History YMMV / StarControl

* CultClassic: Considered one of the best DOS era PC games of all time, it still has a pretty big following as evidenced by the free re-release still being regularly updated. It also served as the inspiration for several franchises, with ''Franchise/MassEffect'' in particular taking some notes from its setting and mechanics.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was orignally a race called the Dan'nath planned for the game, that seemingly would have served a similar role in the plot that the Xraki forerunners and Phamysht serve currently, beings that work for the Xraki and are manipulating things behind the scenes.
** On a similar note, the Xraki were originally going to have heavily modified Scryve ships, as mentioned in dialogue. However the Xraki were instead given the unqiue ships originally intended for the Dan'nath.

** On a similar note, the Xraki were originally going to have heavily modified Scryve ships, as mentioned in dialogue, however they were given the unqiue ships originally intended for the Dan'nath.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The Chenjesu from the original series were going to be added to the game via DLC, but they never were due to the now ended legal battle between Toys for Bob and Stardock.
** The mysterious Grey-like aliens were always intended to be the Arilou, but were only officially referred to as such after the disputes were settled.

* ComputersAreFast: The AI uses some secondary abilities with frame perfect accuracy too often. Syreen ships will trigger their song the moment they get in range. Utwig and Yehat ships raise their shields the instant they get hit and drop them right after. Shofixti Scouts ''never'' mistime a Glory Device detonation[[note]]Which is pretty much a guaranteed death sentence if you're playing against it with a ship of both low crew count and short weapon range as the Arilou Skiff or the Umgah Drone, given the computer is also very Glory device happy.[[/note]]. It is a ''very good thing'' all of those are mostly on your side during the campaign...

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: One of the very few high points for the game is that, for the time it was released, the quality of the voice work was, on average, ''astounding''. Keep in mind that this was still the dawn of "game acting" and the mere idea of ''voiceover in games'' was fairly new; most games of this era are derided for their voicework (like the [=3DO=] version of ''SC II''), but even the worst voicework in ''3'' is "merely" okay. The ''best'' voicework, like that of the K'tang, Xchaggers or Spathi (the quality of the VO being another point that helps the former two's EnsembleDarkhorse status) is an absolute joy to listen to.
* ValuesDissonance: The Harika and Yorn. The Harika don't find it odd at all that they eat the sentient Yorn, while the player (As well as anyone who isn't into Vore) finds it...disturbing. Especially once the Yorn finally pops up and says "We like being eaten" and that they view it as exaltation and only go to be consumed if they want.
* VindicatedByHistory: A rare inversion. When it launched, ''[=SC3=]'' was given several high scores and was a critics' darling. Nowadays, not so much. Double-inverted when it was ''3'', not the much more expected ''2'', which was included in the 2010 reference book, ''1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die''.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "[=HyperSpace=]." Comes in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqzEpE4xZCw DOS]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpAE_inNlE 3D0]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeFuaMj8H4Q remixed]] flavors.
** This is fairly common in Star Control II's music, really. Any number of commscreen tunes (especially Yehat and Thraddash) qualify.

* ComputersAreFast: The AI uses some secondary abilities with frame perfect accuracy too often. Syreen ships will trigger their song the moment they get in range. Utwig and Yehat ships raise their shields the instant they get hit and drop them right after. Shofixti Scouts ''never'' mistime a Glory Device detonation. It is a ''very good thing'' all of those are mostly on your side during the campaign...

* DracoInLeatherPants: Admiral ZEX has become much more popular in certain sections of the fandom than was ever originally intended.