The most pathetic spaceship captain in the Star Con Federation is back, and he won't be a captain for long. The opening seconds of Space Quest VI: The Spinal Frontier show our hero Roger Wilco getting bumped back in the ranks to the position of janitor, where he belongs. But while this may be a step backward for Roger, it's a step forward for the series, technologically speaking.
This is the first Space Quest installment to take advantage of CD-ROM storage capability, so the game will take a goodly while to play through. This does not make it anymore an "epic adventure" than back-to-back episodes of F-Troop would be. Much of the unifying theme of SQ6 seems to be the lack of any unifying theme. Roger starts off wandering around the planet Polysorbate LX on shore leave, then he gets a job helping to capture a Blade Runner-style Endodroid, then he goes to the local arcade for a while, then he gets kidnapped and has to escape, then he starts to develop a romance with Corpsman Stellar Santiago, etc. The story wanders from the vast emptiness of space to Santiago's lower intestine. If you want something straightforward, it'll drive you crazy, but that's not what Roger Wilco's adventures are about. They're about cheap sci-fi jokes, and lots of them.
SQ6 can be looked at from two different points of view: comparison to the other Space Quest games or comparison to everything else on the market. From the first (somewhat narrow) perspective, there is no denying that The Spinal Frontier is a cut above. The graphics are SVGA, there are lots of digitized voices (including big-voiced Gary Owens as the narrator!), and there are even a few 3-D rendered robots thrown in among the more cartoony populace. Strangely, the designers have abandoned the full-screen view of SQ5, but the ever-present interface is not too obtrusive. It's just a little clunky.
This is where that other perspective comes in: comparison with other adventure games. I understand the need to occasionally choose between verbs for an action, but it's really annoying to have to click on the "feet" icon to go somewhere, when that was really the only option. There are games these days that have really perfected the "point and click" concept, and SQ6 is not one of them.
The puzzles are as insane as ever. This is not an unusual situation in a funny adventure game. Bizarre humor generally means puzzle solutions that are thoroughly bizarre and almost impossible to guess except through trial and error with every item in the damn inventory. This game could really have used an on-line hints feature.
One of the better publicized selling points of SQ6 is the inclusion of the satirical "Stooge Fighter 3" video game in an arcade on Polysorbate LX. This game is pretty much what you'd think it would be: majorly buffed versions of Moe, Larry and Curly Joe pulling each other's nose and whacking each other in the face with pies. From the way this game-within-a-game was advertised, you might think it would be a pleasure to play by itself. But the game is really just another plot element. It's so thoroughly rigged that you stand no chance of winning if you don't have the cheat code (hidden within SQ6, natch) and almost no chance of losing once you do. I suppose you could view this as a pointed jab at actual fighting games being similarly unfair. Personally, I don't give the designers that much credit.
The Stooge Fighter segment also runs quite slowly, with one- or two-second pauses every time a move is chosen and an instruction screen that can't be clicked away after you already know what's on it. In fact, speed is an annoyance all throughout SQ6, with long loading pauses separating screens and even actions.
Of course, these mechanical considerations are secondary to Space Quest fans who have seen the series through its primitive origins. These games sell because they're funny and appeal to the Spaceballs crowd. Do you really need me to tell you that the jokes here are just as good (or bad, as the case may be) as those in the previous games? Look for references to just about every sci-fi thingy under the sun, ranging from Fantastic Voyage to The Outer Limits, with the bulk of the jokes devoted to Next Gen. SQ6 is ideal for the folks who are already familiar with Roger Wilco. On the other hand, if you're new to the series, you may find yourself a bit underwhelmed by the technology.
