If ever a TV series were perfect fodder for a game adaptation, it’s Battlestar Galactica--what with its robots, raptors and raiders. Plus, y'know, there's that whole post-apocalyptic genocidal religious war with the survival of the human race at stake.

To help tide fans over until next-month’s BSG TV movie Razor, Sierra Online's new Battlestar Galactica game has arrived. But this isn’t the now-gen mind-melting triple-A title we might hope. Nope, it‘s a top-down arcade-style shooter for Xbox Live Arcade.

There’s no opportunity to wander Battlestar halls looking for Cylon sleeper agents. You don't get to play as Baltar and nail Number Six. There aren't even any cutscenes, much less voice work. We shouldn't expect too much from depth a Live Arcade title--it exists for casual pick-up-and-play games--but it's hard not to be disappointed by this straightforward 2D space combat simulator with a superficial Cylon skin.

Sure, you can fly a Viper--or better yet, Starbuck’s cloaked Blackbird--and play missions (very) vaguely pegged to favourite episodes like the classic premier “33” or the post-occupation thriller “Exodus”. That's briefly engrossing but the lazy way they use such a beloved license to dress up an average-at-best arcade shooter is an insult.

Luckily, a console BSG game is allegedly in the works--an NBC-Universal spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this year: “we feel that the show is so rich in mythology and politics and drama and story that when we do it, we'll take a full two to three years to do it right on next-generation consoles."

In the meantime, you can test out the impressive demo for the fan-created BSG freeware game Beyond the Red Line a standalone mod of the classic 1999 space combat sim Freespace 2 which its creators made open source a few years ago. Within two weeks of release last spring it had been downloaded 100,000 times (a number they've since doubled).

Like Razor, BTRL offers a flashback story about the Battlestar Pegasus and you play as a civilian forced into service. The game is non-profit and the developers, who also contributed voice-acting and an original musical score, are an all-volunteer team. They may not be building the full-blown action-adventure epic we’re waiting for, but Red Line respects the television series’ source code rather than making us say "Frak!"