Star Trek: Trivia Challenge [PC Game]

Whether you fancy yourself a phaser-toting fan or simply a pundit of pop culture, Sound Source Interactive's Star Trek Trivia Challenge might be just the thing you need to reactivate that old reactor core. As a contestant in this game, you'll be faced with questions (over 1,000) that challenge your knowledge of Klingon-speak (not to mention your knowledge of Bones McCoy-speak), in addition to a wide range of other questions spanning both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are also a good number of questions based on funny hypothetical situations that characters from either show might find themselves in, as well as some questions that go slightly beyond the scope of the shows, such as those dealing with Ricardo Montalban's advertising career or William Shatner's prior acting experience.

After selecting whether you'd like your game to involve questions regarding Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, or both, you then indicate how many players will be playing. The game can be played by up to three players, all sitting at the same keyboard. Players compete in two rounds -- if a combo game was selected, the first round will be wholly made up of questions from one show and the second round from the other -- and a final round, where players try to guess the answer of a phrase that mixes something familiar with something from one of the shows, such as "The Farmer in the Delta Vega," letter by letter. Each round contains four categories with four questions each; point values are doubled in the second round. Many of the categories have non-traditional names, such as "Guinancology 101" and "dem Bones, dem Bones." In the final round, points are added to each player's score whenever he or she guesses a correct letter in the phrase, but the overall value of solving the complete phrase goes down with each letter guessed. Players' high scores are listed in the High Scores section, which is displayed after each game has ended.

Star Trek Trivia Challenge features two different screen façades, based on whichever series you're currently being asked questions about -- a pseudo-campy pastel theme for the Star Trek: The Original Series rounds and an upgraded, more sharply colored theme for the Star Trek: The Next Generation rounds. The players, represented by uniforms posing at the top of the screen, also dress appropriately, based on the particular series. A disembodied host's voice (played by Mark Jonathan Davis) reads out the questions and answers, provides puns-a-plenty and plenty of background information on the show and sometimes teases you when you guess incorrectly. On each turn, a highlighter flashes around the different point values on the screen until the player whose turn it is presses his or her buzzer key. This reveals the question underneath the point value that the highlighter stopped on. There are a variety of "secret squares," such as "Lockout" and "The Point Trap," that affect the players or the game screen in different ways, and there are also a variety of question types, ranging from multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank to "Haiku Am I?" and "Cloaked Messages."

Fans of any of the shows or trivia buffs looking for a focused game with a sense of humor might find Star Trek Trivia Challenge a fascinating addition to their game collection.