Space Ace DVD
Score: 35% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Digital Leisure Developer: Digital Leisure Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action
Graphics & Sound: Hot on the heels of Don Bluth's laserdisc smash Dragon's Lair, Space Ace was meant to continue the animation revolution of the mid-'80s arcade industry in full force. What gamers got instead was a mediocre successor with inferior graphic layering and slightly better voice acting. Considering these were games driven by their eye-candy, perhaps such wasn't the best possible tradeoff. Nevertheless, Space Ace is still fun to look at, if only because of its purpose as a playable cartoon for the masses. While the visuals aren't quite as smooth as those of the Dragon's Lair series, perhaps a little fuzziness can be excused on account of the game's time of origin. It's just a shame that several of the main sequences seem carelessly thrown together with little relevance to what's going on, weaving a confused jumble of a plot rather than the nonlinear adventure Bluth surely had in mind. As a fresh change of pace, Space Ace features a main character who actually talks quite a bit (although most of his vocalizations are hilarious screams and standard one-liners), with fine voice talents rounding out the roles of Ace's girlfriend, Kimberly, and his nemesis, Borf. Certain sound effects -- like Ace's laser beam and those seemingly endless taunts from Borf -- may tend to get on your nerves after a while, but they're nothing compared to what havoc the gameplay wreaks on your patience.
Gameplay: The evil space commander Borf, who plots to enslave mankind with his infamous Infanto Ray, has kidnapped the beautiful Kim and blasted Ace into his younger counterpart, Dexter. It's up to you to guide Ace across the galaxy to Borf's secret hideout where Kim awaits her rescue, and destroy the Infanto Ray once and for all before it can be fired at Earth. Exciting stuff, eh? Well, not so much when you 'play' this movie by simply pressing left, right, up, down, or Action in a countless array of predetermined patterns to advance through each sequence. Much like with Dirk in Dragon's Lair II: Timewarp, most of Dexter's next moves are hinted at by flashing areas of the screen. If you don't respond by pressing the correct direction in time, you die. If you die, everything repeats until you get it down. Sort of like an hour-long game of Simon Says. As the follow-up to Dragon's Lair, it was only fitting for Space Ace to build upon its predecessor's already-weak gameplay. Fortunately, this one boasts multiple paths scattered throughout the game for replay's sake, and creates supplementary challenges when Dexter grows back to his normal self in each area. For example, whenever the screen flashes red with the 'Energize' message, Dexter can become Ace for a quick moment if the player presses the Action button during this time; however, dangers only increase when Ace shows up, at the cost of seeing some different footage. These small changes make up the only incentive to play through Space Ace more than once, if at all. During his venture to rescue Kimmy, Ace comes across some pretty trippy situations -- most of which don't make much sense. Namely, the fact that the Infanto Ray turns people into helpless babies doesn't hold up too well when it only seems to transform Ace into a considerably heroic teenager. A few of the scenes clearly borrow more than they should from the Star Wars series, too, but at least things don't become as absurd as Dragon's Lair II eventually would.
Difficulty: Enter new area. Die because you didn't see the flash in time. Watch opening animation again. Die again. Repeat continuously until you give up or miraculously beat the game. This is the only formula Space Ace has ever known, and it's an equation for hair-pulling insanity once you've seen the same sequences over 10 times in the same area. There's no save feature or chapter selections here, so you'll have to beat the game in one sitting whenever you feel like attempting such a feat (and what a feat it is!). To the game's credit, players are given the choice of 'Regular Moves' (where decisions must be registered immediately when prompted, just like the arcade version) or 'Slow Moves' (which really must be used if you want to get anywhere on the DVD) before the game begins. Think of it as the closest thing to a difficulty setting this title will ever see.
Game Mechanics: Dexter only needs five buttons to stay alive, but with those telltale flashes coming too quickly amid sloppy animation, your course'll be set for Frustration City. If only the movie wouldn't stop briefly at every action frame (due to hardware restrictions with any DVD player), perhaps a shred of integrity from the original film could've been spared. Just as with the Dragon's Lair and Dragon's Lair II: Timewarp DVDs, this one also offers a few old '80s interviews with the game's creators, trailers from Digital Leisure's other recent re-releases, and perhaps the title's most alluring feature -- an option to watch the movie in its entirety as it plays automatically, without having to suffer through every system pause and death scene a thousand times. While the interviews are worth a giggle and the movie itself can prove entertaining once or twice, players will still leave with a certain emptiness, considering how tedious Space Ace's single player experience remains after all these years. Avoid this purchase at all costs unless you're simply dying for some sorely unneeded nostalgia, case closed.
-Ben Monkey, GameVortex Communications AKA Ben Lewis
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