Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova

For Trek-starved fans with Nintendo consoles, Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova does a good job - far better than you might expect - of channelling the show's spirit and appeal into a light, kid-friendly co-op adventure with plenty of puzzles. By tapping into those Trek tenets of friendship, cooperation, and problem-solving as a team, Tessera Studios has created something far closer in spirit to the series than any dry space sim, even if (much like the inexperienced crew running the Protostar) it can often feel a little rough around the edges. It's not set to stun, then, but it shows plenty of promise, especially if you have young cadets eager to enlist.

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova represents an effort to engage the children's audience not only on TV screens, but also in video games. But for that, it brings too little interesting content, and moreover, the stereotype immediately sets in. So you only have a five-hour journey across 3 planets, where you do the same thing over and over. Moreover, with glitches and a bad camera work.

Star Trek as a franchise has gone through quite the revival over the last few years. With shows like ‘Star Trek: Picard’, ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, and ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ to entertain adult “Trekkies”. Not content with leaving Star Trek to the mature crowd, Alex Kurzman has delivered his extended universe to the younger generation too.

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova sets out to achieve a certain thing – we could, perhaps uncharitably, call this a Lego clone. It largely achieves this whilst not matching the levels of refinement – both visually and gameplay – in that series of games. Fans of the Prodigy TV show will absolutely enjoy this more but even for those who aren’t familiar with it there is a decent, if uninspiring, game here to be played.

Star Trek: Prodigy Supernova has an enjoyable gameplay loop that, undoubtedly, is best enjoyed in local co-op and played with a fan of the show. It doesn’t break new ground in the platforming space and certainly isn’t among the best Star Trek games, but the story really befits the characters and the game stayed fresh enough to remain interesting over the long term.

Fans of the series will also find plenty to enjoy from familiar characters. While combat can get a little repetitive, the puzzles are genuinely inventive. Ultimately whether a trekkie or not, Supernova provides a reasonably solid experience with fun multiplayer that is approachable for everyone.

The poor writing and bad direction don't take away too much from the co-op action of this cartoon tie-in. Fans of the show will definitely get more out of it than non-fans.

Cheapness and slight amount of jank aside, Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is actually a pretty decent game.

For some, the game might be a bit prescriptive. But it’s based on an animated children’s TV programme, so it needs to be playable and enjoyable for that audience. This would be a great introduction to the adventure puzzle genre for younger players. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. I didn’t need to know anything about the TV series to engage fully with Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova.