say next. It is not worth the $49.99. Like, if they start releasing these games with a $20 price tag, I'd be far more lenient.
But as long as Outright Games release these "children's game holiday stuffing fodder" for the price of Persona 5 Royal, I'd rather buy my kid the latter! (With adult supervision as it is a Mature rated game and all of course) The point is, it's not worth the full price tag but it is better than most Outright Games. Live long and prosper without this one in your library.
Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S.