Namco Bandai Beams Up New Star Trek Game

Marshall Honorof

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Namco Bandai Beams Up New Star Trek Game


Paramount Pictures wanted a tie-in game for the new Star Trek movie, and asked Namco Bandai to make it so.

The Trekkies out there in the audience know about the odd-numbered curse, right? If not, it goes something like this: The even-numbered Star Trek movies (like The Wrath of Khan or First Contact) are generally much better than their odd-numbered counterparts (like The Final Frontier, or, again, The Final Frontier). This curse, however, doesn't seem to apply to Star Trek video games, which can't seem to attain a 50/50 success rate on their best days. Nevertheless, with a new movie on the horizon, a new Star Trek game can't be too far behind, and this time, the role of developer falls to Namco Bandai. Star Trek - The Video Game will give players cooperative control of Kirk and Spock as they bridge the gap between 2009's Star Trek and its upcoming sequel.

Considering that the game is currently in pre-alpha, it's too early to tell how the game will turn out, but the concept sounds promising enough. The plainly named Star Trek - The Video Game focuses on cooperative action between the friends/rivals/subjects of much fan-fiction, Captain James T. Kirk and sidekick Mr. Spock, as they tackle "a familiar and lethal" enemy. During the course of the game, "Players will find themselves immersed in an epic adventure along with Kirk and Spock, crisscrossing the universe and its unexplored planets, encountering enemy battleships and utilizing the latest 23rd-century gear and weaponry." The developers have yet to reveal whether romancing green-skinned aliens or stopping fangirls' hearts with a raised eyebrow will factor into gameplay.

Star Trek games and movie tie-in games both have mixed reputations, at best, so it's easy to see combining the two as tempting fate. However, an original story penned by Marianne Krawczyk (writer of most of the God of War games) and two co-writers of 2009's Star Trek could go a long way towards helping it stand out.

The game isn't slated to come out until Spring 2013, so Namco Bandai - a proven developer for many different game genres - has plenty of time to make a game worthy of the franchise. History is not exactly on its side, however. For every set phasers on "fun." [http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-trek-bridge-commander]

Source: Official Star Trek Site [http://www.startrek.com/article/namco-bandai-to-release-star-trek-video-game]

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jlaakso

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I quite liked Deep Space Nine: The Fallen, which is probably the closest relative to this newcomer out of existing Trek games.
 

Soxafloppin

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What will this game be in terms of Genre? FPS or 3rd person action adventure I guess.
 

RaikuFA

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Oh hey look, another reason for them to not release any more Tales games after Graces F.

"We'd love to release one but Star Trek guys say no." and people will believe it.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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jlaakso said:
I quite liked Deep Space Nine: The Fallen, which is probably the closest relative to this newcomer out of existing Trek games.
Voyager: Elite Force was pretty good as well. Birth of the Federation is still my fave.

Star Trek is a difficult beast though; it's one of those things where the fans love what it means to them, the corps don't seem to know what it means, and the general public would like it if it wasn't for all the drooling hordes.

I like it, but I don't LOVE it.
 

Marshall Honorof

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RaikuFA said:
Oh hey look, another reason for them to not release any more Tales games after Graces F.
Your cynicism is palpable enough for me to get a bitter taste in my mouth, but at the same time, yes. Probably true. I'm personally waiting for the whole flagship Tales backlog in English, which is right up there with waiting for the sun to rise in the west.

Otherwise, I personally have high hopes for this game. I don't play Star Trek games as often as I like watching the shows and movies, but it's such a rich universe, and the good games tend to really make you feel like you're a part of it. I hope this will be one of them.
 

NLS

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Soxafloppin said:
What will this game be in terms of Genre? FPS or 3rd person action adventure I guess.
It's a 3rd person action adventure shooter, something around the lines of that judging this already 8 months old video.

The game was announced and show-cased back in June. I guess the only "new" thing to this article is that Namco will publish it. Digital Extremes has been developing it for some time already.
 

RaikuFA

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Marshall Honorof said:
RaikuFA said:
Oh hey look, another reason for them to not release any more Tales games after Graces F.
Your cynicism is palpable enough for me to get a bitter taste in my mouth, but at the same time, yes. Probably true. I'm personally waiting for the whole flagship Tales backlog in English, which is right up there with waiting for the sun to rise in the west.

Otherwise, I personally have high hopes for this game. I don't play Star Trek games as often as I like watching the shows and movies, but it's such a rich universe, and the good games tend to really make you feel like you're a part of it. I hope this will be one of them.
Truthfully, I hope it won't happen, but knowing how they act... just don't be suprised.
 

Mike Richards

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Actually the odd number curse seems to be pretty well broken by now, what with 10 (Nemesis) being extremely disappointing and the 11 (2009 reboot) being the best thing to ever happen to the franchise.

I have some hope for the game. While Star Trek 2 is certainly on everyone's mind they don't seem to be tying it to the release schedule to tightly, which always makes me more hopeful for licensed games. I didn't know they had some of the movie's writing team on board either, I like the sound of that.
 

Kei Kaemon

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RaikuFA said:
Oh hey look, another reason for them to not release any more Tales games after Graces F.

"We'd love to release one but Star Trek guys say no." and people will believe it.
That doesn't quite make sense though.

If Graces F sells well, which I hope it does, then they'll want to release more Tales games here. They only reason they wouldn't release more is if Graces and Abyss don't sell well.

So remember, buy 5 copies.
 

The Random One

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The odd number curse? I don't believe that. It is... illogical.

Maybe only games with prime numbers are good, I dunno.
 

ChildofGallifrey

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IIRC this game had some decent buzz about it after that trailer that NLS already posted up there. People seemed excited by the interesting co-op mechanics, how Spock and Kirk had very different playstyles and some of the sequences showcased (I remember something about Spock having to drag a wounded Kirk to the medical bay and operate on him, probably via a QTS, while Kirk held off enemies from the table).

If they can find ways to make the most of the obviously co-op centered experience then I think this could turn out quite well.
 

ShadowsofHope

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Most movie-tie in games generally suck, but I'll be watching this one idly in any case.

Then again, the last Star Trek games I ever liked without hating myself afterwards were Star Trek Online and Bridge Commander, so.. yeah..
 

NLS

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ShadowsofHope said:
Most movie-tie in games generally suck, but I'll be watching this one idly in any case.

Then again, the last Star Trek games I ever liked without hating myself afterwards were Star Trek Online and Bridge Commander, so.. yeah..
This one isn't supposed to be a movie tie-in, more like a spin-off set between the 2 movies. They've specifically stated before that they don't want it to be a rushed movie game, thus why it's a separate story and release from the upcoming movie.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Wow, not only did we have to suffer through Star Trek 90210, now they are making a game off it?

Just make Elite Forces 3, it's what people want. Just don't use the afore mention (urgh) reboot to do it.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I wish someone would really make a startrek game about exploring space and less of it being an action game with a startrek aesthetic.
 

RaikuFA

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Kei Kaemon said:
RaikuFA said:
Oh hey look, another reason for them to not release any more Tales games after Graces F.

"We'd love to release one but Star Trek guys say no." and people will believe it.
That doesn't quite make sense though.

If Graces F sells well, which I hope it does, then they'll want to release more Tales games here. They only reason they wouldn't release more is if Graces and Abyss don't sell well.

So remember, buy 5 copies.
Buying both games and wrote an article on another site about upcoming games of 2012 anbd both were put on.
 

AxelxGabriel

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We're putting the guys who make the Tales series to make this game? The same company that JUST wants to make Anime but us gamers wont let them?

Oh yeah, this'll turn out real good. /sarcasm