Nerds That Geek Game Review – ‘Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

There’s no greater crime in a franchise, than when the powers that be try their hardest to outdo perfection, and we’ve seen it happen time and time again, where a film franchise, or a book series, or a game series will try and provide us with a sequel that’s bigger and badder than the story that flat out reached the top of the mountain and that often ends with mixed or disastrous results. And the reality of the matter is, fans don’t want creative minds to one-up the last entry in the series, they simply want that high quality maintained.
 
Which is why I am such a fan of the next entry in the Space Quest series. Because rather than try and top the wonder and majesty of Space Quest IV, the goal here was to provide the fans with something equal to that juggernaut chapter in this series and Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation accomplishes such a feat by changing things up when it comes to the overall design of the franchise since this game abandons a vast majority of anything related to Sludge Vohaul and Roger’s fight to keep that monster from overtaking the galaxy and that allows for the game to explore a brand new storyline, one involving Roger’s new role as an officer in StarCon.
 
Yes, that’s right, Roger Wilco grows up in this story and joins StarCon and even manages to become a Captain in the fleet, thanks to some auspicious circumstances and that allows for him to boldly go to new places in the universe to pick up trash because there’s no way this one was going to abandon the janitor gag, I mean come on, his ship is named the SCS Eureka. But this change in design does allow for a big-time plot to come into play, one that puts Roger and his crew squarely in the ever-tough position of saving the galaxy and thanks to the top-notch graphics, we go to some supremely cool places in this one and it really is quite the ride storytelling wise.
 
But another reason I’m such a fan of this game, is due to the fact that this one also changes up how the game handles its comedic moments. For in the past, the story was a grand amalgamation of send ups of the genre, poking fun at multiple franchises at the same time if possible. But in this game, it’s all about lampooning Star Trek and this game pulls that off in magnificent fashion. Because there are Trek references abound in this one, and heck, even the whole notion of Roger becoming a captain fits that mold, but it’s all handled in lighthearted and fun fashion, as the series is wont to do and really, it gets major props for locking onto something as big as Trek and handling its satire of it with grace.
 
If anything, this is my personal favorite when it comes to this storied saga, just because I’m a huge fan of the franchise it pays tribute to, and a huge fan of the Space Quest saga as is, making this story the perfect blend for me. But all of that aside, this really is a fine entry in the franchise as well, since the story is epic and fun, but sadly, this did signal the beginning of the end for this storied franchise. For only one of the Two Guys from Andromeda worked upon this game and the industry was changing and shifting away from adventure games and this was really the last time the saga would live up to its expectations, so it’s fitting that one of its final entries just so happened to be of the upmost quality…

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