My interest in Battlestar Galactica started a couple years back they put a video on marketplace that recapped the first couple seasons of the show. After that I have watched the show whenever I possibly could and can’t wait for the final season coming up. When I heard that a game based upon it was coming to Xbox Live Arcade, I was pumped. The potential for this property is limitless, but I suppose the same could have been said about E.T. (for the Atari 2600) before it was released.

If you’re new to Battlestar Galactica, I recommend you find that video that recaps the story on marketplace or else you will be lost because the game gives you no back-story on what exactly is happening. To add insult to this, there is no story in this game. The single player missions are just loosely based upon episodes from the show. You don’t really play as a specific character even though in one of the levels you are playing to be the best pilot in the fleet. The campaign consists of 10 levels, including a boot camp tutorial. It will take slightly over an hour to complete on medium difficulty. The objectives in the missions are brain numbingly basic, mostly being a variant of either kill everything or escort. The levels are completely 3D and look okay but you’re confined to a simple 2D plane. The game contains one music track, which is played both in the menu as well as during the game. Luckily it is a really quiet song, which you can easily block out. The sounds are decent, everything sounds like it should be but it’s nothing spectacular.

A neat feature is that you fly different ships throughout the campaign and multiplayer. This range from different ships from the shows and differ in health, energy, and defense mode. Unfortunately you cannot select your ship in the single player, a feature that would’ve added much needed depth and replayability. To add insult to injury, every time I tried to play multiplayer, no one was playing. At least there is instant action, which is basically multiplayer with bots, but it’s still as boring as the single player.

The gameplay is about as basic as the level objectives. You fly around in your little ship and can shoot your main machine gun or shoot missiles. You can pick up special weapons by picking up power-ups bouncing around the level. Each ship also has a rechargeable energy bank that can be used for a speed boost or defense mode. The defense mode differs based upon ship and ranges from a simple shield to invisibility. There are certain acrobatic moves you can do with the right joystick but it’ll never be used since it takes your thumb away from the button for missiles and special weapons. Every ship you destroy will drop a health pack. If that isn’t easy enough, when you die you will respawn within 5 seconds. The mission won’t restart unless you fail the mission.

Battlestar Galactica is a game that should have been the next great XBLA title. It’s sad that developers still try to sell a name rather than sell a game. If you are an absolute diehard fan of this property, download the demo and cautiously try it out. If you’re hungry for some space fighter action, I highly suggest you try out Aegis Wing, also a XBLA game, rather than this game. Technically the Battlestar Galactica is fine, absolutely functional; it’s just not fun.

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