Space Cadets review

Stronghold Games | Co-op | £49.99 | 3-6 players | 90 minutes | www.strongholdgames.com 

Have you ever watched an episode of Star Trek and thought ‘wow, I could do a better job than these guys’ while watching in horror as photon torpedoes slam into the hull of the Starship Enterprise. Well, until we make First Contact, Space Cadets is probably the closest you’ll get to joining the Starfleet Academy.

In Space Cadets a team of players become the crew of a starship, with each person taking on the role of a different starship officer. Do you fancy being the captain of the ship, making sure you boldly go where no one has gone before, or would you prefer to be hidden in the depths of engineering tinkering away with warp drives? Space Cadets gives you the opportunity to fulfill your Star Trek dreams by becoming the Captain, Helmsman, Engineer, Weapons Officer, Shield Officer or Sensor Officer… however the most important thing is that you’re all going to have to work together to complete the directives. Missions range from exploration to destroying enemy spaceships and all require different tasks.

The tasks depend upon the roles, so while the Captain is in charge, the Engineer must play a mah-jong-style game to create energy, the Helmsman plots the ship’s course using a series of movement cards, the Weapons Officer plays a puzzle game that’s a bit like Tetris using shaped cards and so on. All of these tasks are timed and everyone plays each round at the same time and all players have their own progress chart to track their success… or failure. The game provides some laugh out loud moments when some people have executed their roles perfectly, only to find another player has completely fluffed it. With a group of friends, this is a stellar party piece. Live long and prosper gamers!

Buy your copy here.

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