Review: Space Ace

Posted by Ben on June 30th, 2011 | 0 Comments | Tags: Space Ace

Space Ace is little more than an extended QTE with some great animation. Hailing from the same people that brought you Dragon’s Lair, the story is much the same, only this time it’s in space. You play as “Ace”, and you have to save Kimberly, the romantic interest. However, rather than playing as a knight, this time you play as a teenager, having been hit by the evil Borf’s Infanto Ray, which makes you young, although the effect can be mitigated by Ace’s magical watch. If you understood any of that, then congratulations, you’ve played Space Ace before.

If you’ve even seen Dragon’s Lair, you know exactly what to expect here. There’s a small directional pad in the corner of the screen, and when a direction on it lights up, you press that direction on the controller. If the centre lights up? Press X. That’s all you’re going to need to play this “game”, unless you turn off these prompts in the options menu, but then you’re really going for an exercise in frustration. Either that or you’ve played this game so many times you have a throw pillow shaped like Borf’s head.

At least Space Ace improves on Dragon’s Lair in the story aspect of the game. The events in the game are all tied together far better than the seemingly detached corridors of Dragon’s Lair, and that at least keeps the story moving at a fair pace. I don’t recall Dirk the Daring speaking, so at least Ace’s grunts and flirtations are somewhat more memorable. It’ll only take you about 20 minutes to finish a play-through of the game, which, considering the game costs $10, I can’t really say is worth it. You’re once again better off watching a play-through on YouTube, and saving yourself the money.

It’s light on content, fun and replayability, and yet people are still likely to buy it in order to relive their hopeless nostalgia. If you’ve never played Space Ace, don’t give it a second look. If you have, then you’ve likely made up your minds already, and are currently writing a thousand angry letters about how I’m not looking at this game fairly. But then you’ve already made the mistake of calling it a game, so I’m likely to just burn them, cackling to myself.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation 3 version of the game.