Pinball sim. The game incorporates three tables called Qapla' (the Klingon word for 'Success'), To Boldly Go and Nemesis. The Qapla' and To Boldly Go tables offer single- or multi- player action, whilst Nemesis is only for multi-player games. Up to four can play the first two tables by hot-seating. Two people can play at the same on the Nemesis table.

Here's a review from the ever sarcastic "PC Gamer..":

'Star Trekkin'..'

It used to be that every single movie or tv series licensed game ended up as a platform shoot-em-up - but things have changed. Nowadays a huge number of licenses are featured on pinball tables. Terminator 2, Star Wars, the Addams Family, Lethal Weapon - all have ended up as pinball games. And I can exclusively reveal that it won't end there. There are currently plans to produce pinball tables based around the Drew Carey Show, Last of the Summer Wine, and the OJ Simpson Trial (activate all the G L O V E lights for a special bonus). Probably. So it's should come as no surprise to learn that Interplay and SCI have released a pinball game based around Star Trek universe.

'.. across the Universe.'

Wot, no corset?

Except that rather than being based upon the Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Pinball centres around the characters and situations from the original Star Trek series, including William Shatner without a corset, and the Klingons before they had discovered the joys of gluing Cornish pasties to their heads. Which is a bit of a shame, since had SCI included the new characters, we might have been able to look forward to such fun bonus games as 'Boot Wesley Crusher out of the airlock', 'Break the electric egg-whisk off the Borg' or 'Knock the ball down Counsellor Troi's cleavage' - never mind. What you do get with Star Trek Pinball is a set of three themed tables - one Federation table, one Klingon table, and a special two player table. All three tables feature sound effects and speech taken from the original series - ever time you hit a target you'll hear a phaser going off or a transporter beam activating. Losing a ball is often accompanied by some mocking comment, especially on the third table, where Dr McCoy politely informs you that someone's died in a horrible and painful fashion. Such is the price of abject failure.

'Always going forward..'

The first of the three tables is 'To Boldly Go' featuring, as the box blurb puts it 'an assortment of recognizable characters from the original series, including many of those female creatures whose hearts Kirk always seemed to win' - and who inevitabley ended up dead before the episode was over. The usual ramps and bonus features are present, along with an animated scoreboard that depicts Star Trek type scenes - the Enterprise zooming away from a planet that's about to blow up, that kind of thing. I couldn't help but feel that one or two actual video sequences should have been included, to boost the whole Star Trek feel of the tables, perhaps as a reward for activating a certain set of bonus lights. There are plenty of bonuses to trigger, special ramps and the now obligatory multiball mode, and the ball's behaviour seems reasonably realistic. Each table sports three flippers, the usual two at the bottom, and one nearer the top to help you reach those higher-up bonuses. Make it so - whoops, wrong series.

'..cos we can't find reverse.'

The above lyrics are copyrighted by whichever group wrote the potato-driven 'Star Trekkin.'

The second Klingon-themed table is fairly similar - it's the third table which offers something a little different. This table, Nemesis, is divided vertically into two similar areas, upon which two players can compete for pinball supremacy. There are different targets set for each round, and the first person to reach those targets wins the round, though the overall winner is usually the one with the highest score. You can flip balls into your opponent's part of the table or, if you hit the correct bumpers, you can block their progress by reversing their flipper controls, raising all their targets, or even send in the Tribbles, the rapidly breeding furballs from the Star Trek series. It's more fun that just playing solo on the other two tables. But the other two tables aren't very inspiring, and this manages to outweigh any merit the third table has. Star Trek Pinball is worth buying if you're a a hardcore trekkie or a pinball completist, but otherwise, this average-as-average-gets offering is unlikely to make you a fan.

Pros:

• The two-player table is interesting.

Cons:

• The two other tables aren't particularly remarkable.

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