Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Crossroads of Time
released on Dec 31, 1995
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Crossroads of Time" is a 2D action adventure based on the famous TV series. You play Benjamin Sisko, commander of Federation space station Deep Space Nine. When the station is attacked by Bajoran terrorists, your mission to uncover their plot leads you from DS9 to Bajor, beyond the wormhole and even through time itself. Moving through the side-scrolling environments of DS9 and other places, Sisko must complete several missions like disarming bombs or rescuing hostages. If necessary, Sisko can use a phaser to stun enemies. To solve puzzles, he can use a tricorder and other items. The plot is often carried forward by interacting with other characters from the TV series.
Reviews View More
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Crossroads of Time is rough, even for a retro SNES game. It's got neat ideas – you explore DS9, talk to the crew, and go on away missions – but it all feels clunky as heck. The combat is wonky, dialogue is cheesy, and the whole thing is filled with bugs and glitches. Super hardcore Trek fans might get a tiny bit of enjoyment out of seeing DS9 in all its pixelated glory, but overall, this one's a hard pass unless you're really desperate for a retro Star Trek fix.
This Deep Space Nine game for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive is a 2D platformer. There’s lots of running, jumping as well as shooting Bajorans, Cardassians and….bats, the ultimate “we can’t think of anything else” enemy type used in many licensed games of this era.
Like many of those games, this one isn’t very good. It has nice graphics and some really great music (although it really doesn’t fit the game), the levels are just confusing mazes with some backtracking to get keys, rooms and doors that look similar and some even have time limits. The story itself is decent, with a group of Bajoran extremists trying to destroy DS9, and they even create a story reason to jump into Sisko’s traumatic past (that said, it is a bit of a weak reason).
At the start of each chapter, you need to investigate around DS9, you get to explore the promenade and ops and talk to the characters. These parts of the game are great. It’s a shame that the game wasn’t more of a mystery and puzzle with a bit of platforming and shooting in between, instead of the opposite way around.
In previous reviews, I’ve treated different versions as different games, but the differences here are much smaller. The biggest difference is the music. While the rocking tunes of the Mega Drive version don’t fit, the music is just as jarring in the SNES version but also sound awful. You can also shoot diagonally downwards, so there’s a small extra bit at the start of the Bajoran level where you shoot some rats.
Like many of those games, this one isn’t very good. It has nice graphics and some really great music (although it really doesn’t fit the game), the levels are just confusing mazes with some backtracking to get keys, rooms and doors that look similar and some even have time limits. The story itself is decent, with a group of Bajoran extremists trying to destroy DS9, and they even create a story reason to jump into Sisko’s traumatic past (that said, it is a bit of a weak reason).
At the start of each chapter, you need to investigate around DS9, you get to explore the promenade and ops and talk to the characters. These parts of the game are great. It’s a shame that the game wasn’t more of a mystery and puzzle with a bit of platforming and shooting in between, instead of the opposite way around.
In previous reviews, I’ve treated different versions as different games, but the differences here are much smaller. The biggest difference is the music. While the rocking tunes of the Mega Drive version don’t fit, the music is just as jarring in the SNES version but also sound awful. You can also shoot diagonally downwards, so there’s a small extra bit at the start of the Bajoran level where you shoot some rats.
Now I'm a big Trek fan, and Deep Space Nine is one of my favorite TV shows, so when I heard that this game existed I knew I had to play it despite hearing very mixed reviews about it.
The funny thing is, if you had asked me what I ideally want from a 16-bit game based on DS9, my description would be very similar to what this game is. I'd want to be able to return to the station and wander around in between missions, I'd want to be able to control different cast members, and I'd want platforming segments with methodical combat and puzzle elements a la Prince of Persia (or Blackthorn, given the emphasis on phaser combat).
The game has all these elements and very unfortunately mishandles all of them. You do get to control a few different characters, but all Dr Bashir does is a simple fetch quest and Odo's segment (with shapeshifting elements that actually gave it a lot of potential) is all of five minutes long. Hanging out on DS9 and talking to the various characters is nice until you realize they just repeat the same line over and over, and plenty of the fetch quests needed to open up the next plot point are needlessly drawn out. As an example, at one point I needed to retrieve a dirty robe for evidence only to find out from the owner that it was sent for repair. So I immediately seek out Garak, the ship's tailor, only to find him repeating his canned dialogue and not advancing the plot. Turns out I had to go find a different NPC in a deserted part of the ship who would tell me to find Garak, and only then would I actually be able to retrieve the robe from Garak's shop.
Those minor annoyances aside, the meat of the game is in the platforming sections and those are really rough. The combat is shallow, and the "puzzle" elements can barely be called that, essentially boiling down to trial-and-error obstacles and talking to the right characters at the right time. The platforming is extremely clumsy and frequently forces you to make blind jumps, and even if you know where you're going the slippery controls make it too easy to accidentally run off a ledge to your death. But perhaps the worst thing about the platforming is that they went with a Prince of Persia-style control scheme (which is ideal for slower and more methodical games), but went on to make a majority of the game timed missions. It's like playing Bayonetta with OG Resident Evil controls, and it completely smashed any semblance of game feel that the platforming segments could have had.
I like to imagine that the many issues with this game are more due to inexperience than negligence - it really did feel like the devs had more than a passing familiarity with the source material and were trying their best to do it justice. That, and the fact that Morn is in this game, is the only thing that saves it from an even lower score.
The funny thing is, if you had asked me what I ideally want from a 16-bit game based on DS9, my description would be very similar to what this game is. I'd want to be able to return to the station and wander around in between missions, I'd want to be able to control different cast members, and I'd want platforming segments with methodical combat and puzzle elements a la Prince of Persia (or Blackthorn, given the emphasis on phaser combat).
The game has all these elements and very unfortunately mishandles all of them. You do get to control a few different characters, but all Dr Bashir does is a simple fetch quest and Odo's segment (with shapeshifting elements that actually gave it a lot of potential) is all of five minutes long. Hanging out on DS9 and talking to the various characters is nice until you realize they just repeat the same line over and over, and plenty of the fetch quests needed to open up the next plot point are needlessly drawn out. As an example, at one point I needed to retrieve a dirty robe for evidence only to find out from the owner that it was sent for repair. So I immediately seek out Garak, the ship's tailor, only to find him repeating his canned dialogue and not advancing the plot. Turns out I had to go find a different NPC in a deserted part of the ship who would tell me to find Garak, and only then would I actually be able to retrieve the robe from Garak's shop.
Those minor annoyances aside, the meat of the game is in the platforming sections and those are really rough. The combat is shallow, and the "puzzle" elements can barely be called that, essentially boiling down to trial-and-error obstacles and talking to the right characters at the right time. The platforming is extremely clumsy and frequently forces you to make blind jumps, and even if you know where you're going the slippery controls make it too easy to accidentally run off a ledge to your death. But perhaps the worst thing about the platforming is that they went with a Prince of Persia-style control scheme (which is ideal for slower and more methodical games), but went on to make a majority of the game timed missions. It's like playing Bayonetta with OG Resident Evil controls, and it completely smashed any semblance of game feel that the platforming segments could have had.
I like to imagine that the many issues with this game are more due to inexperience than negligence - it really did feel like the devs had more than a passing familiarity with the source material and were trying their best to do it justice. That, and the fact that Morn is in this game, is the only thing that saves it from an even lower score.
Trash, but surprisingly good music.