A Forgotten Little Game Still Remains A Little Fun
ST: TNG is essentially a collection of minigames of varying difficulty and varying fun. You play the game as if it were a series of Starfleet Academy holodeck simulations with Captain Picard as your instructor. Your missions usually involve travelling at warp speed to a planet or other point in space and either beaming up or beaming down someone or something or blasting the heck out whatever ship you find there with phasers (which are kind of slow) and photon torpedoes (which are really slow).
After you receive your mission objectives, you can choose between your five officers from the main viewscreen. Several members of the ST:TNG crew are available for you to issue orders to. Worf handles shields and weapon systems, Data handles navigation, La Forge deals with repairs, O'Brien operates the transporters, and Riker... well, Riker repeats what Picard told you at the beginning of the mission and tells you the stardate, which is basically the time limit for the level.
The graphics are pretty underwhelming. The character portraits look pretty nice, but only a small handful of ship types are present and the menu screens look pretty bland, especially since you spend all of your time looking at them.
The actual gameplay consists of simple minigames. The transporting sequences and repair puzzles are quick, easy fun, but the minigame that you must complete to enter into orbit around a planet goes from amusing to annoying quicker than a Ferengi looking for a profit. Ship-to-ship combat is surprisingly fast-paced... but this is not a good thing. In the television shows and movies, each ship strategically maneuvers like grand, hulking naval vessels to fire and deftly evade the enemy's fire. In the game, you are reduced to spinning your view screen in circles when you encounter an enemy ship as it circles you at great speeds (Talarians aren't so fast, but Romulans will make you dizzy). Your weapons fire slowly, making any fast-moving enemy ships extremely difficult to hit at all.
Still, even with all of its flaws, ST:TNG is a fun little game for brief moments. Missions can usually be completed within five to ten minutes. Even with its repetitive, at times frustrating gameplay, Star Trek fans might consider beaming up this little piece of the past.