Is there any market for that 2D style Star Control game?

[randycat99]

The melee battles in Star Control II were so much fun. I was thinking Interplay should get off their a$$es on the Star Trek franchise and do a melee battle game using the entire Star Trek ship library. At last you get to pit the Federation ships against Romulan ships against Klingon ships against Borg cubes against... The sheer number of potential ships makes the possibilities tremendous.

I know 3D is teh thing these days, but I still think a 2D game revision such as this could be a lot of fun. Maybe it could be psuedo-2D, in that it is actually 3D, but still primarily top-down view. The 3D-ish-ness would come out of directional light sources shining on the ships and maybe we could even see the starships do some banking when in a turning manuever. I think this sort of game (arcade) works well as a 2D format, rather than piloting star ships around in 3D (which I anticipate would be slow, boring, and sometimes frustratingly difficult to manuever in 3D/first person).

All of the action would include the authentic Star Trek sound effects, of course. Nothing like the sound of firing off some photon torpedoes, red alerts, and warp jumps!

Then when the loser's ship explodes, there is a quick cut to full 3D choreographed view of the ship with ensuing damage going critical into a fireball. Just go nuts on the poly's and particle effects here! Oh, and it better be on the PS2 natively, or I'll be pissed!

 

[Glonk]

Kinda like Starfleet Command?

 

[randycat99]

That is a full 3D rendition though, right? I think the complexity of what is needed to do that well makes it inaccessible and just not fun for a lot of people.

I'm talking about the quaint accessibility of that Star Control II melee mode. It just might make a great online experience, as well, as I'm sure the network demands for such a game would be quite light.

 

[Glonk]

Starfleet Command (or at least the first two, haven't played #3) is by and large 2D.

Space is essentially a 2D plane.

It's an adaptation of Starfleet Battles (or something), a board game.

 

[zurich]

There's Star Trek Armada too, though its largely an RTS.

Special mention goes to the EXCELLENT EXCELLENT mod Star Trek vs Star Wars. Nothing more fun than hyperspace jumping a squad of 6 Tie Defenders and 6 Missleboats and taking out a Galaxy-class ship in 2 salvos (or watching a fleet of Star Destroyers trample everything in their path)

God I miss Tie Fighter

 

[randycat99]

Heh, if those games ever appear on a console (more specifically, so I can play it on my PS2), you can be sure I will buy them. I won't be holding my breath, though. What I'm talking about is something with potentially broad, arcadey appeal and accessibility to the mainstream console audience. You wouldn't have to "know" anything about Star Trek to play it- just good ole ship to ship blowing each other up kind of action. The Star Trek theme does spice it up a bit and automatically brings an entire infrastructure to bear (rather than creating and balancing an entirely "new world").