Star Trek Tactical Assault - PSP and NDS

After a small hiatus of new Trek games, Star Trek Tactical Assault has arrived for the PSP and Nintendo DS.  Set in the TOS movies era, I personally can’t get enough of this game. Tactical Assault reminds me a bit of an older Trek title called Starfleet Command, a game I really wanted to enjoy.  

The problem (to me) with Starfleet Command was that it was so faithful to the original board/dice game Starfleet Battles, I found it a bit difficult to get into. Managing “Electronic Counter Measures” and even “Electronic Counter Counter Measures” was a bit of a pain, and took away from what I felt was the most fun, the ship to ship maneuvering and firing. 

That’s why I’m so happy with Tactical Assault.   In Tactical Assault, you maneuver your ship, line up your ship’s available firing arcs with your enemy to as many shots off as you can, while at the same time trying to protect yourself by not exposing your weaker shield facings. There is plenty of strategy in this, all taking place in real-time, so it’s great fun without any of the micro-managing.  The music really brings you into the game, and the intro voice-over by William Shatner is great to hear.

When it comes to the PSP version versus the DS version, this will largely be up to the player.  You’ll get better graphics and sound with the PSP version, but to me,  the DS version is the better of the two. Why?  Because with the DS version, your touch screen functions as a “Star Trekkian” computer panel, seemingly just the same as the panels they use in the movies and shows! 

You can switch between shields, navigation, and weapons panels, fire photons, control the speed of your ship, manage shields, all with the touch screen.  Folks, this is as close as you can get to sitting behind a control panel on the bridge of a Federation (or Klingon, or Romulan) ship… and for some reason, really brings me into the experience.  When I first ran my finger up the throttle control and the ship started moving… I was thinking… whoooaa.. cool!  (It’s just like the transporter control slider on TNG). 

In short, with music and sound that draws you in, as well as the touch screen on the DS version, I’d recommend Star Trek Tactical Assault not only to any Trek fan but also to any fan of the space combat genre.