And once again, a classic campy late 70's-80's series get a facelift in the digital realm of video gaming! This has been apparent lately with releases such as Starsky & Hutch, Knight Rider. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a game out of Mork and Mindy (your special power would be to grab your ears and twist them while chanting "Nanu nanu"). But to call Battlestar Galactica "campy" would be like calling Return of The Jedi cheap. You have to remember that BG was made back in the days of talking cars, supersonic helicopters and dirt bikes with mounted superlasers (I'm referring to Airwolf and Street Hawk). It was also the time of frizzy hair, mini "Hasselhoff" afros, white Ferraris and Polyester. Battlestar Galactica fits right in!

The original series was conceived by Glen Larson, who also did Knight Rider and other science fiction TV series. In the 70's and 80's though, Galactica was among some of the best science fiction to come out of the TV since Star Trek, and it soon established a legion of fans who did everything from dressing up as a Cylon to building intricate models of a Viper or Cylon Raider. Several incarnations of the series were made to try and breath new life into it, the latest is a mini-series coming out December 5th, 2003 (check local listing for time and channel on Sci-Fi).

So, with the new mini-series about to launch, what better way to feed the marketing machine and release a new title for the PS2 and Xbox based on the genre?

Let me tell you first, I never got much exposure to the series. The first time I was even aware that a series existed was when I took the backlot tour at Universal Studios when I was 10 years old, and they had some stage set up with smoke, sound effects, and some actor dressed up with his laser gun, taking down Cylons and what-not. Only until recently did I catch on, and for the first time I saw one of the episodes in its entirety. For being a late 70's TV series, the show wasn't too bad. I mean, what did you expect back then?

So, after researching a bit on the series, I finally sat down and played the game. The initial startup showed the cinematic, which was a bit better than I thought. It kind of lays down the story, gives a bit of background between the humans and the Cylons (The bad guys), and the events which start the game. It shows a wing of Vipers (the good guys) jumping into hyperspace and getting ambushed by a bunch of Cylon raiders. When the Vipers are dispatched (destroyed), the Cylons then pursue the Galactica. The details on the ships and overall cinematic were done very well, and it looked like the animators did their homework on the ships. The Galactica is probably one of the most unusual ships I've ever seen, but all in all a faithful re-creation in the digital world gave the ship a great look for the 21st century.

Upon starting the game, I found it very unusual that it didn't offer an in-game tutorial. Instead, there's another option which allows you to page through the different options available on your Viper in terms of control, weapons, speed, maneuverability, etc. Not really hands on, but it gives you a basis for piloting your ship. The users guide actually became helpful in this situation, because as I was playing the guide was opened up to the controller layout page, just in case. After you get the hang of it, everything becomes second nature.

So starting the game throws you in the middle of a dogfight in the outskirts of the final frontier, and it's pretty impressive. The Galactica sits as your overgrown sentinel (which, in the first mission can't offer much help anyway), and the ship was very intricate, being that you can fly low over the behemoth and absorb all of the details, pass through it's engine pod pylons and not have some invisible wall smack you back to the game play area. Mostly everything in the game was all open-ended, in the sense that you could wander and not worry about any kind of barrier. Course, with all the action in the game you don't really have a chance to. But again, the game starts in heavy combat, and I for one enjoy this: not only does it give you a chance to be quick on your toes, but if you no idea what any button does, this can be a great chance to start button-mashing and see what you can come up with. Besides, all you're doing is using blasters and missiles to take down Cylon forces, but there's more to the challenge than that in certain missions.

The AI in the game is by far some of the best I've seen. Most often that not, these type of games will have you and several "dimwitted" wingmen who do nothing but chase the enemy, making it look like they are helping you out, but in reality just waiting for you to dispatch the hordes of fighters on screen. This time though, those wingmen were probably as efficient as I was, if not better! My targeting icon kept changing to different targets because my wingmen kept taking them out! I was competing more against my co-pilots for points than trying to outmaneuver Cylons. While it kind of got frustrating after awhile (I might as well just sit back, fly my Viper to the outskirts and let them take care of the baddies), I must admit it certainly was helpful and one of the best features about this game. The computer really IS your friend!

Graphics overall, I'd say it was better than expected. The thing about this game was, I expected just a cheap off-the-shelf game for $19.99 (Starsky and Hutch and Knight Rider weren't really the greatest in terms of graphics). Not the case...the detail and the renders were beautifully and faithfully re-created, if not better than the original series. From what I could tell, no lagging of graphics or system bogging down because of too much happening on the screen. Everything was smooth, fluent, and worked on command. Some of the objects on screen lacked a bit of detail, such as asteroids, but I think the primary focus of the detail was on the ships and space stations. The special effects used were nice, especially when you turbo-boosted your ship. The outer area of your screen glows a bright blue, and the thrusters on your ship burn the same color while the surrounding area starts streaking around you. Very nice touch! The one thing that I found slightly, unusual, was what looked like vapor trails off of the edges of the wings and dorsal "rudder" fin. Outer space is a vacuum...so where in the heck do the trails come from?!

Controlling your Viper is somewhat simple, however there are other tricks of the trade which can help you in combat, and some maneuvers are just plain cool! For example, the opening cinematic shows a Viper being pursued by a Cylon Raider. The Viper kicks in the turbo, gets some distance between him and the Raider, hits the brake, spins around in a complete 180 degrees, and starts unloading on his pursuer. The result is an awesome looking move, and one more kill. So, I had to try this, and sure enough it worked (you can do the whole "spinning around" thing, but good luck on trying to maintain accuracy while executing this roll)! The Viper is a quick little speed demon, and the brakes are somewhat lacking, but when you need them they come through. Turning the Viper is pretty nice; it can turn on a dime or turn as slow as Grandpa at a U-turn in a Cadillac when it's foggy. You also have the conventional rolling technique, and a nice little "evasive" move, which is reminiscent of a roller coaster designed by a madman. When you hold the B button and move your left analog stick right or left, your Viper spins to the left or the right all crazy-like. It looks pretty cool, and it's quite effective for evasion.