Space Quest 5: The Next Mutation is the first Space Quest not to be done by the Scott Murphy/Mark Crowe duo, which was what happened after several disagreements back at Sierra that forced Murphy not to work on any SQ game with Crowe again, so Crowe decided to continue the SQ series himself. In Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers, our hero, Roger Wilco, flew into different time sectors and got himself into trouble wherever he went. In addition, he destroyed the Vohaul virus that was threatening his future. SQ5 opens with Roger's journal entry detailing his previous adventures when he took over as captain of the SCS Excalibur. After his return, Roger tests his skill in the bridge simulator when he doesn't realize that he has to do a SAT test at that very moment.

And why would he realize he has one when, all this time, he skipped classes and snoozed through lectures? Obviously, Captain Quirk, president of the StarCon Federation, did. He orders Roger to make his way to class where he sits at his desk and does the test. Luckily for him, he cheats his way through the test and ends up as captain of the SCS Eureka, where he gets to meet his two assistants, Flo and Droole, who play different roles in the game. Flo is the communications officer of the Eureka, and can hail Starcon, ships, and planets, and provide her status report. Droole, on the other hand, controls the navigation and weapons systems, and can lay in a course, drive the Eureka at light or regular speed, orbit planets, raise/lower shields, fire, and other combat stuff, but like Flo, he is ready to provide his status report. More often than not, Roger will command Droole most of the game. To lay in a course, Roger will have to enter navigation co-ordinates found in a magazine called Galactic Inquirer included inside the SQ5 game box. As well as Droole and Flo, onboard is Clifford Crawford (AKA: Cliffy) who does his best to fix the ship up. Beatrice Wankmeister, Roger's future wife that Roger sees as a hologram back in Space Quest XII, is seen in SQ5 and Roger's love for her is carried out throughout the rest of the game. There are more planets to explore than in the previous SQ games, including, but not limited to, Peeyu, Gangularis, Klorax II, and Commodore LXIV (named after a famous computer). Some planets have strange names like Kiz Urazgurbi (kiss your ass goodbye).

The Eureka's mission is supposed to pick up waste beacons, but little does Roger know that the mission will be quite interesting and a bit dangerous. You see, Roger will have to release a creature from the refuse containment compartment, who, eventually, becomes his companion. Furthermore, he has to deal with a womanoid called WD40, named after an aerosol can. Her job is to finish the job of destroying Roger for failing to pay for the mating whistle back in Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge. Roger was supposed to be destroyed back on Phleebhut by Arnoid, but Roger found some way to shatter him into pieces. When Gippazoid found out that Arnoid hadn't returned from his mission, they decided to send a female android after him. And later, Roger will find out that innocent people have been exposed to a lethal substance known as Primordial Soup, causing them to mutate into Pukoids, vicious monsters that do nothing but jeopardize the human race.

As usual, there is a good enough dose of humor in SQ5. For example, you have to travel to this Space Bar for a drink with Droole and Flo, and Roger infests the whole place with Space Monkeys in order to distract the security guards and must rescue Cliffy, who is held in the bar's jail after a misunderstanding with some of the bar's patrons. I found myself laughing every time I see them swimming around, making faces at me, the player. In order to get on the planet's surface, he must teleport himself there. Sometimes, when he teleports back, there will be an error that makes Roger look completely different (eg: a big eye replaces his head). And last but not least, Roger gets transformed into a fly after using the teleporter much later in the game, so he could only do the things a fly would only do. There are a few mini-games that you must complete in order to get further in the game. Roger must play against Quirk in Battle Cruiser, a futuristic version of Battleships, and much later, Roger must use the Eureka's escape pod to rescue Cliffy who gets lost in space inside an asteroid field. On Klorax II, a pukoid approachs Roger and threatens to kill him with green slime, and the only way that Roger can get out of this situation is to dodge the slime or he'll be turned into a Pukoid himself.

This game uses the same SCI1 engine that was last seen in SQ4, but Sierra did a good job at improving their engine so that the graphics are much colorful. Both the icon bar and the control panel is more clear and the buttons are light gray, rather than dark gray. The music is dramatic in the most dramatic situations, and the sounds are what you can expect from cartoon shows like Futurama and others. Actually, the team decided to rip out Homer Simpson's "D'Oh" and put it inside the game, and the sound is stored in the RESOURCE.AUD file. If your sound card can emulate a Roland MT-32, the music will be sensational, so I suggest that you play the game using the MT-32.

The Bad

I hate copy protection. You know the type of protection that requires you to type in a word found on "page x, column y, word z"? The magazine that came with SQ5 has some co-ordinates on almost each page that you have to put in, and if you don't do this properly, it is likely that you'll get lost in space. It would be easier if users were given a course map that allowed them to choose the planet that they want to go to, similar to the one in Space Quest 3: The Pirates of Pestulon.

As far as I know, SQ5 wasn't released on CD-ROM, complete with full speech, like SQ4. Probably the reason why that is the case is because this game was made in Eugene, Oregon, where Dynamix were located, not Oakhurst, California. Well, at least the game is still enjoyable, with real music and sound effects, even if it doesn't contain full speech.