Okay, can of worms here. Sorry in advance.
I played Star Control 1 religiously on my Sega Genesis, having no idea it was the bastardized offspring of a fancy-schmancy computer game. Its Galactic Conquest (or whatever) mode was probably my first TBS experience ever and it was enchanting as hell. I daresay that it and Rampart are the last two games I was playing on my Genesis before finally packing it away in the mid-to-late-90s.
So, I get myself a hot-to-trot actual Windows computer for Christmas in 1996, and some months later, while wandering around the computer games aisles of a Louisiana Electronics Botique or Software, Etc. (don’t honestly remember), I see Star Control 3. I’m not kidding: my draw dropped. I had to have it and begged and pleaded till I got it.
I went home, installed it, and played it. . . for hours. Then days. Then finally got stuck. I walked away for a bit, then restarted and played more. A lot more. And got stuck again.
The cycle continued for 2-3 years till I found out about internet game guides and managed to finally get past the stickier puzzles and finish the game.
And through it all, I loved that damn game. I thought the characters were quirky and even sometimes funny. The ships were like cooler, high-rez versions of all the awesome ships I used to tool around in on my Sega. The strategic game had been expanded and improved massively and the planet bases had Actual Factual Cool Graphics!
The puzzles were (to me, at the time), tough, but engaging. The plot was fascinating: it sounded like some cool stuff had happened in SC2 (picking up where my much-abused manual for Star Control 1 had left off, plot-wise), but SC3 was more than full of its own twists and turns. The rainbow planets leading the way, warp bubble tech, a whole slew of new, nasty aliens to beat, and the return (?) of the Precursors! Wow, too cool, man.
Now, keep in mind. . . I was relatively young at the time. Early teens at best; I’m not perfectly sure when I actually bought the game. And obviously I’d missed the Wondrous Glory that was SC2 completely. But I found SC3 to be this fantastic mix of the comedic point-n-click adventuring of Monkey Island with the science fiction space battle-ry of the oldschool Star Control game for Genesis, and I couldn’t be happier with it.
So, I guess all of this is a long and roundabout way of asking: does anyone here agree that Star Control 3 might actually be a good, or entertaining, or funny, or enjoyable game? I recognize, after reading it 10,000 times, that it’s obviously a bad sequel and a poor successor to a much-beloved classic. . . but taken on its own. . . would anyone else here say it’s good?
Or am I just crazy?
P.S. - I still haven’t beaten SC2. The damned mining and fighting mini-games and fuel management are way too finicky and hard for me, so I just die, or get stranded and then die.