Laserdisc games were a very quick flash in the pan back in the early 1980’s and while Dragon’s Lair seems to be the most remembered of them all, Space Ace should not be forgotten and hopefully won’t be thanks to a great HD revamp.
Space Ace is a beautiful cartoon adventure lovingly hand drawn by Don Bluth and Co and thanks to a HD polish, you can really see some wonderful detail and fluidity to the game as a whole. Essentially the game is a ten minute quick time event to rescue your girl. You have the option to play with infinite lives, just five or go bananas and have the actual events not even on the screen at all and memorize it all. Space Ace doesn’t let up. If you’re playing you can’t actually see what’s going on and I found myself just staring at the d-pad control display at the bottom of the screen so I was on the ball with what to do. Thankfully you can watch the whole game as a cartoon too and just enjoy the story for what it is.
For a game that’s only ten minutes, you’ve got a fair few trophies to grab due to the difficulty levels and challenges set out by them and being able to memorize the entire game takes a lot of getting used to. Dying puts you back to the start of that specific scene so it doesn’t carry a massive penalty thankfully.
Positives
~Wonderful artwork HD’d to its prime
~Quick Time Event Heaven
Negatives
~Ten minutes long
~If you’re the kind of person who hates a quick time event in a game, this will be your hell
Conclusion
I prefer this over Dragon’s Lair because it runs so much smoother as there’s barely a jump between story and death sequence (of which there are many). A great hark down memory lane, grab it on special because it doesn’t warrant the £7.99 price tag for what would almost equate to £1 a minute of play if you’re not a trophy collector.