History VideoGame / StarTrek25thAnniversary

** The final battle in the game was designed to be practically unwinnable... if you haven't achieved a very good score on all missions up to that point. With excellent scores it becomes a difficult but perfectly winnable fight. Unfortunately, many players simply [[ReadTheFreakingManual failed to heed the paragraph in the manual]] that explains the link between mission performance and combat performance, leading many of them to assume that the battle is invariably NintendoHard, rather than realizing they should just go back and replay the missions to try to get a higher score.

* BottleEpisode: The final mission on the CD-ROM version plays with the trope, taking place in a near identical "sister ship" to the ''Enterprise''.
** The subversive aspect is that, since the game never actually showed us any part of the ''Enterprise'' other than its bridge and transporter room, ''all of the scenes'' in this add-on mission had to be made entirely from scratch. In this way, they both played the trope straight from the TV series' perspective, and fully subverted it from the game's perspective, at the same time.

* DoingResearch: Examine everything. Discuss the problem with your teammates. Read and follow up on entries in the ship's computer. Discover and enact a solution. That's almost the entire game right there, when it all boils down to it.

* MacGyvering: As per AdventureGame staples and the technological bent of ''Star Trek'' as a whole, many puzzles require you to jury-rig solutions to many problems using a variety of tools and scraps found in each location.
** Probably the best example occurs during episode 2, "Hijacked". Kirk determines that the best way to subdue the hijackers would be to beam into the bridge and take them by surprise, but the ''Masada's'' transporter console is severely damaged. To solve the problem he needs to [[spoiler: 1) locate a spent phaser welder. 2) Charge the welder from his own phaser weapon. 3) Acquire a transmogrifier tool from a secret compartment. 4) Scrounge up bits of metal from the rubble in the corridors. 5) Weld the bits of metal into shape with the phaser welder. 6) Stick the metal bits into the transmogrifier instead of its standard bit. 7) Disarm a bomb in the brig and collect its trigger wires. 8) Connect all of these items to the transporter console]]. Good thing all of those items just happened to be lying around!

* MultipleEndings: Most missions have several possible outcomes. Kirk's score at the end of each mission relies primarily on how the mission ended, though individual actions during the mission may also alter the score.
** It should be noted that for the best score, you have to make everyone in the mission happy and aim for peaceful solutions.

* RedShirt: If you want the best score in the game, you have to keep your Security Officers alive. Regardless, they are the expendable crew member for each mission.

* TooDumbToLive: Harry Mudd. Not only does he get himself into trouble with SpacePirates by selling alien equipment he knows nothing about, but he also almost manages to kill himself by using a faulty emergency life-support generator model to maintain an atmosphere on the ships he salvages. Naturally the generator starts to malfunction, forcing Kirk and crew to find a way to fix it just to keep themselves and Harry from suffocating to death.
** While messing with the alien ship's medical machinery, Mudd pulls out a random canister which he [[TheDitz drops on the floor accidentally]]. The vapors from the canister drive Mudd into a temporary violent paranoid panic attack.

* UpdatedRerelease: The CD-ROM edition. Not only did it include voice acting, it also had an entire landing team mission that was not seen in the original floppy disk version.
** Sadly, this also resulted in some cut content. In the original floppy disk version, the player can search the Enterprise's computer database for loads of MythologyGag; when the game was rereleased on CD-ROM, the impracticality of having the voice actress record all of these entries resulted in the majority of it being cut.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: [[OnceAnEpisode Every mission]] there is always, ''always'' at least one method of getting your RedShirt killed off for shits and giggles. You do lose points for it, though.
** Also the one mission where you've got the option of releasing laughing gas (of both the Human and Vulcan variations) into the air of the station you're on. It's not ''that'' cruel, mind, but still...
*** There's another mission where you can end a hostage situation aboard another ship's bridge by beaming a bomb inside and blowing the bridge up, causing the ship to go out of control and crash into the planet it's orbiting. Expect Starfleet Command to ream you out for such an act of blatant dickery.

* ReadTheFreakingManual: Much has been said (including repeatedly on this very page) about the NintendoHard final battle in this game. However, the game's manual contains a couple of paragraphs which stress that getting high scores on each mission increases the overall effectiveness of the ''Enterprise'' crew. Reaching the final battle with 100% completion makes that battle ''much'' easier. Many players failed to read those paragraphs or take them to heart, and instead assumed that the scoring on each mission only serve as a BraggingRightsReward; They never bothered to replay previous missions to try and get a higher score, and were then frustrated when they couldn't win the final battle - leading to its infamous reputation.

* UselessItem: Some dilithium crystals on an otherwise unremarkable screen in ''Feathered Serpent'', which you can get using the dagger you receive several screens prior. There is nothing else to be done with them, your mission score is not affected whether or not you take them, and they are not with you on the next part of the mission, disappearing after you beam up as all retrieved items do.
** The dilithium found on this mission [[AvertedTrope actually does serve a purpose]]: it improves the ''Enterprise's'' power systems during space combat. However the game gives almost no feedback to indicate that anything has changed, and the effect is quite difficult to notice during battle, mostly due to the game's highly-abstracted combat UI. Taking the unique alien weapon-delivery system in "Another Fine Mess", which improves the ship's torpedo system, is at least acknowledged verbally by Kirk and Scotty as having ''some'' benefit, whereas picking up the dilithium is not acknowledged at all. The same issue is what has lead most players to believe that the last battle is ''always'' NintendoHard (see ReadTheFreakingManual above).

* UselessItem: Some dilithium crystals on an otherwise unremarkable screen in ''Feathered Serpent'', which you can get using the dagger you receive several screens prior. There is nothing else to be done with them, your mission score is not affected whether or not you take them, and they are not with you on the next part of the mission, disappearing after you beam up as all retrieved items do.
** The dilithium found on this mission [[AvertedTrope actually does serve a purpose]]: it improves the ''Enterprise's'' power systems during space combat. However the game gives almost no feedback to indicate that anything has changed, and the effect is quite difficult to notice during battle, mostly due to the game's highly-abstracted combat UI. Taking the unique alien weapon-delivery system in "Another Fine Mess", which improves the ship's torpedo system, is at least acknowledged verbally by Kirk and Scotty as having ''some'' benefit, whereas picking up the dilithium is not acknowledged at all. The same issue is what has lead most players to believe that the last battle is ''always'' NintendoHard (see ReadTheFreakingManual above).

* UselessItem: Some dilithium crystals on an otherwise unremarkable screen in ''Feathered Serpent'', which you can get using the dagger you receive several screens prior. There is nothing to be done with them, your mission score is not affected whether or not you take them, and they disappear after you beam up to start the next part of the mission, anyway.