The $35 "Star Trek" title, developed by StarSphere and distributed by TDK Mediactive for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, is based on "Mirror, Mirror," a very popular episode from the original television series.

In that 1967 show, a transporter accident sends Captain Kirk and three crew members to a parallel universe where the benevolent Federation doesn't exist. Instead, an evil Empire runs Starfleet, and starship officers use both cunning and assassination to advance up the ranks.

"Shattered Universe" begins with the starship Excelsior on a mission to rescue the Enterprise, which is trapped in a space vortex. Excelsior slips into the mirror universe. The crew finds that their ship is transformed and suddenly facing a now-hostile Enterprise.

There are some reassuringly familiar figures. Excelsior's captain is Hikaru Sulu, voiced by George Takei. The captain of the evil Enterprise is Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig). Both were in the original series.

The player's ultimate goal is to find a way back to the normal universe, but getting there will require a lot of shooting. In fact, the game consists mostly of trying to accomplish various missions while flying around in a shuttlepod-sized fighter. If you want to play captain of a starship, go elsewhere.

The fighting can be pretty challenging because there's no up or down in space combat. My Stone Age-era reflexes didn't do very well.

My biggest frustration is that the game keeps dumping new missions on me and doesn't save my progress when I've completed an objective.

For example, on the first level, my job was to do enough damage to the Enterprise to make it leave. Once I did that, I had three minutes to take out several enemy fighters. Somehow, that was supposed to destroy a mine that had attached itself to the Excelsior.

When I failed, the game forced me to go all the way back to the very beginning of the level, where I had to wait for everything to reload.

In contrast, Fresh Games' "R-Type Final" ($30, PlayStation 2), which is sold by Eidos Interactive, knows how to do it right. When I met my demise, it immediately slingshot me back in time for a second chance.

And a third.

And a fourth.

Hey, I need all the help I can get.

"R-Type Final" is sort of a throwback to the days when all shoot-'em-up games were two-dimensional. You always see the ship you pilot from the same vantage point. If you take away the background graphics, everything is flat and your enemies come at you from the sides or top of the screen, not from off in the distance.

But the game certainly doesn't feel two-dimensional because the background graphics are stunning, with an epic 3-D feel that makes you forget you're fighting on a flat screen.

On the first level, you sweep around the interior of a city and, after you atomize a few enemies, the game twists and turns you on a 135-degree angle as you face a giant robot coming out of the floor. You have to turn your head to appreciate what's going on, but you'll be too busy trying to blast the robobug. It's delightfully disorienting.

The game also has great pyrotechnics and wonderful water ripple effects.

Its biggest flaw is that the developers couldn't decide how big the ships should be. At times, the fighter you pilot appears to be a big enough to hold a human. But in other portions of the game, it looks like a toy spaceship.

Unlike "Shattered Universe," which has a rich story behind it, don't look for a real plot in "R-Type Final." The opening animation doesn't tell you who you are, what you're doing, or why you're fighting. The instruction booklet has some blather about a living weapon called the Bydo, which is the embodiment of evil and is trying to destroy mankind in the 26th century.

Most players won't care. They just want to be able to pilot some of the 100 or so ships and blast away.

Both "Star Trek: Shattered Universe" and "R-Type Final" have violence, but they're rated for everyone.